The Island’s German community, gathered at the Edelweiss Club in James Bay, erupted in a wave of black, yellow and red passion Sunday when their ethnic homeland scored in extra time to lift the 2014 World Cup.
Naden employees Michael Collet and Andreas Tiekenheinrich were both clad in the national team jersey of Die Mannschaft and wrapped in German flags.
“I was born in Canada with German engineering,” chuckled Tiekenheinrich.
“I remember watching Germany win the 1990 World Cup but I didn’t really appreciate it until this moment. I’m elated. This is wonderful. I feel bad for Argentina, though. They played their hearts out.”
It was an especially poignant moment for Collet. He has watched every World Cup with his dad, Herman Collet, since 1970. Herman died in June.
“I know he was watching it today, just from another place,” said Collet.
Mira and Arne Huelmann from Frankfurt, recently married and visiting relatives in Deep Cove, had a honeymoon in Victoria they will never forget.
“I’m so happy with the result,” said Mira Huelmann, as she watched the championship game in the Edelweiss Club with new hubby Arne.
“Everybody back home was watching this.”
But few will have the story to tell of viewing their homeland win the World Cup from far away in a country of immigrants where ethnic halls dot the urban landscape.
“Canada is a wonderful country, but I have to be honest — I still prefer German beer,” said Arne Huelmann.
And there was plenty of the latter to be had Sunday at the Edelweiss Club to wash down the bratwurst and other German foods on offer.
David Smith sat amid the German fans wearing a Lionel Messi Argentina jersey. When told he was the bravest guy in the room, Smith quipped: “Or maybe the stupidest . . . I don’t know.”
The engineer, recently retired to the James Bay neighbourhood, spent a lot of time travelling through Argentina and South America “on a sailboat and South American chicken buses.”
Smith added: “That’s where I developed a passion for South American football.”
Also cheering for Argentina in the German hall were daughter Maryam Bahji and her mom May Rashidi. They said they loved the atmosphere as both sides urged on their teams in partisan, but typically friendly and healthy Victorian sportsman ship.
In the end, this was an afternoon for cool and methodical German football. South American flash will have to wait at least until the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
One thing supporters of both sides could agree on was the CBC’s excellent coverage of the World Cup the past month. Loud applause broke out in the Edelweiss hall when CBC host Scott Russell signed off over the closing credits by saying: “It has been our privilege to bring you the World Cup.”
The World Cup numbers have been off the hook with CBC reporting that nearly 9.1 million Canadians tuned in to at least a part of last Wednesday’s Netherlands-Argentina semifinal.
The Canadian Soccer Association has indicated it is interested in bidding for the 2026 World Cup, which is scheduled to go to a nation in the North American, Central American and Caribbean region following Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022. A cynic might suggest the only way Canada will qualify for the World Cup is by hosting it.
Canada is ranked a lowly 110th, tied with Bahrain, in the FIFA world rankings and has not qualified for the World Cup since its lone appearance in 1986 at Mexico with a team that included Island players Ian Bridge, Jamie Lowery and George Pakos. The reasons for that are various and structural and would require another column.
“We need more [than just the current five] Canadian pro franchises to give Canadian players a chance to play,” said head coach Colin Miller of the pro club FC Edmonton, when he was in town earlier this month for FC Edmonton’s exhibition game against the amateur Victoria Highlanders.
But as Sunday at the Edelweiss Club again displayed, there is no shortage of World Cup rooting interest every four years in a nation of immigrants. And that in its own way, is endearingly Canadian, too.
