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My bosses aren’t coming to the office next week. My boyfriend, who’s Mexican, somehow got days off for every Mexico game. Neither of these is a coincidence, and for the first time since I moved to Canada, I’m in on the joke instead of watching it from the outside.
Because the World Cup is here, not on a screen beamed in from somewhere else, but here, in the country I chose to make home in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
When you arrive in a country as an immigrant, you spend a lot of time on the outside of moments almost everyone else around you already understands. After the past few days, I've started to think the World Cup might be the easiest way I've found to stop watching from across the room and start joining in. Here's what changed my mind.
It’s the easiest way to make new connections
Walk into a bar with a game on and you’ll understand why. People who barely know each other end up yelling at the same television, caught up in that beautiful mind meld soccer pulls off. The same thing happens at work in smaller doses, in the elevator and over coffee, in the questions someone throws over a cubicle wall about a match you didn't see.
The trick is that being new is an advantage here. Ask anyone who seems to care about soccer to explain to you what just happened and their eyes light up. As I found out when I learned that Canada played its first home game of the tournament in Toronto, fell behind to Bosnia early, and looked like it was heading for a loss until a substitute named Cyle Larin equalized in the 78th minute.
I didn't fully understand why a tie was worth screaming about until the man next to me, a stranger, said this was Canada’s first-ever point at a World Cup, and that this one counted as history. I was screaming too by then. Who says you have to understand the game to participate in the emotion of the moment?
It strengthens your sense of belonging
When you move to a new country, a lot of life feels like something you watch from the outside. You see people share moments without quite feeling part of them, because you don't know what the deal is.
The World Cup changes that for a few weeks. Suddenly everyone’s into the same thing at the same time, your coworkers, your neighbors, the strangers in cafés you've never said a word to.The part I love is that nobody checks whether you belong here or asks you to earn the right to be here. You're in it just by showing up, paying a bit of attention, and being curious enough to ask.
It’s a real-time version of multicultural Canada
Canada is proud of its diversity, but most of the year you don't see all of it switched on at once. The World Cup is one of those few times when you end up feeling multiculturalism in real time instead of nodding at it as a concept.. Offices turn into running arguments about whose country deserves to win, and jerseys start showing up everywhere, even in the fanciest office buildings. It gets a little chaotic, in a good way, like the whole country turns more colorful for a few weeks. What I appreciate the most is that most people support two countries, Canada and their origin country. Plus despite all the teasing, it’s so obvious it’s friendly banter.
It’s a low-pressure entry in Canadian sports culture
Sports are a big part of daily life here, even if you don’t notice it right away. Conversations drift towards them without warning, over lunch or while you are out with friends. In cities like Calgary, where people vanish into the Rockies to hike and climb and ski every chance they get, it’s just part of the everyday culture.
The World Cup is an easy entry point because it asks nothing of you. You don't need any skill or history with the game. You watch, you react, and you slowly pick up what everyone around you cares about. Just make sure you’ve picked a country you’re cheering for and the whole thing gets more fun.
It makes Canada feel less “quiet”
As a newcomer, Canada can feel very calm, almost too calm. Even the big cities move at a steady, quiet rhythm. The World Cup breaks that spell. Noise spills out of the bars and into the streets, emotions spill into public spaces, and it feels like the country is collectively a bit more alive and expressive. It becomes one of those moments where you don’t feel like an outsider watching life happen, you’re inside it.
In the end, the World Cup isn’t really about soccer
The World Cup will be over by the middle of July. The bars will quiet down, the jerseys will go back in the drawer, and Canada will settle into its usual steady rhythm. I'm hoping the feeling stays with you, though. Because what these few weeks really show you is that the distance you feel most days, that sense of standing just outside the moment everyone else is in, was never permanent. It was only ever about not having found a way in yet.
The World Cup is one way in. And once you've felt what it's like to be inside the room instead of watching through the window, you start looking for other doors in, and you realize they were there the whole time.
**Videos courtesy of newcomersetup.ca
