Soccer SuperFans

By: Brian Potocnik, Toronto
 
The Slovenian community in Canada hovers around the 36,000-mark. The community is dwarfed in comparison to some of the soccer powerhouses in the world, such as Italy, Portugal and England, as the young and old are soccer lovers. Many of those 36,000 are in the GTA area where many Slovenian cultural associations and clubs, plus two parishes are based. One of those are the SSC (Slovenian Sports Club), which features a soccer club that competes against other ethnic clubs from around the city. On June 3rd, the SSC hosted Slovenian Youth Day at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke (a suburb just west of downtown Toronto), where the SSC team faced a team of its alumni. The event was to get the Slovenian community together to rally support for the Slovenia's upcoming games at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. For many nations, World Cup appearances are almost a given, but for Slovenia, a nation of only 2 million people, qualifying was a long journey. It culminated in a match that saw Slovenia defeat powerhouse Russia on aggregate to book a ticket to South Africa. You could see on the faces of everyone there that they knew it was something special. Anyone who owned a piece of Slovenian clothing was wearing it, and those who didn't quickly bought up the limited amounts of official national team kits, t-shirts and car flags. There is a buzz in this small community leading up to Sunday's kick-off against Algeria. It's going to be an early morning for Slovenia fans who will no doubt flock to the Slovenian hall on Brown's Line to watch the 7:30 a.m. match. But win, lose or draw, it's going to be an event for Slovenians to be proud of.