adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Sports

Croatian Canadians set to cheer on favourites as Canada plays Croatia at World Cup

Published

 on

Marinko Buric and his family have their red and white Croatian soccer jerseys ready for when they’ll visit a friend’s house to watch Canada and Croatia play at the World Cup this Sunday.

Buric expects it to be a noisy morning, with a big breakfast and lots of cheering for the team from Croatia, despite the fact that it’s Canada’s first time at the tournament in decades.

“I have always been much closer, when it comes to soccer, to the Croatian national team than the Canadian one,” said Buric, a Halton Hills, Ont., resident who was born in Canada and is of Croatian descent.

“Soccer is a big part of the culture in Croatia.”

While many Canadians will be cheering on their men’s soccer team, numerous Canadians of Croatian descent say their loyalties lie with the opposing team.

Susan Katana Cork said it had been hard for her to choose between the two teams but she ultimately decided to cheer for Croatia.

“I am almost torn in a sense because I am a Canadian, but I am also Croatian because of my family heritage,” said the Markham, Ont., resident. “I would like to see Croatia win despite the fact that … I was born and raised in Canada.”

Canada is playing at the World Cup for the first time in 36 years and Sunday’s match will mark its second game at the tournament taking place in Qatar.

Croatia’s soccer team is making its sixth World Cup appearance since the country gained independence in 1991. The team came third in 1998 and lost the final to France in 2018.

Erica Zlomislic, a director at the Croatian Heritage Association, said though she loves Canada, she hopes Croatia clinches the match.

“When it comes to sports, people have divided loyalties,” she said, adding that she is planning to watch the game with her family at home in Toronto.

“Croatia is a very small country of less than five million people. But we have excellent people in sports …. For a country that small, it is amazing how well we do.”

Zlomislic, a Canadian of Croatian descent, spent years as a journalist covering the war in Croatia in the early 1990s. She’s so fond of Croatia’s team that she’s even kept its jersey from 1998 World Cup.

She said she hopes Canada, which is playing in group F, advances to the next stage of the tournament but she’s rooting for Croatia to win the World Cup.

The World Cup began last Sunday amid controversy surrounding host country Qatar’s human rights record. Human Rights Watch criticized the alleged abuse of migrant workers employed to build World Cup infrastructure, and violence against the LGBTQ community. Qatar has said “everyone” is welcome to visit during the World Cup but they should respect the country’s “culture.”

Canada defeated Mexico and the U.S., two powerful teams, among others in the World Cup qualifier matches, defying expectations as it cleared its path towards Qatar.

Despite playing in a relatively difficult group – Canada lost its first game 1-0 to Belgium – Canada has a chance to advance to the knockout stage given its strong performance during qualifying competitions, said Marko Gotovac, a coach at Mississauga Croatia Soccer Club.

“When you look at Canadian soccer, certainly I would consider this team in this generation probably the best we have had in the history of our game here in Canada,” he said.

“I am sure that they will give trouble to every team that is in the tournament.”

Gotovac said the Canadian side has stars like Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David in its roster, and all the team’s players this year have served as role models for many of the young players he coaches.

“Canadian boys are going to come out there and have that fighting Canadian spirit,” Gotovac said.

“My wish is for a high-quality match and whoever wins that match between Croatia and Canada, I am sure they deserve it.”

Canada is set to play Morocco next in a match on Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2022.

 

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press

Sports

Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil announces retirement from swimming

Published

 on

 

Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil announced her retirement from swimming Thursday.

The gold medallist in the women’s 100-metre butterfly at Tokyo’s Summer Games in 2021 made the announcement in an Instagram post alongside a photo of her swimming as a child.

“The little girl above would have never dreamed this is where her love of swimming would take her,” Mac Neil wrote. “I am so grateful for all the memories, people, and places I have gotten to experience just through swimming.

“I’m excited to begin the next chapter of my life journey, as I embark on discovering who I am outside of swimming.”

The 24-year-old from London, Ont., earned a complete set of medals in Tokyo after helping relay teams to silver and bronze medals.

Mac Neil’s five gold medals at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, were the most by a Canadian athlete at a single Pan Am Games.

She was fifth in butterfly and was a member of two women’s relay teams that finished fourth at the recent Olympic Games in Paris.

“Anyone who I crossed paths with never, ever told me I couldn’t achieve my goal of going to the Olympics,” Mac Neil wrote. “It’s still surreal to be able to say I’m a two-time Olympian.”

She completed her master’s degree in sport management at Louisiana State University this year.

Born in China and adopted by Dr. Susan McNair and Dr. Edward MacNeil, Mac Neil’s mother wanted her to take swimming lessons for safety reasons because of the family’s backyard pool.

Mac Neil’s 2017 diagnosis of sport-induced asthma — which can be triggered by the swimming staples of heat and chlorine — forced a switch from longer distances to sprints.

Mac Neil became Canada’s first world champion in the women’s 100-metre butterfly two years later.

The nearsighted Mac Neil, who doesn’t wear contacts or prescription goggles, has seen multiple times a meme of her squinting hard at the scoreboard in Tokyo as she tried to decipher her result.

“I like to think it helps because I can’t see where other people are and I’m able to focus on my own race,” Mac Neil said before the Olympic Games in Paris. “That was definitely the case in Tokyo.

“I got that meme sent to me at least three times in January even though it’s been three years since.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Serbia-Albania joint bid with political history set to win hosting of soccer’s Under-21 Euros

Published

 on

 

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Serbia and Albania are set to co-host the men’s Under-21 European Championship in 2027 in a soccer project that aims to overcome political tensions.

UEFA said Thursday only the Serbia-Albania bid met a deadline this week to file detailed tournament plans. Belgium and Turkey had declared interest earlier in the bidding process scheduled to be decided at a Dec. 16 meeting of the UEFA executive committee.

The Serbian and Albanian soccer federations teamed up in May to plan organization of the 16-team tournament played every two years that needs eight stadiums to host 31 games.

Albania soccer federation leader Armand Duka, who is a UEFA vice president, told The Associated Press in May that “it’s a 100% football project” with “a very good political message that we can get across.”

Weeks later at the men’s European Championship held in Germany, historic tensions between the Balkan countries — which in soccer included a notorious drone incident at a Serbia-Albania game in 2014 — played out at separate games involving their senior teams.

An Albania player was banned for games by UEFA for using a megaphone to join fans in nationalist chants, including targeting Serbia, after a Euro 2024 game against Croatia. Fans of Albania and Croatia earlier joined in anti-Serb chants, leading UEFA to impose fines for discrimination.

UEFA also fined both the Albanian and Serbian federations in separate incidents at Euro 2024 for fans displaying politically motivated banners about neighboring Kosovo.

After historic tensions were heightened by the 1990s Balkans conflicts, in 2008 majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo declared independence for the former Serbian province. Serbia refuses to recognize that independence and considers Kosovo the cradle of its statehood.

An Albanian fans group daubed red paint on the federation offices in May when the cooperation with Serbian soccer for the Under-21 Euros was announced.

“We did have a few negative reactions from fans, mainly, and some interest groups,” Duka said then, “but not from the Albania government.”

UEFA has shown broad support for Serbia and Albania under its president, Aleksander Ceferin, who is from Slovenia.

The next annual congress of UEFA’s 55 national federations is in the Serbian capital Belgrade on April 3, and an executive committee meeting in September 2025 will be held in Tirana, Albania.

___

AP soccer:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Philadelphia mayor reveals the new 76ers deal to build an arena downtown

Published

 on

 

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia’s mayor has revealed the terms of the deal negotiated with the city’s pro basketball team for a new $1.3 billion arena downtown.

The agreement reached earlier this month calls for the Philadelphia 76ers to finance the entire project, with no city funding involved. There is, however, a provision that would let the NBA team make annual payments in lieu of taxes averaging $6 million per year. The agreement also calls for a $50 million investment in businesses, neighboring communities and the city’s schools to blunt the project’s impact, Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a news conference Wednesday night.

“I truly am proud having made this decision and negotiated an agreement that will definitely ensure that our Sixers are staying home right here in Philadelphia, where they should be,” Parker said.

City officials also released drafts of the nine bills and two resolutions needed to authorize the project, including measures that allow the city to acquire the arena property and change zoning rules. Parker said her administration would hold a series of town halls in the coming months where residents could discuss concerns about the proposal.

Team owners say their planned “76 Place” project would improve a struggling retail corridor near City Hall and capitalize on the city’s public transit. They also have vowed not to renew the lease on their current space, a circa 1996 arena in the city’s South Philadelphia sports complex, when their lease runs out in 2031.

The proposal has drawn significant opposition from activists in the city’s Chinatown area, who fear it would disrupt or displace residents and businesses. They say the city has ignored concerns that the project will increase vehicle traffic in their pedestrian-friendly neighborhood and force vulnerable residents — older people, low-income families and new immigrants — to move out. Parker on Wednesday renewed her pledge to preserve the area, which is just over a block from the proposed arena site.

If ultimately approved by the City Council, demolition work in the area would begin in 2026 with construction starting two years later. Officials hope to open the arena in time for the 76ers’ 2031-32 season.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending