CONCACAFé
Feeling tougher and tougher every morning I wake up on this bloody rock for a bed and I think I’m sick too . Everyone seems sick or beat down in some way and you can tell that people are a bit more agitated even on the transit as the pushing and shoving is becoming more of a thing here .
Luckily we weren’t in any traffic this morning as we went down to Msheireb station in hopes of finding the CONCACAF cafe where there is a Canadian chef making food to give out daily for free with gifts as well . CONCACAF sponsored it and if you didn’t know they are the confederation of nations in north and Central America’s which has 41 countries in it . Canada competes in this federation to qualify for the World Cup . It’s really nice that they are doing this for us here . The first 200 people get the freebies so we went early hoping not to miss out and fully expecting a lineup . They start serving at noon so we aimed to arrive for 11:30 am and meet our friend Todd Brandt there .
Chef Chris Karawach is from Montreal and he served us a deconstructed poutine shawarma which was great . He is a really nice fella and we got to chat with him for a couple minutes as everyone wanted to meet him to thank him for his efforts . I’m sure he felt like a superstar and deservedly so !
After we left the CONCACAFe we hit up the souq so I could buy a fridge magnet and then headed to Street 22 for a pre game drink with todays game being Canada vs. Morocco . On the way to the souq we stopped into some random building to use the bathroom and Todd bumped into a guy that he worked with in Winnipeg some odd 30 years ago ! Small world , they needed tickets to the Canada /Morocco game so we pointed them in the direction of the CONCACAFe and told them there are Canadians there that might help and I also told them they should join the Voyageurs club where most of its members help each other with tickets . Hope they found their tickets ?!?
At Street 22 the usual friends arrived and we had probably too many beers before skidaddling out to catch an Uber to the game as we like to extend our drinking time rather then taking the metro … this way ! You have to be here to get that joke :) Metro … this way !
At every match they are handing out free flags and we all have been trying to collect them but some people are taking too many and even if you arrive 1.5 hours before kickoff you are not guaranteed a flag . We didn’t get the Moroccan flag we needed for our collection and Kathleen was a bit miffed about this because we chose to drink longer but it’s a hive mentality and we are sticking with the group . We got to our seats at Al Thumama stadium and the game kicked off .
When we got to our seats we had noticed a few Moroccan supporters in our section and the stadium was probably 90% Moroccan which could be expected since it’s much closer to Qatar then Canada is but our section should be only for Canadian supporters and anyone coming into our section should be respectful but unfortunately this was not the case as Moroccans kept invading our section and taunting us waving bye bye and being very poor sports . One of my closest friends is Moroccan and I’m sure he would not have been proud to see what these fans were doing . They were taunting us and yelling and swearing at us and security did absolutely nothing to stop it . This was a ticking time bomb and our safety was in jeopardy . At one point the woman behind us went to get some drinks at concession and came back pale as a ghost telling us that Moroccan supporters were at the top or our section surging towards us and almost pushed her and an elderly gentleman down the stairs . It wasn’t safe and FIFA and their security are 100% to blame . If you were there you would know ! I’m sure some Canadians sold their tickets for profit to Moroccan supporters and this is a huge no no also ! When there were Canadians looking for tickets that we had actually met earlier yet these scum bags are selling our section away to the opposing teams fans . In England you get a ban if you do this and usually the fan goes home in an ambulance . Not that I’m condoning violence but this does actually happen and I’ve seen it happen .
The game was good but started off harsh with our keeper gifting a goal after a bad back pass from our defense and they quickly went up 1-0 . It was an uphill battle from then on . Our defense was very leaky and gave up another goal soon after to our the Moroccans and their cocky fans up 2-0 . This could be a blowout but before the half we got lucky and Morocco gifted us a goal to get us back in the game. . We were down 2-1 going into the half ….
Second half was all Canada . The boys came out hard with their never quit attitude and we should have tied it but luck wasn’t on our side when we hit the crossbar and the ref missed a push on the follow through . We kept pressing but it wasn’t our night . The game ended 2-1 and we went out of the tournament without even getting a draw . Bit disappointing but we held our heads high.
We all booked a table with a fellow Voyageur at this English pub and it was a mad dash to get there . We walked , took a bus then metro then Uber to get to this bar and when we got there and said we had a reservation we had to wait in line ? This place sucked ! When we got in it was filled with smoke and over capacity with barely any room to move . It was unorganized confusion and I’m guessing the kinda place a 20 year old would have fun but this didn’t have a proper pub atmosphere at all. We had three drink tickets for $40 CDN which is not cheap and we drank them as fast as we could and left . Couldn’t have gotten out of there quicker . Obviously we went to Street 22 which is much more comfortable and cheaper and my buddy Cory Greenland and Mark Muscat from Malta are there so we joined them and had some beers . Soon after the rest of our gang arrived and we were given a larger table by the staff who had treated us very well and I will always support bars that treat us with dignity unlike the other place which I really didn’t enjoy one bit . The other bar even had advertised British drinking prices which was bullshit . What part of Britain ? London 😝
Anyways we stayed late called it a night and went home in an Uber where we were greeted by some crazy fog …..