Lenarduzzi: A Lightening Rod For The Game

By Richard Starnes The Ottawa Citizen

The Beautiful Game: Lenarduzzi dared to dream soccer could thrive in Canada
OTTAWA — On the July 1977 day I set foot on Canadian soil from Britain for the first time and drove from Toronto to Kitchener to start a new life, I suddenly wondered if I had done the right thing. I couldn’t see goalposts anywhere, just baseball diamond after baseball diamond.

My Lord, what had I done?

Almost 35 years later the roles have reversed. Baseball fans will say their game is not in decline. But there is no doubt soccer has taken a powerful hold on the Canadian sporting scene — 900,000 officially playing the game is a figure that doesn’t lie.

And TV coverage of the professional game both here and abroad has taken off. The Canadian women’s team’s bid to make the 2012 Olympic Games final will be totally covered live next month as will be all six of the men’s team World Cup qualifying games going through the year.

That’s a far cry from 1986, the only time our men have reached the World Cup finals. We played three games in Mexico, two of which made it onto our screens. You will never guess what pre-empted the third game … Sesame Street!

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