World Cup 2022: Canada, the Middle Eastern Teams and Israel. Go Canada!

It is a huge day  in Canadian Soccer history tomorrow.  The Canadian national soccer team will compete in the FIFA World Cup for only the second  time in Canadian history.  Canada's first time out was in 1986.  The  Canadian side failed to score a goal.  Instead, it let in  a total  of 5 goals and lost all three matches - to France, Hungary and the Soviet Union.  This time out, the Canadian team was quite impressive  over the course of the qualifying  rounds  and is hoping to have better success.  The first game will take place at 2 p.m. EST (9 p.m. Israel time) on Wednesday  November 23, 2022 versus Belgium, one of the tournament  favourites.   Canada will also play Croatia on Sunday November 27,  2022 at 11 a.m. EST and will finish its round of three on Thursday December 1, 2022 at 10 a.m. EST vs Morocco.  Team Canada has its work cut out for it, having to face Belgium and  Croatia, two very strong  sides.  It probably has a better shot against Morocco.   Hopefully, the Canadian side can  score some  historic  goals and surprise the world with a victory or two.  

Israel has only played in the FIFA World Cup once, in 1970.  Israel managed a 1-1 tie with Sweden, a 0-0 draw with Italy and lost 2-0 to Uraguay.  Italy wound  up losing that World Cup final 4-1 to Brazil, so a 0-0 draw for Israel against Italy was a pretty decent result.  More recently, it has been very hard for Israel to qualify since  it has to qualify through the European conference instead of the Middle East, where it belongs. 

For the 2022 World Cup, Israelis can only watch from the sidelines, though many are in Qatar attending the games live.  It is only a three hour flight to Qatar and  Tus Airlines is offering direct flights for  "only" $666 USD.  All of the games are being shown on Israeli national  TV on channel 11 and  feature some rather amusing  Israeli commentators.    Israeli  press has sent  delegates to the games to try and  speak to Iranian  fans and other fans from  different Arab and Muslim countries about  Israel and about their thoughts about Israel.  Some have refused to speak to the Israeli press, but a surprisingly large number  of Arab  and Muslim fans, even fans from Iran, have been willing to speak and say some nice things about Israel.

Israeli commentators covering the games were thrilled to see  Saudi Arabia shock Argentina  earlier today with an historic 2-1 victory.  One commentator said that "Saudi Arabia had  won a huge victory for the whole Middle East," and that this represented a "new dawn for Middle East soccer."  Commentators were equally effusive  about Tunisia's impressive scoreless draw versus Denmark, later in the day.  It will be interesting to hear what they have to say when Canada plays Morocco.

Watching all of these teams from the Middle  East play - including Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Iran and Qatar, Israelis are clearly convinced that their national team should be at this World Cup taking up one of those spots since they would almost  certainly be able to qualify if those were their primary obstacles.  Perhaps if the Abraham Accords continue to expand - and more countries sign full peace deals with Israel, FIFA will recalibrate its conferences and put Israeli in the proper  place, where it will have a much better chance of qualifying.

For now, Israelis will jealously watch the tournament and  hope that their chance to attend for a second time ever is not too far off in the future.  If Israel were to make it into the tournament one day, the game days would almost certainly be national holidays since the entire country would be  watching.  Even now, without Israel in the tournament, the TV stations continue to wish everyone  a "Happy World Cup Holiday."

As for  me, I am cheering for Canada in the 2022 World  Cup - hoping that  I will not only get to see Canada's first World Cup goal ever - but a bunch  more - enough to advance Canada to the next  round, even though their odds of  doing so are currently set at about 200-1.  Miracles can  happen.   Go Canada!