The Canadian men’s soccer team will be enshrined 23 years after winning the first FIFA Francophone Games world football championship, and St. Albert’s Norm Odinga couldn’t be prouder.
The gold medallists will be inducted into Canada’s Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum in June as the 2012 team of distinction.
“It’s quite an honour,” said Odinga, who was a versatile 26-year-old midfielder/fullback on the 1989 Canadian squad. “That was one of the best teams I’ve ever played on because everybody played for everyone else and that speaks volumes. That’s the reason why we won.”
Canada defied the odds to beat the host country 4-1 in Morocco.
“It’s the first time any Canadian men’s (soccer) team won anything. The only thing the Canadian men’s team has done since was win the Gold Cup [in 2000],” Odinga said. “In team sports you don’t normally get to a final that often and some never get to a final, so to be able to get to a final and win it is wonderful.”
However the reaction in Canada paled in comparison to the historic accomplishment at the international level.
“There wasn’t much fanfare. Soccer is not really well received in Canada. We won at a sport, which in most countries is the No. 1 sport, but in Canada there was very limited response. Anywhere else it would've been much better received,” Odinga said. “It was very strange to be playing in front of tens of thousands of people and to come back and play in the Canadian Soccer League in front of just thousands of fans.”
Canada silenced a rabid partisan crowd of more 70,000 with four goals in the first half to lead by three. Lyndon Hooper struck in the 14th and 45th minute and Rick Jasken connected in the 28th and 32nd minute. Morocco’s only goal was scored in the 40th minute.
“It was incredible, just because the final was against Morocco, in Morocco, in a full stadium. It was the closing event [for the Francophone Games] and the closing ceremonies were held after the game in the stadium,” Odinga said. “We were ahead at halftime so it was a very subdued Morocco crowd.”
The Paul Kane High School alumnus was joined on the roster by captain Enzo Concina, Kevin Riley, Rob Merkl, Carlo Corazzin, Rob Csabi, Dominic Mobilio, Shel Brodsgaard, Kevin Holness, Peter Sarantopolous, Nick Gilbert, Patrick Diotte, Peter Gilfillan, John Paul Knesovic, George Mersic and Craig Forrest. The head coach was Bruce Twamley.
Canada fielded a full national team, minus a few key players, against French speaking countries with their full teams, except for France who went with its military team.
Canada blanked Burkina Faso 3-0 and played the Ivory Coast to a scoreless draw before edging Congo 2-1 in the semifinal for a shot at the gold.
“It was not to the same level as the Olympics but very favourable to the status of Pan American Games,” Odinga said.
The Francophone Games were staged in Rabat and Casablanca under poor conditions.
“It was dorm style. It was in Morocco in the summer time and it was very hot. The rooms we were given, there was no air conditioning, so if you closed the windows to keep the insects out the room got really hot, like really hot. And if you left the windows open in order to have some circulation the insects would come in. The food wasn’t very good either.”
The Francophone Games ranked among several career highlights for Odinga, spanning the 1980 Edmonton Drillers to the Vancouver 86ers in the early 1990s. The former Alberta Golden Bear and Edmonton Brickman wore the Maple Leaf for a variety of national teams and is credited with six A caps. His first international match was 1982 against El Salvador in San Francisco and the last was a 1993 World Cup qualifier against Australia. He represented Canada at the inaugural 1989 FIFA Futsal world championship and kicked the ball in the 1989 friendly against Denmark and a non-official match against Mexico in 1991. He also scored a goal against China in a 1992 friendly.
Odinga started playing soccer at an early age in St. Albert with the Hercules Soccer Association.
“We only played basically May and June and there was no indoor soccer. We didn’t have the facilities that the players have today,” said the St. Albert Impact U10 girls coach.
He was part of a core group of players that moved up the ranks with the late Herman Kochan as their guiding light.
“There was a good generation of players that grew up in St. Albert that formed the nucleus of a very good team and a lot of us were Grandin boys,” said the 49-year-old lawyer. “We stuck together for years. There were a number of us that went on to play for the provincial all-star team and there were a number of us that went to play for the under-16 Victoria team. We won Canadians and lost to St. Louis – that was between Canada and the United States – so it was really a good crew of players.”
