Soccer-mania has recently hit Canada in a way that I never would have imagined. With the FIFA-U20 World Cup being held across the country, people seem to have been hit with a potent maladie only hinted at during the World Cup held last year.

The clusters of people surrounding the huge Reuters TV screen at the StandardLife centre in downtown Toronto last year have been replaced by an exodus of fans decked out in full fan gear, painted faces, hats, loud horns and their favoured flag tied around their necks trekking toward the new soccer stadium at Exhibition Centre.

Never really having been a soccer fan, I never quite understood the frenzy that accompanied international soccer. It’s a game! What’s all the fuss about?

I couldn’t have been more wrong!

A couple of weeks ago, I joined the exodus of soccer fans to watch the Uruguay vs USA match at the new soccer stadium in Toronto. The fact that I have no ties to either Uruguay or the US made absolutely no difference.

Hockey may be Canada’s sport. However, the consistently sold out games for this international sporting event is a testament to the global love of soccer.

Soccer seems to have crossed all borders and is a language that everybody in the world can understand. It is a language that brings people together to cheer on, to cry over, to discuss, or just to watch. It’s a sport that is played throughout the world, across all demographics, for leisure or competitively. It is a topic that, regardless of which country may have the best team, brings people together.

Though I’d like to think that this universal language is a positive thing, there are inevitably some negatives that rear their ugly heads (Read: Chilean Team clashes with Police, and on a more local level, Irate Soccer Mom Brings Game to Screeching Halt).

Let’s hope these incidents are the exception to the rule.

As a rule, at least in my limited experience, the soccer world seems to be a global community that is able to put aside life’s difficulties and differences and sit back and enjoy the game that is life.

Well played Argentina!