The city will cheer
By BILL LANKHOF -- Toronto Sun
They are oceans apart from the land of their fathers; there are thousands of miles separating them from the oceanside villages of their birth and the cafes of a long spent youth.
"If you are Portuguese then you are a soccer fan right from your soul. It's in the blood," said Luis Moura, director of the Portuguese Trade and Tourism Commission, in Toronto.
Which explains why the biggest street parties in Toronto this side of a Leafs' Stanley Cup hallucination happens whenever there's a global soccer flirtation. With the kickoff of Euro 2004, cafes from Little Italy, to Greektown and Little Portugal, will be filled with the most varied, curious, and downright cussed, babbling since the raising of the Tower of Babal.
"Soccer holds a place deep in the hearts of Europeans like Italians, Portuguese, the Dutch ... it's a game we've all played," said Lenny Lombardi, owner of CHIN radio-TV and chairman of the Little Italy BIA. "We played with our fathers and there's just something very romantic about it.
For Portugal, which is hosting Euro 2004, this is the biggest thing since it found religion and, with apologies to the Pope, that might be understating it.
"If you understood the cultural fibre that exists in Portugal right now and the economic situation you will understand that this is more than just a soccer tournament," said Joe Eustaquio, president of Toronto's Alliance of Portuguese clubs.
The country is wrestling with the new European Union at the same time that its fishing industry -- a mainstay like it is in Newfoundland -- has been decimated.
"The cost of living is so high. Portugal's future is going to be dependent on tourism," he said. "What we hope is that with the success of the national team it will bring new industry, tourism and revenues into the country."
High hopes. But for the men crowding the cafes at Little Portugal, on Dundas St. between Bathurst St. and Dufferin St., they are more concerned about finding a loftier goal -- like the one behind the Greek netminder in Game 1.
"The largest rivalry would be with Spain, going back to when the country was controlled by the Spanish. That stigma has been maintained," Eustaquio said.
That's like about 500 years ago. Even some wives can't hold a grudge that long. But, in soccer, it's like yesterday. They can also manage a pretty good hate for the English.
"We hold a passion against them going back to 1966 when England won on a controversial goal," Eustaquio said.
Not that Portugal hasn't had its share of football glories.
"The international success that (players such as Luis Figo) have had has been felt in the community," Eustaquio said. "Today's youth is so much prouder of their heritage. You see a lot more involved in local soccer clubs and in folklore groups. We've never had that before ... it's almost cool now to be of Portuguese background."
Just a penalty kick up the road, in an eight-block area along College St., lie the cafes of traditional Little Italy.
"A lot of Italians migrated north to Woodbridge for the land and built big beautiful homes but this will always be home, and the kids always come back (for soccer parties)," Lombardi said.
There is Giovanni's Restaurant, which shows games on a screen so big people along College St. often stop on the sidewalk to gawk.
"There's the Leaf Nation but I don't believe even that compares to the way the ethnic community holds soccer," Lombardi said. "People are die-hard Milan fans; die-hard Benfica fans; they go to their clubs each week to listen to the games; talk about, argue about, the games ... they build clubhouses out of their own pockets. Nothing matches the passion these people feel."
Lombardi would love a Portugal-Italy matchup.
"We call each other cousins because we've grown up in this city together but in soccer there's a rivalry," he said. "These communities are the most vocal of the soccer fans in Toronto."
Unless, of course, one happens to stumble into the Panathinaikos fan club on Pape Ave., or the Olympiakos Club on the Danforth, in the city's Greektown.
"It's very exciting. With both the Olympics in August in Athens and the soccer team in Euro 2004 it is a special year for the community. People are feeling pride." said Costas Menegakis, President of the Greek Community of Toronto. "There's a lot of excitement on the street, in the stores and cafes."
While 50% of people in the Greek community are now born in Canada, there remains a strong connection to Hellenist roots.
"When games are on those places will be very busy. Even for regular club games all the fans show up," Menegakis said. "A lot of us in the Greek community are waiting anxiously to see if the Greeks will do better. We had nasty memories of the World Cup when we scored zero goals."
And scary.
Speaking of scary. England's local supporters are a peripatetic lot.
"You can't swing a cat without hitting a British pub in Toronto. We have a lot of Little Englands all over the place," Jonathon Dixit said.
Dixit is owner of the Duke of Gloucester, one of downtown Toronto's biggest hangouts for British soccer nuts.
"This place will be a sea of white," Dixit said. "If England goes all the way, it'll double sales which is great considering that in the first week of this smoking ban our sales are down."
He is charging $10 per ticket for the 145 capacity bar for next Sunday's England-France game. "Even at that price I'll easily turn away another 200 to 300 people," he said. "Even though the games are on TSN, people want to go to the pub for the whooping and the hollering.
"I really don't know how I'm going to police that non-smoking thing," he said laughing, "with that bunch of yobbos."
