World Cup fans in Vancouver painting the town red after Canada gorges on goals

Canada fans heeded the call to wear red as they filled the stadium, although pockets of the lower bowl turned white due to the flowing robes worn by Qatari fans.

Fans may have been hoping for a win but few could have expected the feast that put Canada on course to progress beyond the tournament’s group stage.

“I thought we’d win, but that was special,” said Samir Shah from Vancouver, who was in the stadium with his son, Ishan.

He said watching Canada’s first World Cup win had been on his bucket list.

It was overwhelmingly loud inside the stadium, where screaming Canada fans hit 149 decibels just before the 3 p.m. kickoff, according to the big screen.

There was also a packed house in the PNE amphitheatre at the FIFA Fan Festival in East Vancouver, where total tournament attendance surged past the 100,000 mark, after hitting 98,000 on Wednesday.

Josh Hatzenbuhler from Toronto called it “the greatest atmosphere I’ve ever been in.”

“I haven’t seen that before with Canada, and it’s just so nice to see them move the ball like that and dominate the game. Amazing,” said Hatzenbuhler, who has played soccer since he was six.

Canada fan Duncan Mackey had taken the instruction to wear red to the extreme, getting his teenage son and his friends to paint his bald head in the home team’s colour.

He marched to the stadium with the Voyageurs and said the atmosphere was “phenomenal.”

“It’s not that often when you see 10,000 people in red, all walking together, so it’s good to see,” he said.

Mackey, from Lethbridge, Alta., added that he was impressed by how Vancouver had “come alive” for the World Cup.

Noor Kamel said she is originally from Yemen and sat with Qatar’s fans, but Canada was also “in my heart.”

The former Vancouver resident, who used to live in Qatar but now lives in Burnaby, said she scored a free ticket to the match in a lottery by Qatari authorities.

Dressed with a Qatari flag as a sash, she said before the match that she was more interested in “the vibe and to celebrate diversity.”

“I’ll cheer for both, Canada and Qatar. It’s a game at the end of the day,” she said, adding that she was “so proud” of Vancouver’s performance hosting the World Cup.

“Good luck for all the teams, actually,” she says, calling the tournament “a celebration for the world.”

Qatar’s fans had staged a small-but-vocal supporters march on Wednesday evening, chanting to the beat of traditional darbuka drums as they set off from a hotel near the stadium.

Toronto’s FIFA Fan Festival ran into another weather-related problem on Thursday, with organizers saying the site wouldn’t open until two hours before kickoff because more time was needed to prepare following recent severe weather.

But the mood was electric in Fort York as fans erupted with every goal.

The Qatar match was the second of seven World Cup matches at BC Place after the stadium’s tournament debut on Saturday between Australia and Turkey.

New Zealand will play Egypt on Sunday in the next match at BC Place, before Canada’s final group-stage encounter against Switzerland next Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2026.

Brieanna Charlebois and Nono Shen, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

World Cup fans in Vancouver painting the town red after Canada gorges on goals

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