Michael Shaffelburg knows the importance of this moment in time with Canadian Men’s Soccer as his son, Jacob Shaffelburg, is representing the country at the FIFA World Cup. The day after the men’s national team beat South Africa to advance to the Round of 16 for the first time, he was up at 5:30 a.m. to take care of Jacob’s eight-month-old son, Baker. “Jacob’s wife, Robyn, is a wonderful mother and if I can give her three hours or a little bit more off than I’ll do it,” said Michael Shaffelburg. “Especially with what happened yesterday. Like I was saying, if all I have to do is get up at 5:30 in the morning for something like that to happen, I’ll do it every day of the week.” A dutiful grandfather, Michael took Baker for pancakes in Los Angeles Monday morning. The pair also took a call from CTV News. Michael was in the stands in Inglewood Sunday and says the vibes were intense. “The stadium was beautiful. The game was high pressure, tense and for us to score in extra time, anybody in touching distance was hugged and kissed and everyone is on their feet,” he said. And they stayed on their feet for the last five minutes of the game. “And certainly stayed on our feet for another ten minutes afterwards while there were celebrations and the team came around,” he said. “There’s always a beautiful moment at the end when you have a big win like that, where the entire team and staff come over to the family section and just applaud us and wave and, you know, send kisses.” Team Canada came into the game injured, including Jacob. “Jacob’s had a rough year. He had a sports hernia surgery in January, which was a three-month layoff, and then six weeks ago he tweaked his hamstring,” said Michael. “He makes a living based on his pace. So, you can’t really run it full speed with a hamstring tweak and I could tell yesterday that he was finally back to full speed when I saw him come on and running off the ball. So, I was happy about that and the whole team was going at pace the last 25 minutes, and he just felt something was going to happen.” Michael says the group of men representing Canada have been through a lot. “They’ve been through injuries, they’ve been through public disappointment or, embarrassment when they don’t do what others expect,” he said. “And what I find is when I meet these guys in person, they’re all kind, soft spoken, well-mannered, good human beings. And so, I’m so happy that this has worked out for them. They’re all wonderful young men who are who are, you know, making us all so proud.” What also seemed to help Canada was the insertion of energy from Alphonso Davies. “You could see as soon as he stepped on the confidence he gave to the to the guys… He belongs at that stage,” said Costa Elles, a coach and former pro player. “So, everybody played at his level and the whole team responded to that. So, the whole nation responded to it.” The growth of soccer in Canada can really be felt this World Cup, as the country acts as a host nation and has a successful team. “It just brings it a little bit closer to their attainability,” said Elles. “A lot of the players that I’m involved with right now play university and their eyes are sort of looking up that way towards the national team maybe, or even getting picked up. So, I mean, so the fact that you have a guy like Shaffelburg that has made it, somebody locally that grew up locally and played locally, it gives them more of an opportunity to think that they can also be there too.” Costa says new immigrants have also helped grow the game on Canadian soil. “The other thing that’s really helped is the influx of the new Canadians, the immigrants that have that are in our country now for the last 5 or 7 years,” he said. “That’s also because you see a lot more of them playing their sport, which they’ve brought from back home. So that helps as well.” With local leagues like the Canadian Premier Leage and the Northern Super League, the home-grown focus is there. “Now you’re getting Europeans or South Americans that are coming up to play in Canada, whereas before a lot of our better players always go to Europe or North and South America to play in better leagues. So now we have better local leagues, we have better national leagues in Canada,” added Elles. And younger eyes are now on the pitch. “But something like this is getting a lot of the younger generation talking about it,” said Elles. “So, if they’re talking about it, they’re playing it. We’re getting a little bit more ownership towards it. So I think it’s definitely going to help with the popularity both playing and watching and so on. I mean, Canada’s women’s team has been tops for decades now, right. So finally, the men’s team is catching up to that level.” As for the next round, Michael’s opinion is that being away from home might not be a bad thing. “Canada has accomplished what they were supposed to do. And sometimes when you have done that and pressures off and you may perform even better,” he explained. “I’m not speaking for Jacob, I’m just speaking for me. But in some ways, that’s a little bit of pressure to have your whole nation there. And then for them to be going up, say, against a Morocco or Netherlands, you’re not supposed to beat them. And in my opinion, that’s a perfect position to be in because there’s no pressure. It’s just them.”
