Canadian fans march to BC Place Stadium

[00:00:00]The city of Vancouver is bursting with Canadian pride as the men's national soccer team faces Qatar at BC Place for its second World Cup match. Our Monica Ghoul is near the stadium and joins us with more. Monica, electric scenes as fans made their way to the stadium.

[00:00:19]>> That's right, Angelina. Well, things have quieted down a bit and there aren't as many fans around as most of them are now in the stadium. Not long ago, just unbelievable scene here as tens of thousands of Canadian supporters gathered here, came together as one, and all marched together towards the stadium chanting, cheering, waving their Canadian flags, and also singing O Canada. Hard to describe what it was like, so here's a bit of a taste for you to see and hear for yourself.

[00:00:56]>> [screaming] [cheering] >> 69, 69.

[00:01:29]>> [cheering] [cheering] [cheering] >> WE'RE GOING TO WIN.

[00:01:58]>> We're going >> [cheering] >> Now I spoke to fans as they made their way towards the stadium. While some came from Vancouver or Langley not too far away, others did fly in from other Canadian cities including Calgary and Winnipeg. Many of them saying the same thing. They were excited for this game, called it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see such a game on home soil. Some of them were maybe even a bit nervous. Here's more of what they had to say.

[00:02:39]How excited are you? Especially Alphonso Davies might play.

[00:02:43]>> I'm ecstatic.

[00:02:44]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:02:45]>> I'm really really excited cuz um you know, me and my dad are dad are big soccer fans and um well um this is my first like real soccer game and well, we're just really excited, really.

[00:03:00]>> Yeah.

[00:03:01]>> Doing great. Um I'm really looking forward to the game. It's a big game.

[00:03:04]Um we weren't expecting Qatar to equalize against Switzerland. So, it's kind of like throwing the group open a bit and uh yeah, hopefully Alphonso will be able to get some good minutes in and hopefully we'll come out on top today.

[00:03:16]>> Looking forward to a Team Canada win.

[00:03:19]Hope that uh Davies gets on the pitch and >> Really excited.

[00:03:24]Um I'm glad that I could go to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

[00:03:31]Go Go Canada.

[00:03:32]>> It was a 10-hour drive. A bit of a long haul.

[00:03:36]So, it feels surreal we're finally here.

[00:03:39]>> I couldn't sleep last night.

[00:03:40]>> [laughter] >> BETTER THAN CHRISTMAS.

[00:03:43]>> YEAH.

[00:03:44]>> LET'S GO CANADA! Let's go!

[00:03:46]>> They got this in the bag. It's a must win. It's a must win.

[00:03:49]>> So excited to have a World Cup in our country. Just yeah, JUST SO EXCITED.

[00:04:00]>> NOW THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT matches ever for the men's national soccer team. It's a sold-out match, more than 52,000 people packing into BC Place. And among the people in attendance, Prime Minister Mark Carney. Angelina?

[00:04:17]>> [music] >> Such an exciting time for the city.

[00:04:19]Thank you Mark.

[00:04:20]>> Monica, that's our Monica Gulbina reporting from downtown Vancouver.