00:07Located on Canada's western shores, close to the border with the United States,
00:12Vancouver is consistently ranked among the most livable cities in the world.
00:19It is one of two Canadian cities to host matches during the 2026 World Cup,
00:24with the 55,000 capacity Vancouver Stadium, the northernmost of the 16 venues in use during the tournament.
00:33Hello everybody, tonight here from the beautiful city of Vancouver in Canada,
00:41in this fantastic stadium, one of the FIFA World Cup stadiums.
00:47World Cup 2026 is coming to Canada, to the United States and to Mexico,
00:53and it's coming to Vancouver as well.
00:56I've had the chance to visit the stadium today, it's really fantastic,
01:01a lot of work as well going on to make it even more beautiful,
01:0455,000 fans will fill the stadium during the World Cup.
01:11Opened in 1983, the venue known commercially as BC Place,
01:16has been the main stadium for the 2010 Winter Olympics,
01:19and hosted the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup final.
01:26The venue is currently the home of the BC Lions in the Canadian Football League,
01:31Vancouver Whitecaps in Major League Soccer,
01:34and the annual Canada Sevens rugby event.
01:38Vancouver Stadium set the record for the largest crowd to witness a Canadian national team back in 2015,
01:44when more than 53,000 spectators saw the women's team defeat Switzerland in the World Cup round of 16.
01:52I'm really impressed with, one, the support of BC Place, I mean, that was brilliant today.
01:58We're walking out in front of 50-odd thousand people, I mean, who would have thought it for women's football?
02:02It was just, one of those, uh, surreal days, I think, for the staff and players.
02:09It was incredible, um, especially, you know, when we put that, that ball away and scored.
02:15It was one of the loudest, uh, stadiums I've ever been a part of.
02:18Um, you know, hearing the national anthem, it's one of the few times on a soccer field where I've almost
02:24shed a, shed a tear.
02:25It was just, uh, a very proud moment.
02:28Vancouver Stadium will host seven matches and act as home base for the Canadian national team.
02:34Two of the five group stage matches at the venue will be home games for Canada.
02:38And the two knockout stage matches, one in the round of 32 and another in the round of 16,
02:44are designed to feature Canada should they win Group B and progress that far.
02:50I had the pleasure to meet the minister of sport of Canada, the mayor of, uh, Vancouver, two exceptional persons,
02:59uh, the whole team of the host city in Vancouver, fantastic people, a football or soccer city,
03:06and I'm looking forward already now to the World Cup in 2026.
03:11Take care, see you soon in Vancouver and all around North America.
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