00:00World Cup fever is taking over Canada and the world as the tournament kicks off later on today
00:06for Canada and for Bosnia. That gets going on Friday and a great place to watch it here in
00:12Calgary is Captain's Sports Bar. Joined now by Kenan Poskovic from Captain's. Kenan, thank you
00:18so much for doing this today. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you very much.
00:23It's taken a little bit, admittedly, but World Cup, it's here. The kickoff goes later on today
00:29when we're recording this. I'm finally feeling pretty excited about this whole thing. Where's
00:33your excitement level at for the biggest tournament in the world? Oh, it's beyond excitement.
00:38I can't even explain to you what Bosnians are feeling right now towards this game. It's
00:44something that they pretty much live for. So I'm sure that media has shown excitements from
00:51Bosnians all over the world and Canada and US and it's going to be a great event. Yeah, it should
00:58be
00:58a lot of fun and interesting. You guys get to kick it off against Canada. A couple of worlds
01:04colliding for you, I would imagine, hey? Oh, absolutely. Our pub is well known for soccer
01:11since I'm a big soccer fan myself and I used to play a little bit just amateur-wise in Calgary.
01:21So yeah, Canadians are coming, Bosnians are coming, also Serbians and Croatians, Macedonians,
01:29Montenegrians, all of the people from ex-Yugoslavia are coming to support us tomorrow.
01:34Yeah, it's so much fun to see this event be able to bring so many people together.
01:40Yeah. That is a lot of what that is about. And admittedly, with certain things going on,
01:45sometimes that gets lost in everything around this one. But what's your expectation level for
01:51Bosnia? Are we going undefeated, running the table, winning the whole thing? Or what's the
01:56expectation here? I wish I could say that, but we're a little bit more. I got to be more realistic.
02:03It's a huge success for Bosnia just to be in the World Cup. I actually was a part of that.
02:10I was
02:11lucky enough to be able to see it live, Bosnia versus Italy in Bosnia. And then in Wales as well,
02:17I went to watch Bosnia versus Wales. And that was for us almost a World Cup final, just making it
02:24to
02:24the World Cup and beating such a great, big, great soccer nations as Italy and Wales. But right now,
02:31I'm just hoping that they'll put up a good fight and hoping for the best, at least to get out
02:37of the
02:38stage, first a group stage. But we'll see. And for you, what kind of brought you into this sport?
02:46Obviously, it's incredibly popular worldwide. Is it something that was like right from a child?
02:51You were invested in the sport. Did you grow into it later? How did you come into the beautiful game?
02:56Well, I was born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia. So that is our culture, pretty much soccer,
03:03or football, more like, is our culture. So I grew up playing, I grew up playing on the street,
03:10and then grew up playing for our little teams and watching it my whole life. So yeah, it's been a
03:18big part of my life, for sure. Nice. Nice. So yeah, there's obviously a big time on the calendar then
03:24to be able to celebrate this here in Calgary. Now, what brought you to Calgary, if you don't mind
03:29me asking? Well, the war in Bosnia. I came in 1994. Okay. Makes sense. Now, as far as the restaurant
03:41goes, the headquarters for Bosnian soccer fans here during the World Cup, what can fans expect if they
03:48they make their way to captains for one of the matches here? Oh, we've been gearing up for this
03:53for a while, all of us at captains and Brickwell as well. We've been always talking about it since
04:022014, as that was the first time the Bosnia made the World Cup. And we had a great event,
04:07great turnout. And this time around, we have a little more to offer. So we're going to have a
04:14national Bosnian dish called Cevapi. And we're also going to have a lamb on a rotisserie tomorrow
04:23for everybody to come and enjoy. Yeah. That sounds amazing. Cevapi, was that the
04:27first one for the white dude from Saskatchewan? Can you explain to me what that is?
04:32Well, there are a little beef mixture of beef and lamb sausages that come in a specialty bread also
04:39made locally from European bakery downtown. And yeah, it's been our national dish since day one. So
04:51yeah, it's kind of like a fast food food back home, but it's very, very good. So you should come
04:59try it.
04:59Yes. No, you're selling me on it very well. That sounds delicious. And it sounds incredible. And
05:05I would imagine the atmosphere for these games is going to be something pretty special as well,
05:09with a lot of the fans from the community getting out to the bar and just kind of celebrating together,
05:14right? Yes. Yes. We're pretty much full at capacity at both bars. And we're very excited.
05:22Yes. Captains and Brickwell as well. Yes. I forgot to mention that too. But yeah,
05:27this is, it's such a fun thing. And excuse me, it's such a fun thing and such a fun event,
05:34obviously getting everyone involved. And now to have it here in Canada, and I mean, easier time
05:42zone wise for us to watch it now. But what do you think that's going to do for kind of
05:45the growth of
05:46the sport of soccer here, football in the places that actually invented it? But what do you think that's
05:53going to do for the sport here in this country, having this on our stage here?
05:58Oh, absolutely. It will help. I mean, soccer in Canada has grown over the years,
06:05very much, and it keeps growing from year to year. But this time around being in Canada,
06:11the kids are going to be able to see it firsthand and see the fans and the magnitude of the
06:18game
06:18itself. So I'm sure it will just help to have more soccer players and more impact on Canadian
06:25national team. Yeah, absolutely. Overall, for sure. Yeah. Well,
06:30Ken, thank you so much for doing this. Again, everyone, go check it out at Brickwell's or at
06:34Captain Sports Bar, the home for Bosnians here during the World Cup, but all the matches available
06:40as well. So, Ken, thank you so much for taking the time today. And I wish your team nothing but
06:46luck in two of their three games in the group stage. Go Canada and go Bosnia. Thank you.
06:51Nice one-two finish in the group, right? Absolutely.
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