I recently attended a Vancouver Whitecaps soccer game. I’d been to a few games before, most notably in Chile where security attempted to confiscate the harmonica I had in my pocket because, according to them, it could be used as a projectile! (Similar things are hurled towards opposing players rather more frequently than one might think.)

This was my first time going to a game here in Canada (and in my own language), and while incomparable to what takes place in other parts of the world – like these crowds where they clearly take this sort of thing very seriously – the experience was revelatory. It was loud and boisterous. It was offensive and rude, crude to within a hair’s breadth of fault, communal – and highly enjoyable.

I realised that soccer is a game best experienced not on television as a sporting contest between two competing teams, but rather live as a crowd.

The game often takes second stage to what is happening in the stands. That’s where the real action is.