Joy.
In its best moments, that’s what the World Cup is about.
Toronto Stadium on Wednesday night was a nucleus of footballing joy, as two football-mad fanbases combined to make thunderous noise in the rain, watching Ghana and Panama begin their 2026 tournament.
Canada arrived as a World Cup host last week with the opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina. It wasn’t until this match – and Caleb Yirenkyi’s 95th-minute winner – that the World Cup truly arrived in Toronto.
Ghana vs. Panama wasn’t a fixture that caught the casual’s eye; for many outside of Canada, this might’ve been the match to skip on a day that featured Portugal, England, Croatia and Colombia.
When Toronto’s match schedule came out in December, plenty of skeptics here wondered whether this was all worth it to host matchups like Ghana-Panama. If most of the "big" countries were only playing in the U.S., what was the point?
The World Cup is not just about Mbappé and Messi and Kane, though. It’s about thousands of Bosnians travelling to support their team in Canada.
It’s about Panamanians, visiting from afar or resident in Canada, singing for their Canaleros. Most potently on Wednesday, it was about a legion of Ghana supporters dancing in the streets of downtown Toronto.
It was about the entire Ghanaian bench spilling onto the pitch in celebration. It was about non-stop noise from both sets of fans in the rain. It was about manager Carlos Queiroz running the length of the pitch with the flag of Ghana.
It was about joy.
Both inside the stadium and out, nobody could have missed the matchday energy in Toronto. The unmistakable colours of both sides weren’t hard to find within a five-kilometre radius of Exhibition Place.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, travelled from both countries to Toronto. Many of the fans in the stadium and city streets didn’t need to, though. In one of the world's most multicultural cities, it’s no surprise that scores of Torontonians with Ghanaian or Panamanian roots were on hand for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
There is a unique, unmistakable elation that you see in the fans of some World Cup nations. It’s a desire, not only to support their team, but to do so in a way that puts their country, and their culture, in front of the whole world.
Seconds after kickoff in Toronto, the duelling noise from each country’s fans drowned out all else. From the north stand echoed “Olé, olé olé olé, Ghana,” met swiftly by a ringing “Sí, se puede” from Panama’s fans in the south.
Each forward pass, each corner kick, every speculative sniff at goal pulled the whole crowd to its feet.
Even the referee's whistle could scarcely be heard above the symphony of jubilation coming from all corners of the stadium. The unshakeable optimism of both fanbases, even as the match itself trudged on at 0-0, faltered only briefly during a chorus of boos for each half's FIFA-mandated hydration break.
Ghana, a nation with no shortage of World Cup heritage, arrived at this tournament unsure of themselves. Their prior six matches gave them five losses and a draw with Wales; Queiroz, having taken the job (his 11th different national team gig) in April, walked into his fifth World Cup without a win on record with his current side.
You couldn’t tell from their supporters, though. They danced through the nerves, even as their side suffered pressure in the first half. From a competitive perspective, this was the most important game of the group stage for both sides; without a win here, neither team would have much hope of advancing from a group that also features England and Croatia.
That math wasn’t why neither side would settle for a draw, though. It was the heaving energy of a stadium that was begging to explode with the game’s first goal.
Yirenkyi, a 20-year-old making his World Cup debut, made himself the face of one of this tournament's early iconic moments. When he stood at a media podium postmatch, the native of Bechem – a town of 17,000 – seemed not to have yet grasped what he had accomplished on the biggest stage in the world for his country.
Fortunately, his teammate, Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo, had.
"The emotions when we celebrated said it all," he said.
Over the next few weeks, Toronto and Vancouver will welcome more countries, each dreaming of a moment like Ghana had on Wednesday.
Win or lose, though, there will be no shortage of joy.
This is the World Cup, and it's a powerful thing.
Photos all courtesy of OneSoccer.
