After Sunday’s derby match against Pacific FC, we will have a two-and-a-half-week break for the World Cup coming to Vancouver.
We are players, but we are soccer fans too and proud Canadians, so we care a lot about the tournament and are just as excited as the rest of the community for the two months ahead of us.
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The biggest sporting event in the world coming here is only going to happen once in my lifetime. So it will be great to really enjoy the two Canada games Vancouver is hosting during our break, before our next Canadian Premier League (CPL) fixture on July 1.
Our home, the Stadium at Langley Events Centre is going to host 10 free watch parties over June and July. Maybe even more if Canada qualifies for the knockout rounds.
The games will be shown live on the new video board in the stadium, and there will also be activities for families, along with food and a licensed area. If the weather is bad, the games will be shown in the arena bowl.
It’s a great idea.
Watching the game on a massive screen in the stadium will be a fantastic experience, and for people in Langley who have not been coming to our games or don’t know much about us, they might be thinking: this is a pretty cool venue, who plays here every week?
That is good for Vancouver FC and good for promoting soccer across the Lower Mainland.
We were told the municipality, Langley Events Centre, and Langley United Soccer Association all came together with the club to make this happen – and since first hearing about it a few months ago, I’ve been excited to see the buzz around the first game – which is actually Canada’s opening match against Bosnia on Friday at 12 p.m.
They are calling the Pacific FC match, two days later, the Red and White Out Match and asking all the fans to come out in Canadian colours. I think that is awesome. I have never played in front of a crowd like that before, where everyone is wearing the same colours.
I am still a fan, of course, but when I was younger and going to games as a fan, that kind of thing always helped us feel like we were contributing to something and part of the game.
To be on the pitch and see all that colour around, it is going to be a proud moment. It will be like we are almost handing it over to the national team, all getting behind them and showing that link to the national league.
The club is also going to be involved in events at Canada House Shipyards, Last Mile in False Creek, the PNE FIFA Fan Festival, and the Cloverdale Fan Fest.
As players, we will be involved in all of them.
That is really important, because there will be a lot of young people and families there, and it is important they see there is a pathway for them, or their kids, to become professionals in Canada if they dig in and work hard. From clubs and universities to the CPL, and from there to the national team and future World Cups.
When I was a kid, I would take any opportunity to see a professional player or go to a stadium. I would be so excited to meet the players or get onto the pitch.
As a team, we have four or five days off after the Pacific FC game and, when we come back, we will have a mini pre-season again. It is unusual because there is no mid-season break in the CPL, but this will be our second of the year.
We started early for the CONCACAF Champions Cup matches, then had a break and another pre-season before the CPL kickoff.
Those days off are about re-energizing and resetting, but I will still probably do one or two medium-intensity sessions on my own, because I do not want to lose any sharpness.
We are coming into this game after last Friday’s 2-1 win over Atlético Ottawa. This means we now have a win and a draw from our two games so far against the reigning champions and I was delighted to assist Lys Mousset for the winning goal after making an important interception.
There is a bit of symmetry in the final game before the break being the biggest derby match in B.C. before we head into the biggest tournament in the world.
The last derby went well for us and we won 3-1, so we want that feeling again, especially heading into the break. Two wins in a row will give us a lot of confidence to carry into the second half of the season.
From this game to all the World Cup events over the following month or so, we are looking forward to seeing the fans and celebrating Canadian soccer with you all.
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– Kian Proctor is a 20-year-old Vancouver FC defender from Delta, who signed his first professional contract for the 2026 season after a standout year at SFU. He will be writing a weekly column this season, offering insight into himself and his new team.
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