For the second time in as many months, the Canadian men’s soccer team will be playing a road World Cup qualifier in a stadium not built with soccer in mind.
Last month, the Canadians played Puerto Rico at the Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel which was built for baseball. This time around, Canada will take on St. Lucia at the Beausejour Stadium which is, in fact, a cricket oval. Built in 2002, the Beausejour Cricket Oval hosted some of the cricket World Cup in 2007 and just last year was the venue for some of the World Cup of the T20 version of cricket.
Given the circular shape of the quite beautiful little stadium, fans will be somewhat removed from the pitch Friday night. That being said, about 2,005 people attended the country’s first home game against St. Kitts last month so atmosphere shouldn’t be too much of a factor.
The name comes from the Beausejour hills that surround the stadium. The site of the stadium was chosen as the surrounding hills make it one of the driest areas on the small, teardrop-shaped island.
Given the unpredictable weather on the island, this may not be such a bad thing. The weather can change drastically in a matter of minutes. So far today (Wednesday), a strong rain started the day, but it passed quickly leaving a warm and humid sunny day with clouds moving quickly across the sky. Winds are stronger closer to the water and while it can still be gusty at the stadium, it’s much gentler as it is a few kilometres inland.
The stadium itself is located in a very quiet area where it almost sits surrounded by nature. Across the street is St. Lucia’s national tennis centre but other than that, just a few expensive-looking houses dot the hillside above the stadium. Horses and egrets (white, heron-like birds) populate the fields and road-sides as you approach the stadium but nobody cleans up after the horses so there are some animal…leavings…as you approach the facility.
One of the things that make the stadium unique is the small population of cats on-site. As I walked out to the side of the pitch, a stadium worker was sitting with a few of them around him. I asked him if they were all his and he answered that they’re kept to control the rat population.
As it is built for and still is mostly used by cricketers, the pitch itself is cut very short. It’s about the length of astroturf so when Canada lines up against St. Lucia Friday night, the ball should be quite lively.
The short turf combined with a hard base under the cricket oval will mean controlling the ball could be a bit of a challenge since it will likely run much faster than what players are used to. But compared to some of the other dodgy, bumpy pitches with more dirt than grass that Canada could come up against in the CONCACAF region, there should be few complaints about this one.
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