rain rain rain

There's a whole lot of soccer games coming up in the next couple of months. Of course, this includes the Euro 2008 competition which begins this Saturday as well as the ongoing season of the MLS league and the hugely supported Toronto FC team.

There's also a charity match that a bunch of my colleagues in music and media are playing as part of the Myspace Canada 2nd annual NXNE Music Conference soccer invitational. Proceeds raised from the game (played at the pitch at BMO field in TO) go to the Right to Play not-for-profit which supports sports for kids in third world countries. Soccer is a sport that unites immigrants, I find. It requires very little accessories to play - just a ball and something that denotes goal areas. Those iconic nike ads often show this - a bohemian street soccer team plays the pros in a dusty terrain area and the whole neighbourhood comes out to watch and support.

My neighbour, who is heading up the game organization for the NXNE invitational, was worried about rain. We were walking home this evening and having a good chat and she brought this up. I didn't say it at the time, but as a yellow cab sped by on the wet pavement, the sound reminded me of home - good ol' rainy dreary Vancouver. It's a sound I fell asleep to most nights, and I often sleep deeper when I hear that wet pavement sound. It also made me think that one of the most formative scents I remember growing up was the fresh cut wet grass smell from the soccer pitch. All of my siblings and my Dad played soccer growing up and when I learned to drive I spent most weekends shuttling them between games and practices. Unfortunately, they'd have to pipe in that comforting scent at BMO field as the surface there is made of some strange rubber type covering and I'm not sure if that would be as 'homey' as the drenched pitch from my days of youth. A good cause to support though, regardless