I'm probably the only person that thinks this way, but I don't even care that we suck at soccer on the men's side. Soccer is the most common and popular sport on the planet. It doesn't seem like such a big deal to be great at soccer. That might be kind of backwards thinking, since on the flip side you don't want to be the best at something nobody cares about either, but I just can't bring myself to care about the fact Canada isn't competitive in soccer on the world stage. Let the oodles of other nations who excel at soccer duke it out while Canada continues to set the standard for hockey as well as some other winter sports. Canada is also a rising tennis nation, which, as a tennis player and fan, is very exciting for me.
Norway is the greatest winter sports nation in the world, but it mattered more to Norwegians that we had a fantastic football team in the 90s.
Norway coming back to beat Brazil in 98 is regarded as the greatest sports moment in Norwegian history.
To be great at football is a big deal.