AT a recent event held in a penthouse suite of Richmond's River Rock Casino Resort, North Shore residents Bob Lenarduzzi and Jim Taylor showed just why they are the perfect two people to capture the peaks and valleys of the history of elite soccer in Canada.
The event was the launch of Bob Lenarduzzi: A Canadian Soccer Story, an autobiography co-written by Lenarduzzi and Taylor that follows the life of a man who played a part in nearly every major soccer story this country has seen in the past 40 years.
At the book launch Lenarduzzi, East Vancouverborn but now a longtime North Vancouver resident, was his usual understated, professional, measured self while Taylor cracked everyone up with a couple of good fart jokes.
That mix of personalities is evident in the book as Lenarduzzi, in his straight-ahead style, tells the tale of his life winding through his choice as a 14-year-old to leave his family to move to England; his playing career with the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Canadian national team, including the country's only trip to the World Cup in 1986; and on to coaching, managing and administrative jobs with pro teams and the national side.
No one had a better view of the growth of soccer in Canada, Vancouver in particular, than Lenarduzzi and the book offers an inside look into the stories that shaped the game in this country. From leading a victory parade in front of 100,000 ecstatic Vancouverites to dodging bags of urine on the hostile pitches of Central America, Lenarduzzi saw it all.
It's Lenarduzzi's story to tell but Taylor's mischievous voice is there throughout as well. As a longtime sports columnist for both the Vancouver Sun and the Province, Taylor was there for much of the action too, covering the births and deaths of several Vancouver soccer franchises as well as the uphill battles of the men's national team.
It was Taylor, a longtime West Vancouver resident, who asked the question of Whitecaps coach Tony Waiters that led to this famous answer about Lenarduzzi's slumping play: "He needs a bottle in the face."
"My mom was not very happy," Lenarduzzi said with a laugh as he retold the story at his book launch. "Tony Waiters actually had to call and apologize."
It's obvious that both Taylor and Lenarduzzi share a love for the game that exceeds hockey in Canada in terms of youth participation but pales in terms of national profile and support.
"I've been at this for so long I can remember the days when if a Canuck farted it wasn't six pages in the Province," said Taylor. "I'm convinced that the day is going to come when, maybe when a Whitecap breaks wind it will be at least two pages."
The book ends with a plea from Lenarduzzi, less gassy than Taylor's but just as passionate, for an overhaul of the national system to move Canada from international obscurity back into the World Cup. With passion like that as well as Lenarduzzi's current role as president of Vancouver Whitecaps FC, a club just finishing its first season of MLS play, it seems there will be at least of few more chapters of this story to be told.
