World Cup fans in Toronto – 2018 Highlight Gallery

From witnessing Germany‘s exit to England‘s penalty shot victory over Colombia, from Panama and Iceland‘s first world cup matches ever to shooting fans of Peru pack a restaurant in little Italy during Taste of Italy, it’s be a wild couple of weeks. Don’t even get me started about the upsets. This is just a small sample of photos of course, there are many more photos from each game I shot, but it gives you some of the highs, lows and boring moments in between. That being said, here it is, 2018 World Cup fans in Toronto.

My major mandate each World Cup is to photograph any new teams since I have begun this project in 2006. This year there were 6 new teams for me to shoot, more of the world to explore in my own city. Panama, Iceland, Peru were really easy to find thanks to various factors. I had difficulty with Egypt and Morocco, but ended up being able to watch great games with both sets of fans. Senegal however, to my huge disappointment, didn’t happen. I’ll write about it later, it’s still too fresh. I do have a photo, but it barely counts. So, along with North Korea, I have Senegal on my list of failures. I know they were out there, they just weren’t very forthcoming on the details and I spent 6 long hours seeking them out. Regardless, I’ve now photographed fans cheering on 53 different countries here in the GTA. That’s of a total of only 78 countries that have ever played a FIFA World Cup finals game, so not too shabby!

Depending on how much you have been paying attention to the FIFA World Cup, you are able to tell pretty much everything in each of these photos. Who is playing, the location, the score and what moment just happened in the game. If you’re not sure, you can find each of these photos in larger galleries for each of the games. As always, please share any great photos or stories from your World Cup watching in Toronto, we love hearing from you.

Here are the highlights from the final three games I shot, each one more amazing than the next. The first one was Russia and Croatia in the quarter-finals.

The next was the first half of England and Croatia, with the English fans, who were very happy at the time!

Finals

And finally the finals with the Croatian fans at Croatia Park in Mississauga. Although they lost, I would not have wanted to be anywhere else in the GTA!

I love this project so much and I am fortunate to have such a flexible job as a freelance photographer to take in so many games with so many passionate fans. It’s been a hot one, I’m a sticky mess at most of the games, but it’s been a pure joy!

I am lucky to have such an amazing wife and son and family who support me in my quest. Thank you Kathy and Wes!

All photos by commercial photographer Joseph Michael Photography.