Darren Fong’s phone rings every minute, on the minute.
He’s a busy man, but he likes it that way. So do his patrons.
Fong is the catering manager at the Croatian Cultural Centre at 3250 Commercial Dr., where the mood smacks of anticipation and preparation, with a healthy dollop of nerves.
Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final between France and underdog Croatia is the talk of the cultural centre, and arguably the centre’s biggest event since opening its doors in 1986.
The excitement was tangible Thursday during the Courier’s visit to the East Vancouver culture hub, as the little nation that could is on the cusp of being world beaters for the first time in the country’s history.
“My phone has not stopped ringing today,” Fong says as he dismisses the sixth phone call within 10 minutes of the Courier’s arrival.
Sunday’s clash with France goes at 8 a.m. Somewhere around 1,000 people are expected to fill the hall’s four rooms.
Fong is clamouring to deal with that crush. That prep work includes figuring out liquor licensing with the city and capacity control. For those reasons, he can’t give an exact time festivities will be begin but he’s confident the doors will be open by 8 a.m. for kick-off.
“I can guarantee we will be full on Sunday,” Fong proclaims. “This is the biggest event in the history of this place.”
Fong is also fairly sure everyone in the vicinity of Commercial Drive will bleed Croatian on Sunday regardless of their background.
In Fong’s case, his parents are Chinese and came to Canada by way of Fiji. And yet every time he references the Croatian side, he uses the royal “we.” When Croatia scores, he uses “us.”
“We get people from every walk of life in to these games,” he said. “Most are of Croatian descent, but at least 25 per cent of the crowd isn’t. They can’t speak a word of Croatian and here they are. I think seeing people mix with other cultures is a pretty normal thing for Vancouver.”
Expectations are a funny thing. A month ago, Fong says the crowds would’ve been happy with the team simply advancing past the group stage. Beating Argentina 3-0 in the club’s second match was a sign.
Downing the Danes was the second sign post. Belief caught on.
“It’s funny watching the emotions in a game,” Fong said. “You see people gesticulating at the referees and yelling when things go wrong. And then when we’re winning, the refs magically get everything right.”
Wednesday’s 2-1 extra time win over England saw hundreds of attendees. England scored five minutes in and people were downcast until the equalizer was netted near the 70th minute.
“It was tense in here for the first two thirds of the game, almost silent at times,” Fong said.
Mario Mandzukic’s extra time heroics in the dying minutes set the place off.
As the kids would say, “it was lit.”
“It was stunned surprise for a second, like people couldn’t comprehend that the goal actually went in so close to the end of the game,” Fong said. “You had some people cheering, others were worried about getting excited when the game wasn’t over yet. It was pretty incredible.”
All details around Sunday’s match will be announced on the centre’s Facebook page at facebook.com/croatian.community.
