After 'O Canada' anthem snub, Vancouver Whitecaps embarrass Inter Miami | OneFootball

Before Wednesday night's Leg 2 of the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals, "The Star-Spangled Banner" played over the Chase Stadium sound system, as usual at pro sporting events in the United States.

"O Canada," Canada's national anthem, was strangely omitted.

Two hours later, it was Inter Miami that was no longer part of the Concacaf Champions Cup itinerary.

The Vancouver Whitecaps' thoroughly deserved 3-1 victory in Leg 2 of their semifinal -- completing a 5-1 win on aggregate and securing a June 1 meeting with either Cruz Azul or Tigres UANL of Liga MX -- may have occurred regardless of any karmic weirdness thrown into the universe by Inter Miami's audiovisual department.

And to be fair, there is no established anthem protocol for Concacaf-sanctioned matches, in contrast to MLS games where the anthems of the cities of both participating clubs are always played before kickoff. (Three of 30 MLS clubs are in Canada.)

Even so, the overwhelming norm in North American pro sports -- where there is decades of history of Canadian and American teams competing against each other in baseball, basketball and ice hockey -- is to play both anthems.

That's exactly what occurred six days earlier in Leg 1 in Vancouver, and the strange choice not to reciprocate was especially notable given the current geopolitical climate.

An email to Inter Miami club PR staff was not immediately returned.

Tensions rising

The U.S. and Canada have long been close allies, but that relationship has become strained during the early days of President Donald Trump's second presidential term.

Trump began his term by stating his desire to see Canada become a 51st state of the United States and set the stage for a broader global tariff policy by first haphazardly introducing tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico.

The rhetoric and sanctions have reverberated to great effect north of the border, where Canadian fans have taken to booing the U.S. anthem before NHL, MLB, NBA and MLS contests.

Leg 2 comes two days after Canada's national elections, in which Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals won enough seats to retain control of the parliamentary government. Carney had only been in the role for several weeks following the March resignation of Justin Trudeau.

Carney's victory comes amid exit polls showing that voters were heavily influenced by Canada's suddenly fragile relationship with the U.S. and the Trump administration. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was considered a clear favorite in the race only a few months ago.

Making their own noise

Inter Miami CF v Vancouver Whitecaps - CONCACAF Champions Cup | Eston Parker/ISI Photos/GettyImages

Fortunately for the Whitecaps, they had no problem making their presence known either on the pitch or in the stands.

Brian White and Pedro Vite scored two minutes apart early in the second half, effectively ending the two-match series as a competitive affair. While Miami applied loads of pressure in final half-hour, any use of the final analytic numbers to suggest the Herons deserved a better result is seriously flawed.

Once Vite's -- admittedly fortunate -- deflected tally went in, Vancouver merely had to prevent Miami from scoring four more goals to secure their spot in the final.

Yet it was Vancouver who added one more through Sebastian Berhalter in the 71st minute. That truly set off the party among the several hundred Whitecaps fans on hand, whom the club helped make the transcontinental journey to witness arguably the greatest night in club history.

A couple of hours earlier, some of those same fans helped sing an impromptu rendition of the song Miami's AV folks had snubbed.

Are anthems overrated?

The episode also highlights the somewhat unique culture of U.S. and Canadian pro sports featuring their respective anthems prior to sporting events.