United through Diversity: How the multi-cultural Griffins lineup is becoming one

EDMONTON – With so many different footie styles around the world, you can imagine the challenge the Griffins men's soccer team has had since they started camp earlier this summer. 

Only eight members of the team – including coaches – were born in Canada. The majority are first generation Canadians, whose families have emigrated from countries all over the world.

In fact, a map created by co-captain Jakob Sievert plants 40 different flags on five different continents that the families of players and coaches on the Griffins have originated from.

"For me, that's absolutely amazing," said Seivert, who is from Germany. "That's one of the things I really value about Canada. 

"You can learn a lot from each other and benefit a lot if you look at other guys and how they do and see things. In the end, you can take this as a big advantage."

MacEwan heads into its home opener on Saturday vs. Alberta (2:30 p.m., Clarke Stadium, Canada West TV).

Head coach Adam Loga's job has been to bring that all together on one page.

"It's been great," he said. "Definitely there are some extra steps to it when building our identity and culture. Different locations, different upbringings, different backgrounds than status quo. But it's going very well. 

"We're just trying to lend perspective to each and every one of them that helps teammates become teammates and that hopefully leads to a deeper connection, which leads to vulnerability and openness where they can look for that brotherhood and look to lean on each other."

Striker Felix Guité, who is from Guatemala, feels it's all melding together nicely, using the strengths of each game from around the world.

"I think with the tactics Loga has implemented with (our diversity) in mind, I think he's done a great job," he said. "We have our fastest guys down the wing and they're rapid and very physical. Then we have our techy players down the middle – our new signing Azar (El Khallaa) from Morocco, who's very technical, with me, who's also very technical and Ali (Yildiz). 

"We took the strengths from all over the world and put them into a system that I think is going to work really well."

The Germans, for example, play a very direct, tactical style of soccer, whereas lads from Central and South America have built the technical skills first, and African players bring a physical style. Other European nations have their own special qualities to the game, as well.

"Growing up in Guatemala, everything is on the ball," said Guité. "They don't really focus how good you are tactically and fitness-wise. It's number one, how good you are on the ball, so, it's just passing and dribbling. I think that's where I got most of my foundation for the skills I have.

"I played in Germany for a little while," he added. "There, it's very tactical. Every player needs to be in the right position at the same time and the whole team has one idea, and they're all trying to execute it. When you go to South America or where I'm from, it's more of a dance. Everyone's technically gifted, everyone's trying to dribble past people, everybody's trying to create. Obviously, the teams still have tactics and still one idea, but it's more fluid."

The coaching staff has been a big part of it, too, as all are learning about every culture in the team's locker-room.

"Today in our presentation before practice, our assistant coach had Turkish music on," said Loga last week. "Before training, we have different backgrounds of music on in the room that connect us with each player and where they're from. Things like that and it's just open dialogue. 

"Our seniors and leaders have been great with it, talking about things from home. And obviously with our staff from around the world: Zaza (Cevahir Çaçan) from Turkey, Pascal (Jarzyna) from Germany, Stew (Jamieson) from Scotland, Armando (Sanchez) from Mexico. It's easy for them to jump into the conversation and share their experiences."

Added Guité: "It's been good. Everyone gets along. We definitely use (our diversity) as our greatest strength."