For over a year leading up to the 3 June kick-off of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, Canadians have been under a looming threat of cosmic - well perhaps only global - significance.

The first official poster for the 16th world youth showpiece in Canada - used to promote the competition in its planning stages - has a real sci-fi quality to it. A giant football occupies the foreground and looks to be hurtling at great speed through outer space toward a distant and dwarfed Planet Earth, with North America the clear target.

The message, delivered brilliantly through the visual composition, was a simple one for Canadians: the world's game is coming and you better get ready. The image was fittingly accompanied by the tag line: "It's gonna' be huge!"

Now, with what will no-doubt be the largest-single sporting event in the nation's history just days away (over 900,000 tickets have already been sold) football has most assuredly made its monumental impact in the Great White North.

In keeping with the size of the 24-team, 52-match event and the hopes that the world's game will take the traditionally ice hockey obsessed Canadians like a force of nature, six more posters (one for each venue) have been issued and can now be seen throughout the country. Some are large, billboard size beside major highways and byways, others smaller and less assuming. But they are everywhere and impossible to miss.

Click through the photo gallery on the right to view all seven official posters

The new tag line on the six official posters hits the message home: "The world's biggest game is here."

Football has landed in the Great White North. Victoria's parliament building has been visually hit with the cosmic football. Burnaby's picturesque greenery was torn up by the sheer weight of the impact and Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium will need a bit of work before its first match. Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa will also be hard-pressed to ignore the figurative force of football's impact as one of the globe's biggest competitions heads for Canadian shores.