After leading Canada to gold at the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021, captain Christine Sinclair realized something.
“After Tokyo, deep down I knew I didn’t want to play in Paris,” she said, referring to the 2024 Olympics. She said, “I can’t beat the way the Tokyo Olympics ended.
“I wanted to try again for the World Cup because I really thought I could be successful at the World Cup and I hadn’t been successful at the World Cup for a long time.”
It couldn’t be like that. Canada returned early from Australia this summer, but failed to advance to the finals in Sinclair’s sixth trip to the soccer showcase.
It wasn’t the ending she wanted.
So Sinclair kept fighting, playing a 35-minute cameo off the bench in Game 2 against Jamaica last month, helping Canada qualify for the Paris Olympics. However, the 40-year-old from Burnaby, British Columbia, is currently taking time out from her Canadian career, saying she will retire from her national soccer career at the end of the year.
“I can sit here and know that since I was 16 years old, I’ve literally worked my butt off and given everything I have to this national team,” she told The Canadian Press. “When I think about what I’ve done and the effort I’ve put into it, I have no regrets at all. I know I’ve done everything I could and the team is making good progress.”
Although Sinclair has ended his career in Canada, he will play one more season next year with the Portland Thorns in the NWSL.
Sinclair, the world’s leading scorer with 190 goals in 327 senior appearances, will play four more games with No. 10 Canada, starting with two friendlies against No. 9 Brazil in Montreal on Oct. 28. He plans to participate in the event. and Halifax on October 31st.
Canada Soccer is expected to announce two more home games for the final FIFA international competition of the year, which runs from Nov. 27 to Dec. 6. One of those games will be against No. 11 Australia in Vancouver, officials said. The other match is expected to be played in the same region and against the same opponent.
Four home games will allow Sinclair to say a bye at home.
“That made my decision a lot easier,” she said. “I’ve played for the national team, but I haven’t played at home very often. It’s going to be special for me.”
Mr Sinclair is clearly satisfied with the decision.
“For me, it was just time,” she said. “I started noticing that I was starting to think about going on vacation, spending time with my family, going to my cabin. Five years ago I would never have thought of that. I’m excited to play for (Portland), but there’s one thing to focus on. It seemed like the time was right.”
Sinclair has been the face of Canadian soccer for many years, a world-class talent with simple values. She wasn’t one to seek the spotlight, and she did most of the talking on the pitch.
She made it look easy to score a goal by just putting the ball where the goalie wasn’t.
“She doesn’t do anything outrageous,” Canadian forward Janine Becky said in 2020. “It’s like she’s not the kind of player who flicks the ball over her head or juggles it five times and hits an upper 90 (top left or top right of the ball).” I’m a player.
“She’s the most consistent striker I’ve ever played with, because she’s one of the simplest strikers I’ve ever seen. She does all the basics to her ability. I will do my best to do so.
“You don’t really notice her until she scores a goal in the back of the net,” then-Canada national team coach Kenneth Heiner Moller added. “But once she comes to our sessions, you can see how hard she works to become that low-profile player who can put in a shift and suddenly appear in the penalty area.”
Sinclair also helped the Canadian team create an environment that welcomes people young and old, and everyone in between.
Sinclair said he would like to be involved in coaching after his permanent retirement, although not as a head coach.
“It seems awful and stressful and I’m not interested in it at the moment,” Sinclair said with a laugh. “But the idea of being a unit-specific coach, like strikers for example, is something that excites me.
“But I also know that when I stop playing for good, I have a lot of opportunities and options.”
Sinclair endured a difficult run-up to the World Cup as captain of a team battling the regulator in a long-running industrial dispute that is still unresolved.
“It’s clear there’s still a lot of work to do in terms of the pipeline for youth players, youth national teams and professional leagues,” she said. “I still have this fear that if we don’t change something, we’re going to get left behind as a program/But as far as the players that are there, they’re going to be OK. They’re going to be great. .”
That said, Sinclair says competition is getting tougher. Recent World Cups have shown that there are more top candidates than ever before.
We have continued to have Canadian colors for a long time.
Sinclair made his senior debut in March 2000, at the age of 16, in a 4-0 loss to China in the Algarve Cup, making him the youngest player in Canadian history. She scored her first goal in her second senior game two days later, beating star goalkeeper Bente Norby in a 2-1 loss to Norway.
Sinclair had already attracted attention at youth level, scoring 27 goals in 19 international games between 2002 and 2002. Ten of her goals came as Canada reached the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship final in Edmonton.
Sinclair scores the second goal in a 12-0 blowout against St. Kitts and Nevis during the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship at HEB Park in Edinburg, Texas, on January 29, 2020, with Abby Wambach He broke the world record for a total of 184 goals.
The record-tying goal was scored on a penalty kick in the 7th minute. The milestone 185th goal came in the 23rd minute, when Sinclair single-handedly converted a feed from Adriana Leon.
Sinclair, who was never one to blow his own horn, worried that chasing his record would be a hindrance to the team.
Sinclair played in his 290th career game with Canada. Wambach, who retired in 2015, played in 255 games.
St. Kitts, ranked 127th in the world at the time, became the 41st country for which Sinclair scored.
Sinclair is a four-time Olympian and also led his team to a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
His hat-trick in the 2012 London semi-final, a 4-3 loss to the United States in overtime, remains an unforgettable memory for many. And after her loss, she encouraged her depressed teammates in the locker room.
It was an unusual speech from the captain.
“I think the best leaders often don’t say much, but when they do, people listen because they don’t say much,” said John Herdman, the women’s team coach at the time. said.
“I get emotional every time I think about the speech,” goalie Erin McLeod said.
In the bronze medal match, Diana Matheson scored in stoppage time to help the Canadian women’s team defeat France 1-0. The medal came 13 months after Canada finished last at the 2011 World Cup.
Sinclair’s role has recently changed.
She started against Nigeria and Australia at the World Cup and came on as a substitute in the second half against Ireland, helping to turn the tide in a 2-1 come-from-behind victory alongside fellow veteran Sophie Schmidt.
Canada coach Bev Priestman praised her captain’s attitude and work ethic in the lead-up to the World Cup, saying he “did great” in pre-tournament fitness testing.
She also praised Sinclair for continuing to evolve.
“She makes important passes and is extremely important to this team,” Priestman said in July. “But what I do know is that this team is no longer just about Christine Sinclair. We have depth across the front, midfield lines and we don’t rely on anyone throughout the tournament. I think we can and I think that’s what we’ll see (in the tournament).
“But I think she’s important to the success of this team.”
Goal No. 190 came on July 5, 2022, during a 6-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago in the CONCACAF W Championship in Guadalupe, Mexico.
Since then, Sinclair has been off the scoresheet in 16 games, in some of which she played in a more withdrawn midfield role. She played in 327 games for Canada, 312 of which were starts.
At 40 years and 38 days old at the start of this summer’s World Cup, Sinclair was the second-oldest player in the tournament (after Nigeria’s Onome Ebi, 40 years and 73 days old).
Sinclair had a penalty saved against Nigeria, preventing him from becoming the first player, male or female, to score in six World Cups.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2023.
