The reigning Olympic champions have been ousted from the FIFA Women’s World Cup. After suffering a lopsided 4-0 defeat to Australia, Christine Sinclair and company will be headed home earlier than expected.
In a must win game for both sides, it was the 10th ranked Matildas that lived up to the moment. Australia nearly went up 3-0 on a shell shocked Canadian side, but their 3rd goal was ruled offside just before the half.
From the opening whistle, the Canadians were back on their heels, as an unrelenting Aussie attack kept them hemmed in their own end for large stretches of play. So much so that the Canucks failed to record a shot on target in the first half.
Canadian fans hoped that Bev Priestman would be able to rally the troops at the break, but it wasn’t meant to be. In the 58th minute, Mary Fowler made it 3-0 Australia, and the route was officially on. Stephanie Catley would add a 4th goal in stoppage time to seal the deal for the home side.
“A bad night to have a bad night,” Jessie Fleming told reporters after the final whistle.
“I just feel a lot of disappointment,” she added. “We have a world class staff back there with us and world class fans and I don’t think we represented them well enough tonight. I just think this team has so much more in us and such a better performance. That was not seen tonight.”
With the loss, Canada became the first reigning Olympic champions to fail to advance past the 1st round in tournament history. The team finished with a 1-1-1 record, and will now head home after 3 games.
40 year old Christine Sinclair grabbed a few blades of grass from the pitch before she went back to the locker room. The all time leading international goal scorer, male or female, may have played her final game with the Canadian side. Although when asked what’s next for her, she stopped short of saying she would be riding off into the sunset.
“It’s the end of the World Cup & I’m probably not going to play in another one. I’m leaving the pitch one last time in a World Cup.” Sinclair’s resume is virtually unrivalled in the sport, with 326 caps, 190 international goals, an Olympic gold medal, 2x Olympic bronze medals, and a CONCACAF championship to her name.
While Sinclair’s future has yet to be determined, 35 year old midfielder Sophie Schmidt made it known that this would be her last appearance with the Canadian Women’s National Team.
“This is our [she and Sinclair] last game together, which is crazy to think about… I hope we left the football landscape in Canada better than when we found it.”
For Canada, their World Cup journey is complete. But back home, they’ll continue to advocate for the next generation of soccer players, as the push for a domestic women’s league and increased support from Canada Soccer is far from over.
Photo: Douglas O’Brien. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.