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Watching Canada lose sucks. It’s something I’ve gotten used to over the years, but it still hurts every time we are knocked out of a major competition or miss out on qualifying.
Before unpacking what actually happened and what it means it’s important to note that a quarterfinal finish for Canada is adequate. Canada is probably around the eighth best team in the world so a quarterfinal defeat isn’t a disaster. That being said it feels much worse than that.
The reality is Canada will never have a better chance of getting to a World Cup final in the foreseeable future. We were at home, had two games against beatable teams ahead of us in England and Japan plus it was probably our final go with the best player to ever wear a Canada jersey (at least with her as a central figure). So even though on the surface a quarterfinal was “adequate” it’s hard not to see this as a huge opportunity missed.
Does that mean the World Cup was a failure for Canada?
Objectively maybe, but it is impossible for me to be objective. How could I be objective about a team as likeable as this Canadian women’s team? In the five games they’ve played they’ve provided memories that will stick with me forever.
As a Canadian soccer fan it doesn’t get much better than winning your opening game at a World Cup on home soil on a last second goal from your most iconic player in front of over 50,000 people. I mean before Sinclair was on the scene who would have guessed that would be possible?
Being in Montreal for the Canada-Netherlands game was a personal highlight. Belting out the Canadian national anthem at home before a World Cup game was something I never thought I would have the opportunity to do. When Ashley Lawrence – arguably the breakout star of the tournament for Canada – scored just ten minutes later it was pandemonium in the Voyageurs section like I’ve never seen before. Which is unsurprising really, the Voyageurs don’t celebrate World Cup goals very often.
Then of course there was the Switzerland game where Belanger’s incredible story of being coaxed out of retirement and scoring her first goal in five years came to the forefront.
Even the England game, which ultimately ended in heartbreak had its moments. Fifteen minutes in it looked like Canada were doomed to same fate as last year’s Men’s World Cup hosts Brazil, being embarrassed on home soil. The team pulled it together though and probably played their best game of the tournament coming up just short.
But what made this team special wasn’t any of the goals or plays, but the players themselves. In all the games I’ve seen the Canadian women play I’ve never seen them stay for less than half an hour after the match signing autographs and taking selfies with fans, most of them young kids. In Montreal the team stayed for about 45 minutes after the final whistle meeting with fans and each individually coming over to thank the Voyageurs section.
We complain that young players in Canada don’t have any role models to look up to in Canadian soccer. That certainly is not the case anymore. Who needs Messi and when you have Sinclair? My neighbours’ seven-year-old son asked for a red streak in his hair, not to copy the hairstyle of Ronaldo or some other European superstar, but to be like Buchanan.
So was the World Cup a failure for Canada? Maybe, I don’t know. There are surely plenty of think pieces to be written about what needs to change at the grassroots, or what it will take to implement the Long-Term Player Development program, but I’m not the right person to talk about that. I do my best to help out Canadian soccer in any little way I can, but watching and supporting this team seemed so distant from any objective analysis of soccer in this country.
People often fall back onto clichés when talking about women’s sports describing the athletes as “inspiring” or “dedicated”. It’s an insult to the seriousness of the competition to only talk about women’s sports in this detached, “isn’t this so quaint” manner. Some teams at the Women’s World Cup aren’t particularly likeable - one in particular comes to mind, I’m sure you are all smart enough to figure out which one – but Canada wasn’t that team.
This Canadian women’s team is probably the most likeable Canadian national team of either gender I’ve ever followed and that is reason enough to celebrate them and thank them, especially because they are so quick to thank us fans at every opportunity possible.
So when Christine Sinclair tells Canadians that she’s sorry. We as Canadians should buck our polite tendencies and tell her to shut up, because frankly she has nothing to be sorry for.
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