Canada’s national women’s soccer team captain Christine Sinclair, back left, laughs during training with Janine Beckie, back right, and Ashley Lawrence, right, in Vancouver, on Dec. 4.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Christine Sinclair’s teammates oohed and aahed as they took the field Sunday for an afternoon practice at B.C. Place. Several members of the national women’s team snapped shots of the giant scoreboard, which had a new look: “Christine Sinclair Place,” it now read. “Sincy Place,” they immediately rechristened it. “Thanks for having us, Sinc,” one said good-humoredly.
The only player who seemed unmoved was the Burnaby, B.C., native who’d just had one of Canada’s largest stadiums temporarily named for her. Ms. Sinclair, 40, put her head down and jogged onto the pitch, her brown ponytail bobbing behind her, her piercing blue eyes fixed on the turf. There was still work to do, after all.
Even when Canada’s steely-eyed captain screams in victory after a huge goal, her wide, balletic arms outstretched, her face never seems to relax, her eyes never stop burning, her jaw stays clenched. And even now, on the eve of her final game for Canada, Ms. Sinclair was keeping a normal routine, she said, treating the national camp and two-game exhibition series against Australia like any other.
Clearly, Ms. Sinclair’s burning competitive streak and intensity – the very qualities that had made her such a good leader – don’t mesh with hubbub and celebration. Ms. Sinclair had long been planning to pull a Ted Williams and quietly exit the game without fanfare, as the baseball star had, but her family and friends were having none of it. She grudgingly consented to this hero’s send-off, which will soon reach its wrenching coda.
The operatic outpouring began amid a downpour on Friday in suburban Victoria, where a soggy Ms. Sinclair entered a sold-out Starlight Stadium to a thunderous ovation. More than 41,000 are planning to attend Tuesday’s friendly match against the Matildas in Vancouver, just to see Ms. Sinclair dance down the pitch one last time for Canada.
The merciless, creative forward is considered by many to be the greatest of all time. She’s played on the national team 23 years, has 190 goals – the most goals in international soccer history, male or female – and Tuesday’s game will be her 331st appearance for Canada. She has also won an Olympic gold medal and two championships with the National Women’s Soccer League’s Portland Thorns.
She did all this without having superstars backing her on the national team, the way Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach did – the two U.S. players whose scoring records she smashed.
At home, she exposed the limits and possibilities of the women’s game, leaving it forever changed.
Heights that seemed unimaginable for a little kid from Burnaby, Ms. Sinclair said Sunday, in her final media conference for the national squad. Asked to speak to the girls hoping to follow her, she said: “Just dream. It’s a lot of work, but man, it’s the best job in the world. Just dream – and go for it.”
Sinclair, left, and Sophie Schmidt, right, are both scheduled to play their final international match on Dec. 5.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
As bombastic and dynamic and fierce as Ms. Sinclair is on the field, she is the antithesis of all that off it. There’s so much heat inside her, people sometimes come away thinking that she is cold. She’s just not built for celebrity. She doesn’t play any game lightly – not small talk with strangers, not four-on-fours at practice, and certainly not friendlies against Australia.
“It’s not that I want to be standoffish, but I know I can seem that way,” Ms. Sinclair wrote in her memoir, Playing the Long Game. “Outside of sports, I was a shy kid. Super shy. Awkwardly shy.”
She added, “It’s a work in progress for me to step out of my comfort zone. And even in my comfort zone, I’m usually a quiet person.”
Similar to Canadian hockey stars Sidney Crosby or Hayley Wickenheiser, Ms. Sinclair started out playing against kids much older and bigger than her. At four, she joined the under-seven team with the local club in Burnaby. She was 11 when she first made B.C.’s under-14 provincial team.
She was 15 when Canada’s newly installed senior women’s soccer coach, Even Pellerud, discovered her. The Norwegian-born coach had essentially been handed a blank slate; there was no real national program for him to build on. “I want her,” Mr. Pellerud said after watching Ms. Sinclair play, clocking her speed, smarts, and skills, she recalls in her memoir. Told Ms. Sinclair was too young, Mr. Pellerud said, “I still want her.”
A few months later Mr. Pellerud gave a 16-year-old Ms. Sinclair her national debut at the 2000 Algarve Cup, where Ms. Sinclair – the squad’s youngest player, by far – lodged three goals in four games.
She secured a spot herself in the history books after scoring her 185th goal in January, 2020, surpassing the retired Ms. Wambach. But she had captured the hearts and imagination of Canadians a decade earlier, after the team led the United States 3-2 late in the Olympic semi-final at the London Games. All three goals were Ms. Sinclair’s. Then the ref called a controversial foul, which ultimately led to the United States tying the game and American Alex Morgan heading in the 4-3 winner in extra time.
Yet what her teammates remember most is what Ms. Sinclair did next. She told her teammates, many of whom were still sobbing on the bench, that she had never been prouder of them. But the tournament wasn’t over yet: “We have a [expletive] bronze medal to win.” And win they did.
Sinclair, centre left, and Schmidt, centre right, pose with jerseys they were presented by the Vancouver Whitecaps before training, in Vancouver, on Dec. 4.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
“Great athletes make everyone around them better,” said Ms. Wickenheiser, the retired Canadian hockey great. Ms. Sinclair, she said, not only delivered in the most tense and revealing moments, but she did it both on and off the pitch: “She elevated Canadian women’s soccer and along the way demanded better treatment and accountability for the women’s game in Canada.”
Indeed, Ms. Sinclair, who has a maple leaf tattooed on her back, has never failed to call out the national soccer federation for unequal treatment, comments that may ultimately cost her the opportunity to coach for Les Rouges. She used her final media conference to call out the lack of support for youth and national teams and the lack of a professional league for women.
“For a long time in Canada, players have reached the national team by chance instead of design,” said Ms. Sinclair, noting that at the last women’s World Cup, Canada and Haiti were the only countries without a professional development league. “Being compared to Haiti is scary.” She added: If things don’t change, teams will continue to catch and surpass Canada.
For Ms. Sinclair, there is still more soccer to play. She is planning to lace up for one more season in Portland with the Thorns. And her future after that will be in soccer, she says, likely in a coaching role. “This game’s been my life since I was four,” she said Sunday. “I’m not just quitting cold turkey.”
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
