After leading Canada to gold at the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021, captain Christine Sinclair came to a realization.
“After Tokyo, deep down inside, I knew I didn’t want to play in Paris,” she said, referencing the 2024 Olympics. “The way the Tokyo Olympics ended, you can’t beat it.
“I wanted to give it one more shot for the World Cup, just because I really thought we could be successful there and we hadn’t been successful in a long time at World Cups.”
It wasn’t to be. Canada came home early from Australia this summer, failing to make the knockout round in Sinclair’s sixth trip to the soccer showcase.
It was not the ending she wanted.
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So Sinclair kept going, helping Canada qualify for the Paris Olympics last month in a 35-minute cameo off the bench in the second leg of the 4-1 aggregate win over Jamaica. But the 40-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., is now calling time on her Canada career, saying she will retire from international football at the end of the year.
“I can sit here and know that I’ve literally done everything I can and given all of me to this national team since I was 16 years old,” she told The Canadian Press. “In terms of what I’ve done and knowing the work I’ve put into it, I have zero regrets. I know I’ve done everything I can for as long as I can. And the team’s in good hands moving forward.”
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While calling an end to her Canada career, Sinclair plans to play one more season for the NWSL Portland Thorns next year.
Sinclair, the world’s all-time leading scorer with 190 goals from 327 senior appearances, is expected to play four more games for 10th-ranked Canada, starting with two friendlies later this month against No. 9 Brazil — in Montreal on Oct. 28 and Halifax on Oct. 31.
Canada Soccer is expected to announce two home more games for the last FIFA international window of the year, which runs Nov. 27 to Dec. 6. A source said one of the games will be in Vancouver against 11th-ranked Australia. The other game is expected to be in the same region against the same opponent.
Four home games will allow Sinclair to say goodbye on home soil.
“That just made my decision very easy,.” she said. “Playing for the national team as long as I have, we have not been able to play at home a lot. It will be special for me.”
Sinclair celebrates after a goal in 2003. (Associated Press)
‘It’s just time’
Sinclair is clearly at peace with the decision.
“For me it’s just time,” she said. “I’ve started to catch myself thinking about going on vacation, spending time with my family, going to my cabin — that five years ago would never have crossed my mind. But at the same time, it excites me to play professionally [for Portland] but where you have one thing to focus on. It just seemed like time.”
Sinclair has been the face of Canadian soccer for a long time, a world-class talent with down-home values. Not one to seek the spotlight, she did most of her talking on the pitch.
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She made scoring goals look easy, by simply putting the ball where the goalkeeper isn’t.
“She doesn’t do anything outrageous,” Canadian forward Janine Beckie said in 2020. “Like she’s not the kind of player that flicks the ball over her head, juggles it five times and hits it upper 90 [top left or right of the goal]. There are those kind of players but they are up-and-down players.
American Brandi Chastain, left, battles for the ball with Sinclair in a 2000 exhibition match. (AFP via Getty Images)
“She’s the most consistent strikers I’ve ever played with because she’s one of the most simple that I’ve ever seen. She does all the fundamental things to the best of her ability.
“You don’t really notice her too much until she puts it in the back of the net,” added then-Canada coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller. “But if you go to some of our sessions, you can see how hard she is working to be that unnoticeable player that puts a shift in, then all of a sudden turns up in the penalty area.”
Sinclair also helped the Canadian team craft an environment that welcomes young and old — and everything and everyone in-between.
Sinclair says she would like to get into coaching after she retires for good, although not as a head coach.
“That’s seem awful and stressful and something that doesn’t interest me at this point,” Sinclair said with a laugh. “But the thought of being a unit-specific coach, like for the strikers for instance, is something that excites me.
“But then at the same time when I do stop playing for good, I know I’m going to have a lot of opportunities and options.”
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Difficult lead-up to World Cup
Sinclair endured a difficult lead-up to the World Cup, as captain of a team battling its governing body in a lengthy labour dispute that has yet to be resolved.
“Obviously there’s still a lot of work to be done, in terms of the pipeline for youth players and youth national teams and a professional league,” she said. “I still have that fear that if we don’t change some things, we’ll get left behind as a program. But in terms of the players that are there, they’re fine. They’re going to be great,”
Having said that, Sinclair says the competition is getting tougher. The recent World Cup showed that are more top contenders than ever before.
It has been a long haul in Canadian colours.
Sinclair made her senior debut at 16 — then Canada’s youngest-ever player — in March 2000 in a 4-0 loss to China at the Algarve Cup. She scored her first goal two days in her second senior outing, beating star goalkeeper Bente Nordby in a 2-1 loss to Norway.
Sinclair had already impressed at youth level, scoring 27 goals in 19 international matches. Ten of those goals came during Canada’s run to the final of the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship in Edmonton in 2002.
Sinclair broke Abby Wambach’s world-record total of 184 goals on Jan. 29, 2020, with her second goal in a 12-0 romp over St. Kitts and Nevis at the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship at H-E-B Park in Edinburg, Tex.
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The record-tying goal came on a penalty kick in the seventh minute. The milestone 185th goal came in the 23rd minute as Sinclair, left alone, converted an Adriana Leon feed.
Never one to blow her own horn, Sinclair had been more worried that her record chase would serve as a distraction to the team.
Sinclair was playing in her 290th career game for Canada. Wambach, who retired in 2015, compiled her total in 255 games.
St. Kitts, then ranked No. 127 in the world, became the 41st country Sinclair had scored on.
Olympic legacy
Sinclair played in four Olympics, also leading the team to bronze in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Her hat trick in a 4-3 loss after extra time in the U.S. in the 2012 London semifinal remains an indelible memory for many. And after the loss, she rallied her downcast teammates in the locker-room.
It was a rare speech from the skipper.
“I think often the best leaders, they don’t say much but when they speak, people listen. Because they don’t say much,” said John Herdman, then coach of the women’s team.
“I get emotional every time I think about the speech,” said goalkeeper Erin McLeod.
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The Canadian women defeated France 1-0 in the bronze-medal game thanks to a Diana Matheson goal in stoppage time. The medal came 13 months after Canada finished dead last at the 2011 World Cup.
Sinclair’s role has changed in recent times.
She started games against Nigeria and Australia at the World Cup and came off the bench to start the second half against Ireland, helping turn the tide with fellow veteran Sophie Schmidt in a 2-1 comeback win.
Canada coach Bev Priestman praised her captain for her attitude and work ethic ahead of the World Cup, saying she did “brilliantly” in pre-tournament fitness testing.
Sinclair’s greatness was portended early in her career as she was awarded the Golden Boot for top scorer at the FIFA U19 Women’s World Cup in 2002. (Canadian Press)
She also credited Sinclair for continuing to evolve.
“She makes critical passes, is critical to this team,” Priestman said in July. “But what I do know is this team is no longer just about Christine Sinclair. I think we’ve got the depth across the forward line, the midfield line, to not rely on anyone for every single minute across the tournament and I think that’s what you’ll see [at the tournament].
“But I think she’s critical to this team’s success.”
Goal No. 190 came July 5, 2022, in a 6-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago at the CONCACAF W Championship in Guadalupe, Mexico.
Sinclair has been held off the scoresheet in the 16 games since, some of which saw her play in a more withdrawn midfield role. Of her 327 appearances for Canada, 312 were starts.
At 40 years, 38 days at the start of this summer’s World Cup, Sinclair was the second-oldest player at the tournament (behind Nigeria’s Onome Ebi’s 40 years, 73 days).
Sinclair had a penalty kick saved in the Nigeria game, which prevented her from becoming the first player — male or female — to score in six World Cups.
VANCOUVER – As the Major League Soccer season ticks down, Vanni Sartini wants his Vancouver Whitecaps to make a declaration — the team is ready to compete.
“The time of hiding ourselves, I think it’s over,” the coach said after the ‘Caps earned a 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.
“We need to really say that we are here to try to be at the ball until the end and trying to shoot for the highest position. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make it, but we have the quality to do it.”
With seven games left on their regular-season schedule, the ‘Caps (13-8-6) sit in fifth spot in the congested Western Conference, just two points out of fourth.
Saturday’s loss officially eliminated the last-place Earthquakes (5-21-2) from post-season action.
Vancouver has been on a hot streak since returning from the Leagues Cup break and is unbeaten (3-0-1) in its last four outings across all competitions. The team has not allowed a goal in those matches.
“It’s the fact that we play really well,” Sartini said of the clean sheets. “We have the ball a lot, we finish our attack most of the time in their box. So it’s really hard for the other team to attack us. And then when they attack us, in the rare times that they arrive in the final third, we’re very solid.”
Recent additions have bolstered the team’s ranks, including the club’s newest designated player, Stuart Armstrong. The 32-year-old Scottish midfielder scored his first MLS goal Saturday.
Three minutes after coming on as a substitute for Alessandro Schopf, Armstrong gave Vancouver a two-goal cushion in the 87th minute.
Midfielder Pedro Vite dished a short pass to ‘Caps captain Ryan Gauld, who tapped it toward Armstrong. The former Southampton FC player then blasted a shot into the top of the net for his first strike in a Whitecaps’ jersey.
He was mobbed by teammates in the corner of the field.
“I think everyone was happy. Also for the first goal, but also that it was an important three points,” said Armstrong, who signed with the ‘Caps on Sept. 3.
“It kind of felt a little bit like last week, when we had a lot of chances and we didn’t get the three points. So today, I think everyone was just relieved to have that two-goal cushion.”
Vancouver was the dominant team from the outset Saturday and did not relent, outshooting the visitors 19-5 and controlling 54.1 per cent of possession.
Fafa Picault also found the back of the net for Vancouver, while Gauld contributed a pair of assists.
Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka stopped both shots he faced to collect his seventh clean sheet of the year, while Daniel made nine saves for the Quakes.
Gauld and Picault teamed up in the 22nd minute when Gauld curled a cross in and the Haitian striker headed it down toward the net, only to see Daniel catch a piece of the shot with his forearm and redirect it out of harm’s way.
The duo connected again in the 35th minute on a Vancouver corner. Gauld swung a ball in and Picault jumped up from the pack to send a glancing header in past Daniel for his ninth MLS goal of the season.
San Jose briefly appeared to level the score in the 68th minute when an unmarked Ousseni Bouda collected the ball, froze Takaoka and tapped a shot into the Vancouver net. An official quickly raised the offside flag and waved off the tally.
Daniel kept San Jose’s deficit to a single goal with a pair of solid stops in the 82nd minute.
First, the Brazilian ‘keeper dove sideways on his line to tip away a bomb from Alessandro Schopf. He was tested again on the ensuing corner and jumped up to send a header from Picault over the crossbar.
“I think we created a lot of chances again,” Gauld said.
“We probably should have put the game out of their reach sooner. But we’d be more worried if we weren’t creating the chances. Three clean sheets in a row in the league, I think it’s a big thing for us. And it gives us a good platform to go forward.”
NOTES
Vancouver played without leading scorer Brian White for a third consecutive game as the American striker works his way back from a concussion. … Gauld’s second assist marked his 15th goal contribution (six goals, nine assists) in his last 15 Whitecaps games across all competitions. … An announced crowd of 21,309 took in the game at B.C. Place.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps kick off a two-game road swing Wednesday against the Houston Dynamo. The Earthquakes host the Seattle Sounders the same night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Not good enough. That was Arne Slot’s verdict after his first defeat as Liverpool manager on Saturday.
A shock 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League ended Slot’s perfect record since succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Anfield at the end of last season.
“We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three (or) four quite good chances, so that is by far not enough if you have so much ball possession,” said the Dutchman, who suggested his team should not be losing to the likes of Forest.
“If you lose a home game it’s always a setback, especially if you face a team … we never know, maybe they will go all the way to fight for Champions League tickets, but normally this team is not ending up in the top 10, so if you lose a game against them that’s a big disappointment.”
Slot won his first three games in charge, including a memorable 3-0 victory against Manchester United before the international break.
But that run came to an end after Callum Hudson-Odoi struck in the 72nd with a curling effort from the edge of the box and beyond goalkeeper Alisson.
Liverpool’s defeat leaves Manchester City as the only team with a 100% record in the league after a 2-1 win against Brentford kept the defending champion at the top of the table.
United won at Southampton 3-0 to end its two-game losing streak.
Unstoppable Haaland
Erling Haaland moved to 99 goals for City after scoring twice against Brentford.
The Norwegian’s double came after Yoane Wissa fired Brentford ahead with just 22 seconds on the clock.
Haaland scored his 98th and 99th goals in his 103rd City appearance in all competitions. And he was the width of the post away from his third consecutive hat trick after trebles against Ipswich and West Ham.
“He’s been really, really good. Yeah, I would say he’s the best (he’s been), but it’s only four fixtures (this season),” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
Haaland, who has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, has nine goals in four league games. He has topped the league scoring charts in each of his two seasons at City since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 for $63 million.
Haaland’s first goal after 19 minutes evened the game following Wissa’s opener, which stunned the Etihad Stadium crowd. Haaland turned and swept a shot past goalkeeper Mark Flekken after a slight deflection off Ethan Pinnock.
He was then too strong for Pinnock when shaking off the defender and running through for his second in the 32nd.
He was inches away in the 81st; the shot came back off the post after beating the keeper.
Rashford snaps run
Marcus Rashford snapped a 12-game barren run in front of goal as United beat Southampton.
Rashford doubled United’s lead at Saint Mary’s after Matthijs de Ligt’s scored his first for the club. Substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored a third in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
The win came after back-to-back defeats for United.
Rashford hadn’t scored since March in United’s win over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarterfinals. He curled in a shot from the edge of the area to put Erik ten Hag’s team 2-0 up at Southampton in the 41st minute.
Ten Hag said it could be a turning point for the forward.
“For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list. Once the first is in, more is coming. Like a ketchup bottle, once it’s going, it’s coming more,” he said.
De Ligt, who joined United from Bayern Munich in the offseason, headed in from Bruno Fernandes’ cross in the 35th.
It could have been a different story if Cameron Archer converted a penalty for Southampton in the 33rd. Instead, his effort was saved by goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Newly promoted Southampton was reduced to 10 men when Jack Stephens was sent off in the 79th for a high challenge on Garnacho.
Villa comeback
After three straight defeats to start the league, Everton looked set for its first win when leading Aston Villa 2-0.
Goals from Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Sean Dyche’s team in control until Ollie Watkins struck twice to even the game.
Jhon Duran completed Villa’s comeback and sealed a 3-2 win in the 76th to leave Everton rooted to the bottom of the table and the only top flight team without a point.
Late drama
Jean-Philippe Mateta converted a stoppage time penalty to salvage a 2-2 draw for Crystal Palace against Leicester.
Leicester led 2-0 at Selhurst Park after goals from Jamie Vardy and Stephy Mavididi.
But Mateta sparked Palace’s response with a goal in the 47th, a minute after Mavididi doubled Leicester’s advantage.
Conor Coady fouled Ismaili Sarr in the box right near fulltime and Mateta was cool enough to convert.
West Ham left it even later to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw at Fulham.
Danny Ings struck in the fifth minute of added time after Raul Jimenez’s goal looked like earning Fulham the win.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, the manager of the month for August, was frustrated as his team was held to 0-0 at home by Ipswich.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
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