Approximately 35 years after she first played on the field at BC Place in Vancouver as a child, Canadian goalscorer Christine Sinclair returned to finish her international career in a stadium that had been renamed in her honor for the day.
“Some of my earliest memories of playing soccer in youth was actually here,” Sinclair said before her last game. “We were like five or six. It’s really crazy. We thought we had made it, you know?”
Before the final game against Australia on Tuesday, teammates past and present honored Sinclair, a gaggle of familial No. 12 jerseys applauding her from the sideline. She turned to watch a thank you video on the big screen overhead and afterward dashed a few tears away with the palm of her hand. Next to her, one of her nieces cried openly. Down in the west end, supporters rolled out a tifo: a picture of a triumphant Sinclair bracketed by her numbers, with “greatest of all time” displayed underneath. The 1 and the 2 were passed around the lower bowl of the stadium almost like a ritual, everyone touching the cloth together in remembrance.
That child who once played on a local youth team called the Burna Bees couldn’t have known that, three decades later, she would become a talisman for other children who came after her.
Dear Christine: A Letter from Canada 🇨🇦✉️#ThankYouSinc 🐐
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) December 5, 2023
Canadian forward Jordyn Huitema was not born yet when Sinclair received her first minutes with the team in 2000. So it was understandable to hear restrained emotion in her voice when she talked about her captain; Huitema, like so many young players now, has never existed in a world without Christine Sinclair.
“My whole journey with the national team has involved her. And I don’t know what it’s gonna look like without her,” Huitema said. “She’s been one of the main players I’ve been analyzing for as long as I can remember. I look up to her a lot on field. Off-field, I think she’s a great human. And for me, that’s huge. So I’ve learned a lot from her just in life. And she’s a person that I’ve always come to at hard points in my career, in life. I always reach out and she’s always there.”
GO DEEPER
Christine Sinclair's impact outside of scoring goals: 'She's that first line of defense'
On Tuesday night, Sinclair started more in her role of years past, lingering off the shoulder of the center backs and looking for the ball in behind. However, she also drifted deeper at times when Canada tried to build through the middle. But Sinclair pushed higher than usual in a front two with Nichelle Prince to start the match; she was sometimes the highest player on the pitch as Prince dropped underneath her.
Though Sinclair was a target for her teammates, her availability for the ball didn’t take precedence over other good goalscoring opportunities. There was a hopeful ball over the top for Sinclair in the 20th minute that had her chasing down Australian defender Alanna Kennedy, but otherwise, Canada looked fairly equal across multiple scoring options including Prince and Cloé Lacasse. In fact, Sinclair provided one of the better looks on goal with a nice cross in the 42nd minute that caused a scramble in the goal mouth. She also popped up on Canada’s score in the 40th minute when Jessie Fleming served in a corner kick, but the ball was better for Kadeisha Buchanan on the back post. Buchanan’s shot went off the woodwork and bounced fortuitously to Quinn, who headed home the lone goal on the night in Canada’s 1-0 victory over Australia.
“Sinc’s a great player off the front and I think it was so helpful for us to live into those pockets,” Quinn said. “And Nichelle’s a great 9 that can work the line, she can pull back the line and threaten that. And so I think they had a really great partnership tonight of showing off the front and being able to give that threat in behind as well.”
Sinclair substituted off as planned in the 59th minute to thunderous applause from the more than 48,000 fans in attendance, but otherwise little fanfare. She hugged her teammates as she left the field, then popped the captain’s armband onto her replacement, Sophie Schmidt, who also retired after the game. Sinclair hugged the staff and bench players as well, then went and sat down with a towel around her neck, ready to cheer for her teammates.
331 caps, 313 starts, 190 goals, 54 assists, 28,200 minutes played 🐐📖
For the final time, Christine Sinclair steps off the pitch for Canada 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/wDxORiZKi0
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) December 6, 2023
After the game, head coach Bev Priestman said that the team designed a set play to try to add to Sinclair’s already record-holding 190 goals, but ultimately, she and Sinclair and Schmidt were all clear that this was just as much about the team getting good Olympic preparation as it was about honoring its retiring players.
“It was balancing the future, but ultimately also giving an unbelievable send-off,” said Priestman. “These windows have been about building. I feel like we’re building and I’ve got to see faces this window. Young players have come in and done very well.”
All of the players who came through the mixed zone to talk to reporters said that it hadn’t sunk in yet that they’d look up at the next camp and not see Sinclair. There was a definite sense that it would take a while to process this ending.
“Sinc is one of the best captains I’ve ever had the chance of playing with,” 20-year-old defender Jade Rose said after the game. “She’s always taught us that everyone is a leader in their own way. And that this team’s not made up of just one captain and one leader, but everyone has a role to lead on this team.”
As for Sinclair, she didn’t do a press conference after the game, making good on her promise two days before that reporters would never hear from her again. She slipped away with her family and friends into the damp Vancouver night, already a myth echoing around the stadium bearing her name.
(Photo: Craig Mitchelldyer, Getty Images)
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2023-12-06 12:01:27Z
CBMiU2h0dHBzOi8vdGhlYXRobGV0aWMuY29tLzUxMTYxMDAvMjAyMy8xMi8wNi9jYW5hZGEtYmlkcy1mYXJld2VsbC1jaHJpc3RpbmUtc2luY2xhaXIv0gFZaHR0cHM6Ly90aGVhdGhsZXRpYy5jb20vNTExNjEwMC8yMDIzLzEyLzA2L2NhbmFkYS1iaWRzLWZhcmV3ZWxsLWNocmlzdGluZS1zaW5jbGFpci8_YW1wPTE
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