Friday December 1, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated December 2, 2023]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
At tonight’s Canada-Australia match at Starlight Stadium in Langford, December 12 was declared Christine Sinclair Day in BC, to recognize her extraordinary career and outstanding achievements in sport.
The sold-out stadium crowd endured some heavy steady rain and cold 7°C weather.
Canadian Women’s National Soccer team played Australia tonight in a high-profile match marking wrap-up of Christine Sinclair’s 24-year legendary career with the Canadian women’s national team. The game was streamed on One Soccer. French translation was provided by OneSoccer. Fox Sports News is carrying the game live in the USA.
The final game for Sinclair comes up December 5 in Vancouver (that will be aired on TSN as well as streamed on One Soccer).
Sinclair announced in October that she’d be retiring from the CanWNT by the end of the calendar year. She is the all-time leading international goalscorer in Canadian soccer (women and men).
The major sponsor of the match tonight in Langford was CIBC, to help with the cost of livestreaming on OneSoccer.
The number 12:
The date of Christine Sinclair Day on December 12 is to represent Sinclair’s number 12 jersey and her birth date which is on June 12 (in 1983 — she’s now 40 years old).
Sinclair was born in Burnaby and started playing soccer at age 4. She has said in TV interviews that her parents sacrificed a great deal so that she and her brother could excel in sports.
Earlier today Lana Popham, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, was quoted as saying that Sinclair is “a Canadian soccer icon” and says “her legacy will inspire young athletes, especially young girls and women, for decades to come”.
Ahead of tonight’s game, the proclamation was awarded to Sinclair on-field by local MLA Ravi Parmar (Langford-Juan de Fuca) along with Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Rob Fleming.
Sinclair has been named Canadian female soccer player of the year 14 times, nominated seven times for FIFA women’s world player of the year, and awarded FIFA’s 2022 best award alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, for her contribution to soccer.
Tonight’s game:
The score was 1:0 for Canada early in the match at 10 minutes. Just before half-time the score was in Canada’s favour at 2:0. A third goal came for Canada around 48 minutes, a fourth goal around 54 minutes, and a fifth goal at about 60 minutes! Swift success! Final score 5:0 for Canada’s win.
“Control the match and see it through — that’s part of success,” said one the OneSoccer game coverage announcers.
Australia’s performance tonight might have been a strategy to hold back their energy for the final game on December 5 in Vancouver. But having a 5:0 win for Canada looks good on the Langford field.
2024 Olympics coming up in Paris:
It will take 13 games in 2024 to get to the roster for the Olympics in Paris. Some of tonight’s action — without Sinclair on the field for most of the game (coming on field around 63 minutes) — was to get Canada’s team players more experience at the international level.
RELATED:
Christine Sinclair’s final CanWNT match to air on TSN & OneSoccer (December 1, 2023)
Goldstream Food Bank to benefit from Starlight Stadium city-suite auction (November 28, 2023)
CanWNT names squad for Christine Sinclair’s final two matches, against Australia in December (November 23, 2023)
Soccer business: CPL Commissioner & CSB CEO rolled into one (February 9, 2022)
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We cover news that matters. Since 2008 on south Vancouver Island (series: MapleLine Magazine, Sooke Voice News, West Shore Voice News, and now Island Social Trends). Founder and editor Mary P Brooke.
