Final game ‘bittersweet’ for Tancredi
Hopefully Melissa Tancredi and Christine Sinclair can take their comedy act on the road.
Tancredi and Sinclair, veterans with the Canadian national women’s soccer side, took questions Thursday at B.C. Place to pump up Saturday’s friendly against Mexico.
The game doubles as a celebration of the program’s back-toback Olympic bronze medals and a sendoff to three retiring players, including Tancredi, 35, who will focus more on her chiropractic practice in Vancouver. Sinclair, 33, has repeatedly said she’s not ready to call it quits and she’ll undoubtedly remain the face of the team. The Burnaby native has a soft-spoken, reserved public persona, but those close to the national team maintain Sinclair has a goofy, fun-loving side.
Tancredi brought a little of that out Thursday.
“Do you remember your first game?” Sinclair quizzed Tancredi.
Tancredi replied: “Yeah, it was in (2004) Olympic qualifying. In Costa Rica. I was thrown into the fire.”
Sinclair was asked if she remembered her debut. Before she could answer, Tancredi chimed in with “1974.”
Laughing ensued — and Tancredi wasn’t done toying with her there.
There’s talk the Vancouver Whitecaps will restart a women’s team and put it in the National Women’s Soccer League. Sinclair was asked about leaving the Portland Thorns NWSL team to play in Vancouver.
Sinclair gave a “no comment, ” but Tancredi wasn’t about to let it go.
“What if I was a silent partner (in the new Whitecaps team)?”
Sinclair replied: “More chiropractic appointments?”
To which Tancredi followed with: “If I’m on staff, she’s in.”
Rhian Wilkinson, 34, and MarieEve Nault, 34, are also retiring af- ter the game. Asked about playing her final game, Tancredi admits, “I don’t know how to feel.”
“There are so many emotions. It’s going to be weird,” she said. “It’s going to be exciting to be back on the field with these girls. I’ll have friends and family there ... it’s going to be bittersweet.”