Sinclair paces Canada at Algarve Cup

ALGARVE, Portugal — Christine Sinclair scored her 167th international goal as Canada remained undefeated at the Algarve Cup women’s soccer tournament with a 2-1 win over Russia on Friday.

Sinclair, who also scored in Canada’s opening win over Denmark, is now 17 goals away from the record for goals in an international career owned by American Abby Wambach.

Sophie Schmidt also scored for Canada, which improved to 2-0 at the tournament.

Canadian head coach John Herdman called it a “good, solid performance.

“They had a really dominant first half, but the challenge is to put those teams away in the first half, when you have that sort of possession and that sort of dominance,” he said.

Canada spent much of the match controlling the ball, working it around the back line and midfield, looking for opportunities to strike through Russia’s solid defence.

Russia scored on a free kick in the 58th minute.

“We just need to work on that killer instinct,” said Herdman. “If you are up at half by three [goals] the game is over, but if you leave it at two-nil it’s always a bit of a shaky one, as we saw today when Russia pulled one back. We knew they were dangerous on set pieces and that was what hurt us today, and they caused us a few little problems in transition, but nothing to worry about for Canada. I think it was a solid performance.”

Canada, the defending tournament champion, took first place in Group A with six points. Russia is next with three.

Canada finishes the roundrobin stage Monday against host Portugal.