International friendly takes Sinclair home
Women’s team meets Mexico on Sunday
VANCOUVER — Scoring star Christine Sinclair will make a hometown ,on-field return on Sunday when the Canadian women’s soccer team faces CONCACAF rival Mexico in an international friendly at BC Place.
It’s the first game for the national team in Vancouver since the Olympic qualifying tournament in early 2012.
But while head coach John Herdman hopes Sinclair will “bang in a few goals in her home park,” two former forward line running mates of the native of Burnaby, B.C., both on the comeback trail after extended absences due to injury, will have to wait to make their highly anticipated return to the pitch.
Herdman said Wednesday that both former Vancouver Whitecaps star Kara Lang and Josee Belanger are on the 23-player camp roster, but neither will suit up against the Mexicans.
Lang, who quit competitive soccer three years ago at the age of 24 due to lingering issues as a result of right knee ACL reconstructions in 2006 and 2009, has been working toward a return since March, when she hooked up with athletic therapists who are rebuilding her functional movements from scratch to try to reduce the risk of injury.
While that process is going well, Herdman said the program’s second all-time active scorer behind Sinclair is not yet participating in scrimmages.
“We could put her in, but the big challenge for Kara is she’s been brought back too quickly, too soon in the past, which has led to this consistent breakdown,” Herdman said in a conference call. “We’ve literally rebuilt certain parts of Kara to help her become more efficient as an athlete so she doesn’t keep breaking down with the same issues.”
He said he hopes the Oakville, Ont., native will be in a position to start playing games again in the spring of 2014, but the ultimate goal is to have her in the best shape possible for the 2015 World Cup, which will be played in Canada. And that’s part of the reason why he wants her at least on the sideline at BC Place on Sunday.
“Part of the process is getting her immersed with this team. She’s going to get an experience in BC Place, which will be the stadium that hosts the final of the women’s World Cup.”
Belanger, who like Lang is 27, has missed the past two years because of an ankle injury. Herdman, who calls the Sherbrooke, Que., native “the sort of player this team absolutely needed,” said he essentially hounded her into returning to the program.
Then five minutes into her first training session, after she had beat three players for a goal and caused Herdman to go “wow,” she picked up an injury. Herdman didn’t disclose what it was, but suggested Belanger, too, would need a rebuild as well, though he hoped she could be ready for a game against the U.S. in January.
He said it’s fortunate that the team’s partnership with Fortius Sport and Health in Burnaby, where the national team is centralized, will give her access to some of the best therapists and to state of the art recovery equipment.
The women’s team is coming off a 3-0 win a month ago over South Korea in Edmonton. Sinclair, Brittany Baxter and Adriana Leon scored for Canada, but goalkeeper Erin McLeod had to make a handful of spectacular leaping or diving saves to keep the Koreans off the scoresheet.
Herdman called it an awful outing by his side, noting the squad met just one of six performance criteria. He said Canada will be trying a different playing model against the Mexicans as he continues to tinker with tactics and formations in laying the groundwork for the 2015 World Cup.