Rule Britannia! Tears flow as Canada falls
VANCOUVER — The World Cup is over for many Canadians. Sure, there are four matches left and a trophy to be awarded at next Sunday’s final at BC Place, but Canada is out.
There were tears on the field and it took nearly two hours for the Canadian players to compose themselves enough to speak to reporters.
Poor Kadeisha Buchanan. The rookie, who had played so hard, collapsed in tears. She was consoled by retiring goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc, who was also in tears, her dream of a World Cup win forever ended.
And after the 2-1 loss to England Saturday, even team captain Christine Sinclair wasn’t sure she’d watch the remaining games.
So many expectations had been heaped on the backs of these young women.
They were to be role models, encouraging little girls (and boys) to get involved in sports.
Even though they’re largely under-paid and can still only get the coaching and competition they need in the United States and Europe, they were expected to rise above all that and somehow, miraculously, play in the final at home before family and friends.
Even though they were playing on artificial turf that no professional men’s team would bear to do, these women were supposed to speed the march to Canada becoming a soccer nation and even a country that turns its back on its beloved hockey.
They were to change everything without all of the support of a program like Own the Podium that ensured Canada won more gold medals than any other nation in the 2010 Olympics.
The decision to host the World Cup wasn’t part of the team’s 10-year rebuilding plan as coach John Herdman pointed out Saturday night. It kind of just happened.
Still, with tears in his eyes, Herdman said, “I’m so proud of my girls. They gave you everything and now the dream is over.”
Sinclair apologized to Herdman at the end of the game. There was no need, he said, “She was a legend, again.”
But Sinclair said she felt she had to because Herdman has given her so much.
That’s what kind of a team this was. So Canadian.
Canadian support was hockey-sized before the game began with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov.Gen. David Johnston among those tweeting the game.
The stands were awash in red and among those with tears in their eyes at the end were fans in repurposed hockey jerseys.
Never before had so many watched a women’s soccer match, 54,027. And England’s coach Mark Sampson said never before had he been in a stadium as loud.
But Sampson’s “Lionesses” won and Canada has no iconic moment to secure soccer and the women’s game in Canadian minds and hearts.
Had they won, 32-year-old Sinclair’s goal with Canada down 2-0 might have been one among several in a gritty march to the final.
But in the loss, it added a question mark: Was the Olympic bronze medal and now the quarter-final loss the end of an era or the beginning?
Canada invested $90 million in the World Cup.
But now what? Back to hockey where even deadly dull moments of the NHL draft are reported with breathless enthusiasm?
Back to women’s sports being filler when there’s a second or centimetre of media space that can’t filled with what the men are doing?
Maybe. But, not if you believe in polls.
A third of the 1,511 Canadians surveyed were following the women’s World Cup. One in 10 said they were watching it “very closely” and most of those were men, according to the Angus Reid Institute. Nearly three-quarters said women’s sports deserve more media attention.
Soccer was the sport of choice for children to play, while hockey was among the three sports that respondents said they’d discourage children from playing.
So, there’s fertile ground for change.
Canada dug deep. It inspired. But what remains to be seen is whether Canada’s soccer story ends there.