CANADA’S SOCCER WIN
Women beat Haiti 6- 0 in first round of Olympic qualifier.
It was the Christine Sinclair show all the way. The Canadian captain scored four goals and set up another Thursday to lead Canada to a 6- 0 win over an overmatched Haiti squad on Day 1 of the CONCACAF Olympic women’s soccer qualifying tournament at BC Place.
Sinclair played the full 90 minutes, despite Canada having the game well in hand after the first half.
The 28- year- old Burnaby native was happy to stay on and feed off the energy of 7,627 hometown fans.
“Tonight was something a little special,” she said. “Playing in front of friends and family. It has been a while.”
Haiti tried to play with Canada early – rather than defend at all costs – but the Canadians’ superior game quickly took over.
Christina Julien opened the scoring for Canada in the eighth minute after Sinclair took a Kelly Parker pass and broke into the Haiti box, sliding the ball across to give Julien an open net from close range.
Sinclair gave Canada a twogoal lead in the 25th minute when defender Rhian Wilkinson sent her in with a pass from the right flank and her 14- yard strike deflected off Haitian goalkeeper Ednie Limage and into the net.
The Sinclair clinic continued late in the first half when she calmly struck a left- footed shot home from close range after passes from Parker and Julien.
But it was her hat- trick goal that showed why U. S. star Abby Wambach this week called her the best all- around player in the world.
After Melissa Tancredi flicked a high overhead pass into the Haitian box, Sinclair clinically controlled the ball with her left thigh and scored with her left foot. World class.
“That’s the one that sticks out,” Sinclair said of her fourgoal performance. “It was a very unique goal.”
The onslaught ended late in the game when Sinclair scored on a penalty kick awarded after Parker was brought down in the Haitian box and then Parker scored in added time when she converted her own rebound.
Sinclair’s four goals gives her 125 for Canada in 169 international appearances. Limage was outstanding in goal for Haiti despite the one- sided score line, making two exceptional first- half saves on shots from Tancredi to keep her team close.
But she was forced to leave the game midway through the second half after a collision with teammate Samantha Brand. Sinclair played as a withdrawn striker, dominating the Canadian attack with great service to Julien and Tancredi and Canadian head coach John Herdman said the strategy allowed Sinclair to push forward from an untracked position.
“We can rotate her role through the tournament so she goes up front sometimes and we just keep teams guessing,” he said.
Herdman was clearly thrilled with his squad’s start to the CONCACAF tournament.
“It was a performance that could have gone one of two ways — a really frustrating performance where you scrape a couple of goals or you go out and really take it to the opposition,” he said. “The girls just got into a flow after the first five minutes.”
He expects to field a much different lineup Saturday against Cuba to ensure his players are all prepared for a peak performance in the semifinals next week.