Aiming for something great here
Sinclair, Team Canada feeding off energy generated on home turf
For Christine Sinclair, coming home to B.C. to play a World Cup game is a “once-in-a-lifetime chance.”
“It’s great to be home,” she said Tuesday after the Canadian women’s national team landed at Vancouver International Airport’s south terminal.
The team was fresh off Monday’s 1-1 draw against the Netherlands, earning them top spot in Group A and awaiting their knockout Round of 16 tournament game on Sunday at BC Place Stadium.
“The chance to play a World Cup game at home is pretty special,” said Sinclair.
The 32-year-old Sinclair, who was born in Burnaby and grew up through the Burnaby Girls Soccer Club, said Tuesday’s homecoming was a possibility the team had entertained and hoped for since finding out Vancouver would host the FIFA Women’s World Cup competition.
“I just think we’re comfortable here. Obviously, a lot of us are from here and have spent many, many months here training,” said the team captain. “It’s a second home for all the players that aren’t from here and it’s just a comfortable place to play and a place that everyone looks forward to coming back to.”
Other than her immediate family, Sinclair said she wasn’t sure who would be in the stands on Sunday but joked: “I hope they’re not asking me for tickets.”
“There’s something about knowing that your friends and family are in the stands. My parents are going to be in the stands, my brother, my niece — it’s pretty special. Not many people get that chance. You know, they give you that extra special bit of energy at the end of the game that you need.”
Goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc echoed Sinclair’s sentiments, calling the opportunity to play on home turf “a blast.”
“It’s in our hometown, so you get to see people who’ve been there from the beginning of the journey, now to hopefully a couple more weeks to the end — it’s just going to be fun,” LeBlanc said.
The Maple Ridge-raised player said support had been pouring in from all over throughout the early stages of the competition — including from her first soccer coach and a Grade 5 teacher.
“What’s cool about playing at home is, you look in the stands and you see people you haven’t seen in so long,” LeBlanc said.
“I think this is why we do it, for special moments like this to know that the country is watching, and the potential of doing something great here.”
While Vancouver isn’t quite home for English-born coach John Herdman, BC Place is as close as it gets for the time being.
“It really does feel like home when you fly over the mountains and you see your house on the horizon as well, yeah, it’s fantastic,” he said.
“We’re just hoping for a full house — we were desperate to come back here.”
Team Canada will learn sometime today who their Sunday opponent will be.