That could be it.
Christine Sinclair might play 10 more years and never touch the performance that she put in yesterday.
You all saw it - three goals, a competitive spirit rarely matched by any Canadian athlete ever and a will that almost damn well lead the Canadian women's national team to a medal all on her own.
One day later there is really no need to analyze the performance. It was, clearly, the best performance by a Canadian footballer, either gender, ever. It might stand as such for a very long time.
Words cannot describe it properly.
What we can do is start to analyze what it might mean, both for Sinclair and the sport itself.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Readers of CSN don’t need to be told about Sinclair’s talent. Her 143 goals stand tied for second all-time in the woman’s game and there are many that think that her very best years may yet to have come. Moving to more of a withdrawn forward role in this tournament and, seemingly, excelling at it, Sinclair will play at least through to Canada 2015, and if she plays that long she might as well stick around for Rio too.
So, we haven’t seen the last of her. And, she will get better, score more goals and, being three years younger than Abby Wambach, will end her career as the all-time leading scorer.
As stated, readers of CSN know all this. Now, the rest of country does too. Listening to talk radio yesterday following the game was eye-opening and a reminder of how much of a reach the Olympics has. Sinclair was on everyone’s mind and everyone was reaching to find the biggest and best compliments they could find to describe her.
On the Prime Time Sports radio program, which is syndicated across the country and is widely listened to, former Toronto Star columnists Dave Perkins (one of the biggest critics of the building of BMO Field and not remotely a soccer fan) said Sinclair was “the early club house leader for the Lou Marsh Award” (Canadian athlete of the year). That’s especially notable since Perkins is one of the voters.
Appearing on a panel after the game, I listened as Atlanta Beat coach James Galanis agreed with my assertion that Sinclair should be a finalist for the Ballon d'Or. He also suggested that Sinclair would be the “first or second” choice of his if he was starting a professional team.
Standing in Toronto’s St. George subway station last night, I witnessed a young man of about 20 take a cell phone photo of a 15-foot high poster of Sinclair that is displayed on the stairs connecting the University line with the Bloor/Danforth line (if you’re not familiar with where that is, it’s likely the second busiest transit exchange in the country).
More importantly, every-day-Canadians were talking about how inspired they were by her play and how their kids – girls and boys – wanted to go out and kick a soccer ball around today because of her.
She’s a household name this morning.
The key – and obligation – of the CSA over the next three years will be to maintain that profile. The immediate excitement of her performance will pass – the Leafs will trade for a third liner, the Canucks and Oilers will play a game on a Wednesday in February, Quebec City will get its hockey team back, and with those things Canadians will become distracted. That’s reality.
But, they can be reminded. The CSA needs to lobby to make sure Perkins stays true to his word, and it should slap the right backs at FIFA to get her Ballon d'Or love (winning might be an ask too far, but that the second all-time scorer has never so much as been a finalist is absurd).
When the Canadian men play their World Cup qualifiers in September and October they need to get her to Toronto and get her in front of the crowd.
Actually, they should ideally get the whole team to the stadium and, preferably, playing a game there around the same time. Take advantage of the current buzz to sell tickets, packaging them with tickets to the men’s game too.
Then get them to as many different parts of the country as possible. Moncton again. Montreal is a given. Vancouver can host them in the winter under the roof. After the snow melts, get them everywhere else in between.
They always should have been doing that. Now they need to do it.
In the days ahead there will be time for a sober reflection on the overall performance of the team. And, it would be foolish and irresponsible to think all was perfect about London. They did lose yesterday and three of the four goals can’t be blamed on the referee. They still haven’t beat a higher ranked team at a major event since 2003. They took advantage of an opportunity yesterday to play in a way that gained them many new fans. If they are to take advantage of that they need to be honest with themselves in the post-mortem. Otherwise it will be 2003 all over, when an unexpected result – based on a single game – gave them a false sense of where they stood in the world’s peaking order and arguably held the program back years.
That reflection must come in the days ahead. However, today, and in the immediate future, they must take advantage of the excitement they’ve created.