Read that headline over again. It's not often you're going to get to read something like that.
Yes, Saturday was one glorious day for the game in this country. Rarely do we get to indulge in such events. And such indulgence also leads to indulgence of other sorts... hence, this entry will be brief. Surely my CSN colleagues will provide further, more salient insight in the hours ahead.
But, really, when it comes down to it, I'm a supporter of Canadian soccer. So let's cut right to the chase: I feel fucking awesome right now. You probably do too. And y'know what? We deserve it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
The women's national team's 2-1 victory over Brazil was a mildly unexpected but still highly notable result. Christine Sinclair scored, which should shock you if you're the sort that gets surpised at seeing that big shiny thing on the horizon every morning. She then scored again, which is slightly more surprising, until you remember that there's a decent chance that she's actually some sort of human-cyborg hybrid, enginereed for the purposes of scoring goals and modelling broken-nose masks.
The victory over the fourth-ranked Brazilians is a wonderful momentum boost for Big Red as they look ahead (medium-term) to the Olympics and (short-term) to a friendly against Sweden, the world's fifth-ranked squad.
Yes, the ladies have already booked their spot in the London Games, but the hopes for the men's team looked tenuous at best after an unconvincing (to put it mildly) 0-0 draw against El Salvador on Thursday.
Then Saturday night happened.
Here are some more words you're unlikely to read very often: Canada beat the United States 2-0, and was absolutely full value for the victory. No bullshit flukey goals. No dubious sending off for the U.S. that gave Canada the numerical advantage (though to call Randy Edwini-Bonsu's sending-off "dubious" would be putting it mildly -- "unadulterated horse shit" would be nearer the mark).
This was a team that was hungry, focused and aggressive, but also disciplined. They stayed defensively strong. They kept their tactics in play after taking the lead. They continued to press the favoured Americans, in their own backyard (Nashville, to be precise). They were so comprehensive in agitating their Yank opponents that the hometown crowd took to raucous booing and garbage tossing whenever standout goalkeeper Michal Misiewicz got his hands on the ball.
This was, without hyperbole, the most complete and gratifying performance by a Canadian team that I have ever witnessed.
And it couldn't have come at a better time. A victory against Cuba on Monday (Cuba, by the way, has lost twice and has a -10 goal differential thus far) will likely clinch the top spot in the group for Canada. That would set up a winner-gets-a-spot-in-the-Olympics showdown next Saturday night against the runner-up in Group B, which at this point is likely to be... oh crap.
Honduras.
Yes, those bloody Hondurans.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's a glorious night. Let the future unfold as it will.
Suffice to say, after the events of Saturday night, Canada's Olympics hopes -- as it relates to the game of soccer -- got a pretty massive boost. Could the women's team bring home a medal? Could the men's team qualify for the first time since 1984?
We'll get an even clearer idea on both of those fronts next Saturday.
But for now, let's celebrate a rare day of unadulterated triumph for our teams and our nation.
.