After all these years, Canada fans can't help but have the same lingering thought in the back of their minds, as women's national team games tick towards their conclusions: Somehow, some way, in the dying minutes, Christine Sinclair will find a way.
Heck, Sincy's flair for the dramatic is so powerful that it's rubbed off on her teammates, as we saw from Diana Matheson at the Olympics and from Kaylyn Kyle a few days ago against France.
Evidently, her power is so infectious that England's Ellen White caught a whiff of it Sunday, sternly heading home a wayward shot from a teammate in stoppage time to give England a goal that seemed inevitable, and a result that seems, ultimately, pretty fair. Still, had Canada managed to hold on for the scoreless draw, even that wouldn't have exactly been a massively unfair result.
It's Canada and England, folks. There's lots of fairness to go around.
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Now, Big Red likely won't be leaving Rotherham with "fairness" being top of mind, as conceding a 92nd-minute goal to go down to defeat is surely one of the bitterest pills any footballer ever has to swallow. But they'll at least -- theoretically -- be emboldened by the knowledge that after being outplayed in a muddy slop-fest against #5-ranked France, they showed themselves worthy peers of England, with whom they currently share the #7 spot in the FIFA world rankings.
Erin McLeod was, as was the case against France, blameless in the goal Canada conceded, and had her second straight excellent game. Kadeisha Buchanan, the 17-year-old, continues to impress at the centreback position; she's featured in all nine of Canada's game this year (her first nine caps for the senior squad) and will leave head coach John Herdman with a tough decision when it comes to naming his starting lineup against the USA in June.
But Buchanan wasn't the least experienced member of Canada's XI on the day; fullback Kylla Sjoman (who featured for Canadian youth teams in the mid-2000s) earned her first senior women's national team cap at age 25, as Herdman seeks to integrate more naturally left-sided players. Meanwhile, stalwart midfielder Matheson earned her 150th cap, just to give you an example of the gulf in experience levels Herdman is working with as the team enacts a partial rebuild ahead of the 2015 Women's World Cup.
Despite all that, Canada largely held it together against the home side, creating a number of scoring chances through Sinclair, Kyle and Tiffany Cameron -- though none were ultimately dangerous enough to seriously test either of the English goalkeepers on the day.
Kyle, for her part, looked enlivened by her dramatic goal against France; she came bursting out of the gate against England and played as a de facto third striker for much of the match, despite Herdman's shift to an on-paper 4-4-2 after several games of using a straight-up 4-3-3 formation.
It was the English, though, who controlled most of the tempo in the second half, routinely moving the ball around in the attacking third. As the game moved into stoppage time, it seemed Canada would escape with the stalemate -- or, as that little voice in the back of our heads told us, that Sinclair would somehow steal one for Big Red -- but alas, it was not to be.
The result leaves Canada with a record of four wins, two draws and three losses, with eight goals scored, in nine games so far in 2013. Respectable enough, sure, though the goal tally is a smidge worrisome (though it's worth noting Sinclair was suspended for the first four of those nine games).
Still, the purpose of this year's matches is largely to give Herdman an idea of what he has at his disposal in the likes of youngsters such as Buchanan, Cameron and Adriana Leon. So while a late draw with France shouldn't be cause for celebrating into the stratosphere, a late loss to England shouldn't be sending anyone into the disconsolate dumps. This is a work in progress, with the real test coming in just over two years' time on Canadian soi... err, turf.
Canada's next test? Well, that one gets a little more personal. The much-hyped, sold-out "rematch" against the United States, June 2 at Toronto's BMO Field. Herdman has said he'll put aside the youth-experimentation for one day, to ensure only those who are "ready" take the field against the world's top-ranked side (he even mused about trying to draw Melissa Tancredi out of quasi-retirement for the match, though Tanc offered a "no comment" to CSN about it).
So, have players like Buchanan and Leon shown that they're "ready"? And will Canada be able to find another gear against the Americans, of the sort we saw them reach in the Olympic semifinal but which hasn't truly been on display since?
We'll just have to wait and see. But as the game of soccer often teaches us... what goes around, comes around.
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