For the Canadians in the room, everything was as it should be. Not just because Canada won, or because they won in an organised fashion. But because they won for the person they were supposed to win for.
BC Place was renamed Christine Sinclair Place on Wednesday, before the 1-0 victory against the Matildas, for a reason. It was renamed for the nation’s GOAT. For the globe’s GOAT, really. Sinclair, after all, has scored more international goals than anyone across both the men’s and women’s games.
Sinclair did not add to her tally of 190 in her 331st appearance, but she did have a hand in the one her team scored. In the 40th minute, the 40-year-old nodded a corner down for Kadeisha Buchanan at the back post. The shot ricocheted off the crossbar and Quinn, alert and waiting for the second ball, headed it home. That contribution – as with most of Sinclair’s over the years – was made with her trademark quiet grace.
When she was subbed off, for another retiring friend in Sophie Schmidt, she was emotional but still a picture of the humility she has carried with her through all of her six World Cups, Olympics medals and recognition she has cultivated for the women’s game.
Now, that is if you are Canadian. If you are Australian, everything was not quite as it should be. It was not bad, which is to be expected from the strongest Matildas line-up possible, when Sam Kerr and Mackenzie Arnold are not available. But it equally could not be classified as good. This was not just because of the loss, which most with a rudimentary understanding of year one mathematics will agree is about five goals worse than the 4-0 win an almost-identical XI ran away with in the group stage of the World Cup.
It was not good because, while there were glimpses of excellence and fleeting moments of malleability, they did not have a huge amount of success in fulfilling their pre-game brief. Coach Tony Gustavsson, who is still picking pins out of his eyeballs after his throw-the-kids-in-the-deep-end approach in Saturday’s 5-0 defeat prompted a fresh round of murderous voodoo exasperation, had asked his team to play out from the back.
Christine Sinclair (No.12) and Cloe Lacasse celebrate Canada’s goal.Credit: Getty
Being the first team, they were somewhat more successful than the second team. This was evident in the number of corners won, and the quickness of mind and control on the ball, which comes with the collective maturity of this group. Yet they finished this match without a shot on target, having toiled in the face of Canada’s structured block and struggled to break down their midfield.
Canada were worthy winners by the end of the first half – though most viewers missed the goal because Network Ten’s feed dropped out – and the gap only widened in the second. With the exception perhaps of Caitlin Foord, who was her precocious self, this experiment produced flat results. It lacked intensity.
The Matildas are their most dangerous when pressing aggressively and attacking on transition, through the wide areas or through passes such as Mary Fowler’s World Cup pearler against Denmark. This is not a weakness; it is simply a manner of playing football this team knows how to execute in devastating fashion.
With the final Olympics qualifiers around the corner in February and the Games themselves in July, Gustavsson’s attempt at re-engineering Australia’s attack in time for Paris 2024 does not appear feasible. Olympics qualification is not a done deal, as Team GB and Sweden have found out, and Australia will need their biggest weapons in their two-legged play-off with Uzbekistan.
There were other factors, here, too. Gustavsson made only a single substitution all match, bringing on Tameka Yallop for Katrina Gorry. Canada, meanwhile, made six changes. The artificial turf in Vancouver (and Langford) will have played a role for many of the players out there, who have become accustomed to playing on grass in the English Women’s Super League.
And at the end of the day, these are but friendlies, a final chance for trial and error before things get serious again. If anything, these two games ended an incredible year on a toneless note. Thank god The Bold and the Beautiful was showing straight afterwards.
