FT: Match Thread Canada 11 - 0 St. Kitts—2020 Olympic Qualifying

Match Thread

FT - That was some match.

80’ - GOAL! CANADA 11 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Leon gets her 4th (!) of the match. No more celly graphics for the twitters.

73’ - GOAL! CANADA 10 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Huitema scores a free header off a corner.

69’ - Couch Ultras getting in on the Sincy Cellys

61’ - DOUBLE SUBSTITUTION - CANADA

Jayde Riviere for Rebecca Quinn / Julia Grosso for Desiree Scott

57’ - GOAL! CANADA 9 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. There’s a brace for Lawrence. Defense is lacking and Canada having a training sesh out there.

54’ - GOAL! CANADA 8 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Fleming gets her 10th overall after jumping on a tasty through-ball and slotting it home side-footed.

47’ - CANADA SUBSTITUTION - Sinclair Out / Huitema In

46’ - And we’re back!

45’ - HT - Wow. My fingers hurt on account of all the goal updates.

43’ - GOAL! CANADA 7 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Hat trick for Leon!

40’ - GOAL! CANADA 6 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Riviere with a screamer!

39’ - Just collecting Sincy tributes for you all.

33’ - Substitution for St. Kitts & Nevis - missed the lurid details.

31’ - USA being good sports.

30’ - Ok sports fans, here’s an embed to THE GOAL with non-geotagged video:

27’ - GOAL! CANADA 5 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Brace for Leon. Brace for Sincy.

23’ WTR ALREADY got us covered with SincyMania!

22’ - GOAL! CANADA 4 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. There it is!!!!! Christine Sinclair breaks the record! With a tap-in! WOW!

18’ - GOAL! CANADA 3 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Ashley Lawrence gets her 16th in all comps with a thunder strike from distance.

13’ - GOAL! CANADA 2 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Adriana Leon gets her 28th in all comps from a well worked build up that serves her the final ball on a platter.

11’ - Free kick to Canada at the top of the box after Jayde Riviere is taken down at the top of the box. Leon takes it but it drifts wide.

10’ - Soccer Twitter getting lit already:

6’ - GOAL! CANADA 1 - 0 ST. KITTS & NEVIS. Sinclair takes the PK, and it’s in! Goal #184 in the books! One more to go!

6’ - Sinclair taken down in the box! Penalty Awarded!

2’ - Riviere misses a sitter to open the match with a lead.

1’ - Kickoff in Edinburg, Texas. This is Christine Sinclair’s 290th appearance for Canada. Canada ranked 8th, St. Kitts & Nevis ranked 127th. Come on you Reds!

5:25PM - Live to the match and the anthems. Well ... sort of. My OS feed is suddenly dicey.

5:23PM - 7’ to go! Really Enjoying this pre-game show on OneSoccer. Laura Armstrong is killing it, and ay least Oli got 2 minutes to break Ottawa.

5:04PM - OneSoccer pre-game show begins featuring new hire/TFC beat mainstay Laura Armstrong, here’s a nice tweet from Soccer Canada about Christine Sinclair:

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Starting Lineups

ST. KITTS & NEVIS:

CANADA:

A standard tweet and a special video tweet in honour of the occasion:

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How to Watch

The Canada match kicks off will be broadcast live in Canada on OneSoccer.ca (17.00 ET / 14.30 PT) as well as on Rogers TV (Digital TV channel 368 and Ignite TV channel 430).

Jeffrey P. Nesker also has you covered right here on WTR with a Live Match Thread closer to game time for what will possibly be a historic night for Canadian soccer.

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Game Preview (Courtesy of Michael Singh)

More than Lionel Messi. More than Cristiano Ronaldo.

Sitting one goal back of United States international Abby Wambach’s 184, Canadian soccer icon Christine Sinclair has the opportunity to cement her legacy globally (if she hasn’t already).

Sinclair will try to eclipse Wambach’s goal total when the Canadian women’s national team opens their 2020 Concacaf Olympic Qualifying tournament on Wednesday. Wambach holds the record for the most international goals ever scored by a male or female, and if Sinclair can find the back of the net once she’ll tie the retired striker’s record, while scoring twice puts her on a pedestal of her own.

Vying to qualify for their fourth straight Olympics, the Canadian women will face St. Kitts & Nevis later Wednesday evening in Edinburg, Texas, the first of three group matches en route to the Concacaf semifinals on February 7 that will determine which two nations qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

However, the eighth-ranked Canadian side (according to FIFA World Rankings) enter the tournament knowing they belong.

“I think we are very ready to start the tournament,” said Kenneth Heiner-Møller, Canada’s women’s national team head coach. “We have seen in the past two weeks that getting the crew back together and having a few sessions on a high level has definitely given us some confidence. We are looking forward to kick off the tournament.”

“It’s important for us to go into this tournament with confidence,” added Canadian fullback Ashley Lawrence, recipient of country’s 2019 Player of the Year award. “We want to get the result and start on a good note. We are going to stay focused and stick to our game plan.”

Part of the CONCACAF region, Canada will face the aforementioned St. Kitts and Nevis this evening, before taking on Jamaica on Feb. 1 and Mexico on Feb. 4 to round out Group A play.

What will likely be the Canadians most important match, however, will come on Feb. 7: a semifinal crossover vs. one of the top-two teams from Group B, which includes the United States, Costa Rica, Haiti, and Panama, as the finalists of the Qualifying Tournament will both automatically secure their place for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Back-to-back Bronze medalists in women’s soccer’s most prestigious tournament, Canada has qualified for the past three Olympic Games through Concacaf’s two available spots. However, overshadowing the country’s bid to return to the big stage for the fourth straight Games will of course be the Canadian Soccer Player of the Decade’s quest for the all-time record.

(MOTTERN/AFP via Getty)

“[My teammates] have done a pretty good job at keeping it pretty quiet,” Sinclair told reporters on Tuesday, when asked about the record. “Today was the most it has probably been built up. To be honest, they’re probably looking forward to it more than I am.

“I just know how important this tournament is and how important the games are as we move on. Obviously I’d like to get it over with (in a positive way) just because I don’t want it to be a focus for the team in the coming weeks.”

While Sinclair is quick to downplay the individual milestone, the magnitude of this accomplishment is difficult to describe. Most players around the world grow up dreaming about one day being able to put on a jersey to represent their country. Almost everyone who has a passion for the beautiful game has dreamt about scoring in a World Cup Final. But the all-time international goal-scoring record?

That seemed unthinkable, a feat that was almost destined for the legends of the game like Ronaldo, Pele, or Diego Maradona.

Well, Canada, we have our international soccer legend, and her name is Christine Sinclair.

Game Notes:

• This is the Canadian women’s first official match of 2020. Canada recently played two closed-door training matches across the course of their last three camps, however, they will take the field in regulated competition for the first time this year Wednesday evening.
• Wednesday’s match will be the first-ever encounter between the two nations, with the 127th ranked St. Kitts & Nevis reaching the final round of a Concacaf women’s tournament for the first time in their program history.