Next up ... the Chinese
Canada likely won't get many scoring chances
By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
PORTLAND, Ore. -- It's Canada versus the famed Steel Roses of China in the Rose City.
They may not be as good as they once were, the legendary China team which lost in a shootout at the last Women's World Cup. But China was as good, once, as they once were to make the match against Canada in Thursday's quarter-final with a 1-0 win over Russia here last night.
Conceded by most to be the top technical team in the world, a 1-0 win against Ghana and a 1-1 tie with Australia were considered shocking results for the team which is ranked No. 4 in the world.
But Canadian coach Even Pellerud wasn't too excited about the prospects of playing them.
"China is a terrible team to play against because they never let you get the ball,'' said Pellerud. "They keep the ball as long as they want with their skill and technique.''
Maybe those sobering thoughts will bring Canada down. But I doubt it.
The night before, in Foxboro, Massachusetts, the entire Canadian team linked arms and danced around while coach Even Pellerud bounced up and down.
OVER THE MOON
Christine Sinclair, the 20-year-old striker whom team-mates made fun of last year at the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championships in Edmonton for her lack of enthusiasm in celebrating all her goals, was over the moon as she danced toward the dressing room.
"I'm going home! I'm going home!'' she bounded down the corridor to the Canadian dressing room after scoring the winning goal to send Canada where we'd never gone before - to the quarters of the Women's World Cup here Thursday.
To the Canadian girls, getting to this game meant a lot of different things. But to Sinclair, it meant taking her team to the Pacific Northwest. Home.
"It's amazing. This is what I wanted to do. When I saw the schedule, I told myself, 'This is where I want to be.' I'm going home!
"All my friends and family can drive down to watch,'' said the Burnaby, B.C., product. "And all my teammates from school! They'll all be there, watching me play in the World Cup.
"That's the first thing that hit me. 'We get to play in Portland.' It'll be like a home crowd. I know hundreds of Canadians will come down for the game. And I'm pretty sure all the fans from Portland will be cheering for us.''
The Oregonian headlined the wire service story from Foxboro: 'Sinclair's Goal Saves Canada.'
She's as big in Portland as she is in Penticton.
Sinclair led the University of Portland to its first ever NCAA title by scoring two goals in the final - including the golden goal in overtime - set the tournament record with 21 points on 10 goals and was the NCAAA top scorer in 2002 with 26 goals.
It's a great thing to have the girl who won both the golden boot and the golden ball at the U-19 championships and tied for the goal-scoring title in the Gold Cup qualifying tournament pumped about being in Portland. As she goes, so goes Canada. And we've seen that in this tournament.
After scoring her first World Cup goal three minutes into her first World Cup game, Sinclair became largely invisible until grabbing the Japan game by the throat, setting up Christine Latham and then scoring herself.
But she has plenty of company in this 'Go West, Young Woman' storyline.
Brittany Timko, Andrea Neil, Sharolta Nonen, Silvana Burtini, Karina LeBlanc and Randee Hermus are all B.C. girls, Kara Lang played in the W-League with Vancouver this year, Christine Latham, Taryn Swiatek and Erin McLeod are from Calgary and Sasha Andrews is from Edmonton. All have family and friends headed here.
Not that getting past the first round for the first time isn't exciting enough. This is a young team which has gone from gagging on the first two games to rediscovering belief.
HAVEN'T PLAYED THEIR BEST
"If we play the way we can play, maybe we can go all the way,'' said Latham, who leads Canada with three goals in the World Cup. "We can go a step higher than the way we played against Japan. We still haven't played our best.''
Lang says getting here has taken the pressure off this team. Getting here was the goal. Everything from here is bonus.
"We had trouble with the expectations and all the pressure. But now we can embrace what we've just done. Who knows what we can do now?''
For Charmaine Hooper, who has played all nine Canadian World Cup games, this is why she stayed around at the ripe old age of 35.
"In the first two World Cups we were just happy to be there,'' she said of failing to win a game in either.
"We can go far. If we win the next game, we're in the semifinals. We think it's possible. Now we have our confidence back. We're where we want to be. Now anything can happen.''
It was a stunningly beautiful day when Canada arrived here yesterday. And for this day, at least, it didn't matter if China won here late last night to decide whom they would play. Canada had created this day.
