Christine Sinclair Archive

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Pedersen’s name not on list of 40 “potential candidates” for 2015 WWC ref assignments

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/15/2013

The 40 candidates pose with FIFA president Sepp Blatter. PHOTO: FOTONET

The 40 candidates pose with FIFA president Sepp Blatter. PHOTO: FOTONET

On Wednesday, FIFA released the names of 40 referees who are “potential candidates” for inclusion in the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

Canadian referee Carol Anne Chenard’s name is on the list. Norwegian official Christina Pedersen’s name is not.

The 40 officials are in Zurich this week, attending medicals and a seminar that begin the planning stages for the Women’s World Cup, which opens in Edmonton and closes with the final game at Vancouver’s B.C. Place.

“This is an incredibly important seminar,” Sonia Denoncourt, Head of Women’s Referees at FIFA, was quoted in a release. “It is the first real step towards choosing candidates for the Women’s World Cup 2015 in Canada. The event is two-and-a-half years away and we are starting off with a large group of female referees. We’ll be testing them and then selecting the best at the end.”
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Sinclair is NWSL’s first-ever player of the month

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/08/2013

Christine Sinclair

Christine Sinclair

The NWSL announced its first-ever player of the month on Tuesday — and the honour went to all-time Canadian goal-scoring leader Christine Sinclair.

Sinclair scored twice and added an assist as her Portland Thorns began the season on a strong note, going 2-0-1 in April.

Sinclair scored on a penalty in a 1-1 draw with Kansas City, assisted on an Alex Morgan goal in a 2-1 win over Seattle, and scored in a 2-0 win over Chicago.
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England gets late goal to earn well-deserved win over the Canadian women

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/07/2013

Ellen White

Ellen White

England got an injury-time header from Ellen White, giving the home side a 1-0 win over Canada in a friendly in Rotherham.

But, troubling for followers of the Canadian women’s program, is that this scoreline clearly flattered the visitors. It used to be that a match against the English was pretty well in the territory of “automatic win” for Canada. But the English beat the Canadians in the Cyprus Cup final and dominated Sunday’s friendly. That’s right — dominated. Sure, the English left it late, but the truth is that the English bossed the match by a wide margin. And, if not for the heroics of Canadian Erin McLeod and some help from the woodwork, the score would have (deservedly) been far more severe.

Now, before we smack a bunch of red warning buttons, some context: Canadian coach John Herdman is in the midst of teaching his team a new way to play, a passing game that, like fruit on the vine, needs time to mature. The maturation date for the Canadian new system is 2015 — when we host the Women’s World Cup.

And, the English side is an older, experienced team that’s played together for years. And, in a telephone conference held before the Canadian team left to play its friendlies in France and England, Herdman warned that the English side isn’t working in young players — and has yet to show it has a new generation of footballers who can pick up from the likes of veterans White and Rachel Yankey.
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Damn Yankey! England beats Canada in Cyprus Cup final

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/13/2013

Rachel Yankey

Rachel Yankey

Rachel Yankey, the most capped women’s player in English team history, got the winner in Wednesday’s Cyprus Cup final. Her 69th-minute half-volley ensured that, for the second year in a row, the Canadian women’s would have to settle for the “finalist” tag for their efforts at the Cyprus Cup.

Yankey, who plays for Arsenal, gave England the 1-0 win over Canada in the final. The two sides will meet again for a friendly April 7 in Rotherham, England.

Jess Clarke played in a cross from the left and Yankey was able to smash home the winner from 12 yards out.
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Canadian women finish Cyprus Cup group stage with perfect record

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/11/2013

Erin McLeod

Erin McLeod

Canada will go into Wednesday’s Cyprus Cup final against England with the confidence of having a perfect record at the tournament.

Even though the members of the Canadian national women’s team knew that they’d already qualified for the final before they took the field for Monday’s Group B finale against the Netherlands, they didn’t slip. Christine Sinclair’s 145th career international goal was the difference as the Canadians beat the Dutch by a 1-0 scoreline. Canada finished the group stage with 3-0-0 mark.

Erin McLeod, who saved a penalty in the 15th minute, got her fifth consecutive clean sheet.
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Sinclair’s penalty kick clinches Canada’s spot in Cyprus Cup final

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/08/2013

Christine Sinclair

Christine Sinclair

Christine Sinclair came back from suspension, and promptly scored a winning goal.

Sure, it was on a penalty kick, probably won’t make her career-end highlight reel, but it was the winner as Canada beat Finland 2-1 at the Cyprus Cup Friday. Canada is 2-0-0 at the tournament. The goal was the 144th international marker for Sinclair.

With the win, Canada has already clinched top spot in Group B and a spot in the Cyprus Cup final. That means the final group-stage match, against the Netherlands, will be a glorified friendly — and gives the chance for coach John Herdman to rotate players.
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Montreal artist makes soccer the subject of his brush

By
Mike Wyman
– 02/28/2013

Eugene Abrams

Eugene Abrams

You can take the boy out of soccer but, if he’s been inoculated by “The Beautiful Game,” you’re going to have a hard time taking it out of the boy. Case in point – Eugene Abrams, a Montreal-born artist who picked up soccer at about the same time most Canadian kids don their first pair of skates.

At some point between his birth and the first day of school, Abrams’ father, a United Nations employee, moved to New York.

“When I was a kid I went to the UN school from Grade 1 to 6 and my friends were from all around the world. Soccer was the thing.” Abrams recalled. “I don’t know what was happening in other school yards in New York City but in ours soccer was it. I started playing on teams in school and played until I was about 14.”

Among his early memories of the game are playing left back on his school team and getting to observe the son of a legend.

“Pele’s son actually went to my school, the United Nations School in New York. He was about six years old and I was about 11. I was only at the Manhattan branch of the school for one year but I remember he used to have the limo driver kick the ball against the cement wall while they were waiting for classes to start.”
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Labbe, Julien back in Canadian national-team fold ahead of Cyprus Cup

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/22/2013

Stephanie Labbe

Coach John Herdman has announced the national women’s team roster for the pre-camp ahead of the 2013 Cyprus Cup.

Twenty-five players were named to the roster. Regular goalies Karina LeBlanc and Erin McLeod are, of course, there. But this announcement also marks the return of former Edmonton Aviator Stephanie Labbe to the team, the first time she’s been back in the fold since the last Cyprus Cup.

Christina Julien, the former Ottawa Fury star, is back in the fold after she was the heartbreaking final cut for Herdman ahead of the 2012 Olympics.
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Canadian national teamers look forward to the day NWSL expands north of the border

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/05/2013

Members of the Canadian women’s team pose with local players and officials at Edmonton City Hall, Monday.

While the four members of the Canadian women’s national team who were in Edmonton Monday will all soon head Stateside to report to their NWSL teams, they still dream of playing pro soccer in their home and native land.

“We are all very proud Canadians,” said 10-year national-team veteran Rhian Wilkinson, sitting alongside Olympic bronze-medal winning teammates Christine Sinclair, Karina LeBlanc and Diane Matheson at a special media event held at Edmonton’s City Hall Monday. “We’ll all be heading to the U.S. in March, but we all want to play in our own country as soon as possible.”

The message here: The Canadian women want to see the NWSL, which kicks off in eight U.S. cities this year, expand to Canada as soon as possible.

All four were part of the 16 Canadians allocated (two per team) to the new league, with the Canadian Soccer Association picking up the tab for their salaries. LeBlanc and Sinclair will play together in Portland; Wilkinson is off to the Boston Breakers, while Matheson is headed to the Washington Spirit.
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LeBlanc: Canadian women drawing their NWSL battle lines

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/23/2013

Karina LeBlanc

It’s fair to use the term “frenemies” to describe the members of Canada’s women’s national team.

A little less than two weeks ago, 16 members of the women’s national program found out where they would be playing in the new NWSL, including keeper Karina LeBlanc. Each of the eight teams got two members of the Canadian national program, whose salaries will be paid by the Canadian Soccer Association.

And, as soon as the women found out where they’d be spending the summer, the jawing began.

“We were in China (for the Yongchuan Cup), so we didn’t find out live,” said LeBlanc, who was on a media conference call Tuesday promoting her upcoming visit to Edmonton with national teammates Christine Sinclair, Rhian Wilkinson and Diana Matheson. “But we all looked at our e-mail to find out where we were going, and then the trash talking started right away.”
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