The formality of World Cup qualifying is done and dusted for the Canadian women's team.

With the game already in hand, Sinclair was introduced at the start of the second half, clearly an effort to get her closer to all-time women’s international goal scoring leader Abby Wambach’s total of 184. On a two-player break, SInclair opted to pass to Huitema for a tap-in rather than take it herself. And when Sinclair got no. 174, she did not scream or raise her arms in triumph. She led her teammates quietly back to half.

Canada's opening match of the Algarve Cup deserved a little more scrutiny than a non-televised national-team match would normally generate; that's because the error-filled 3-1 loss to Sweden Wednesday marked the beginning of the Kenneth Heiner-Moller era. 

The roster for the Algarve Cup was unveiled, featuring seven forwards out of the 23 players named. Maybe new coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller has been studying post-Second World War Eastern European tactics and is looking to start at least four strikers, or maybe he's going to go way out there and show us off Canada's new-look 1-3-6.

Maegan Kelly, a 25-year-old from Kansas City, who, thanks to her family ties, had the necessary paperwork to make her Canada debut, came oh so close to ending that streak Thursday night at BC Place. Kelly got into the American penalty area, then popped the ball over keeper Alyssa Naeher. The ball bounced once and headed for the far corner.

Now, in the world of Canadian soccer fatalism, there will be those who treat this win like a loss; they’ll point to the tough draw. They’ll say Canada would have done better with a second- or third-place finish in the group. But that’s an anti-football mentality. It’s against everything we should hold dear about sport — you shouldn’t try to win by gaming the system, you should try to get to the top by beating all comers.

Despite having defender Shelina Zadorsky sent off in the 18th minute, despite a penalty miss, the Canadian national women’s team opened the Olympic soccer tournament with a 2-0 win over the world No. 5-ranked Australians in Sao Paulo.