If there’s one thing that has been settled in the world of sports this past week, it’s that Canada’s women’s soccer team is pathetic. How else could you explain the national team’s result at the Women’s World Cup?
In three games, Canada didn’t earn a point and could only score one goal – even if it was a decent one off of a set piece. That is, of course, a terrible result for any team in a major tournament, but the fact is that Canada is ranked No. 6 in the world and was one of the favourites to win the World Cup. That’s what makes this such a disappointment.
It might actually be the most disappointing result of a Canadian national team ever. Well, maybe if you look past the men’s hockey performance at the Turin Olympics in 2006.
The team opened up against Germany, ranked No. 2 in the world and also hosting the World Cup. Getting a result was a tricky proposition to begin with, but at least Canada showed up and came close to a draw after a late Christine Sinclair goal. It was all downhill from there.
France, No. 7 in the world, completely destroyed our girls. Canada played little defence and couldn’t even muster a shot on goal. The 4-0 defeat could have actually been a lot worse.
Then came Tuesday’s finale against Nigeria, a game in which the most exciting part for the Canadian women may have been the power outage at the stadium. The African nation is ranked 27 in the world, which, in case you’re bad at math, is 21 rungs on the ladder lower than Canada. Again, the defence looked atrocious and again, sadly, the score line could have been a lot worse – Nigeria hit the woodwork twice, Canada once.
It’s time that everyone realizes that there’s more than one sport in Canada. Being good at ice hockey is fine, but it’s coming at the expense of our national pride. There’s a joke that goes something like this…
“Why were the Winter Olympics created? So that Canada and Norway could actually win some medals.â€
Let’s try competing at team sports year-round, people.
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