Just a day before, the women recovered from their hard-fought loss to that same Japanese team in the semis to defeat the USA in an emotional third place playoff. Those that argue that the third place game doesn't matter will have a hard time convincing the 55,000 that saw Christine Sinclair score an 89th minute winner against the 10-women Americans.
Sinclair was on crutches on Sunday, her leg badly hurt by Sydney Leroux’s vicious red card tackle the day before. However, always the warrior, she managed to walk on her own to the centre circle to accept the crowd’s applause. That was not nearly as impressive as 24-hours earlier, when many thought the captain would never walk again after Leroux’s karate kick in the 70th minute.
Through sheer will and Canadian spirit she managed to get up and score two goals in less than ten minutes to bring a nation to its feet.
An emotional Don Cherry said it best: “Ah, that Chrissy. Good Canadian gal. Yaa!”
It was the best result Canadians could have hoped for. A generation of young girls saw their heroes play to the very best of their ability and take advantage of a favourable draw that gave them an opportunity to get to the semis.
No, they didn’t win. Japan, Germany and France were just technically better. Understanding that was not admitting defeat or weakness, but rather taking note of what this country might aspire to in the future.
Canada has great attributes. When they played well they displayed athleticism, spirit, aggression and fearlessness. They represented the nation perfectly and in 15 years, when we do take the next step and are legitimate title contenders, we will have this generation to thank.
There were other heroes. Jesse Fleming emerged as one of the best teenagers in the world, Sophie Schmidt became a household name and who could forget the emotional moment when long-time stalwarts of the program – Sinclair and Diana Matheson -- embraced at the end of the third place game. Many thought Matheson would not recover in time to play a role in the tournament.
But, every player on the squad had their time. The team’s 3-0-0 group play was competitive enough to give several eureka moments, and beating Nigeria and England in the knock-outs really got the momentum going in the country.
Japan was too much, but they played with heart and did the country proud.
In the end, we all learned that there are lots of ways to leave a World Cup a winner.
And that Canada was a winner.