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Sinclair wrote on her Instagram Friday that “we were never shown or discussed drone footage in team or individual meeting I’ve been present for.”
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Published Jul 27, 2024 • Last updated 10 hours ago • 4 minute read
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Canada’s players celebrate winning 4-3 in a penalty shootout against Brazil during a women’s quarterfinal soccer match. Photo by Andre Penner /The Associated Press
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These Paris 2024 Summer Olympics were supposed to be a showcase of the next generation of Canadian women’s soccer chasing another gold medal, with a chance to again celebrate the career of Christine Sinclair thrown in for good measure.
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That’s blasted off into the ether. Like a rogue drone gone awry.
Long before news broke of the national team’s scouting skulduggery, we had done the legwork for a story on this first Olympics for the women’s side minus Sinclair, who retired in December to close out a glorious 23-year run with the program. The squad had played a handful of matches since that game at B.C. Place, but, for many of us, Paris was set to be the first opportunity to see what they looked like without Sinclair.
We had talked to plenty of people in the weeks leading up to Paris about it. We had former national team defender-midfielder turned CBC TV analyst Clare Rustad explaining how “fans are still going to connect this team with Christine and that won’t go away quickly and nor should it.”
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We had former midfielder Andrea McNeil saying, too, that “Christine has opened up women’s football in Canada to be water cooler conversation. She’s been the pillar and the voice and the face.”
And there was Brittany Baxter (née: Timko), who’s another former midfielder, speaking about how Sinclair’s positive impact will be felt for years on the program’s players, because “how she played and how she led, I think people gravitated to wanting to learn her model.”
The climate changed abruptly. That story doesn’t work now. Those quotes have been usurped, what with word that the Canadian team flew a drone over two New Zealand closed practices to sneak footage ahead of their opening round match Thursday and followup reports that such things have happened before as well.
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Now we’ve instead got Sinclair taking to her Instagram on Friday and writing: “It’s unfortunate that the players of our National Team have had to play through condemnable actions by some of their staff as they attempt to defend our gold medal. Actions players have no control over. I want to be clear that having been a national team player for 23 years, we were never shown or discussed drone footage in team or individual meeting I’ve been present for.”
And there’s Rustad going to social media on Thursday after the announcement that Canadian coach Bev Priestman was being sent home, and writing: “Not at all surprising nor is it unjustified. But there still need to be tangible consequences for the team, as hard as that is to say as a player and to hear as a fan.”
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The premise that someone from the Canadian program was all cloak-and-dagger filming other team’s closed practices with a remote-controlled device way up in the sky is both infuriating and goofy. It’s difficult to guess what comes first here: the ESPN 30-for-30 documentary explaining what exactly happened or the Saturday Night Live skit mocking the goings-on.
It does sting regardless. It stings for the country. It stings for Canadian soccer. It stings most of all for the players, and most notably Sinclair.
She is one of Canada’s greatest athletes. Her 190 goals are the most by any player on the globe in international soccer competition — male or female. Her 331 caps are the second most by a female player and 105 better than the second-place Canadian woman. Sinclair’s achievements also include captaining Canada to a gold medal at Tokyo 2020, following up the team’s back-to-back bronze medal showings at the previous two Olympics.
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She’s remains the connection point for such a majority when it comes to soccer in this country. And now there’s this episode.
Using drones to film your own practices is standard operating procedure in international soccer now. A job posting for a performance analyst with the women’s national team that remains on the Soccer Canada website includes the ability “to operate a drone and possess working knowledge of managing training camera is preferred,” among its requirements. So is a “high level of Mac iOS computer competency using various analysis softwares and programs including Hudl product suite, Wyscout, Coach Paint, Keynote, iMovie and other presentation-based programs.”
Minor soccer, minor hockey and other youth sports have their games live-streamed on the internet now. There’s so much information out there and so many ways to package it and decipher it.
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You’re telling me that Canada wasn’t ready for New Zealand without sneaking info out of their last two practices? Maybe you come up intel regarding a player nursing an injury, but is the reward worth the risk?
A hockey coach I talked to about this said simply: “If you need to pre-scout like that 48 hours ahead of a big game at the Olympics, then you’re in trouble.”
Trouble is what they’re in now. And you feel bad for the players worst of all.
@SteveEwen
SEwen@postmedia.com
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Fitnessnacks – #easy #feel #bad #Christine #Sinclair #light #drone #debacle
Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/olympics-pmn/olympics-its-easy-to-feel-rotten-for-players-like-christine-sinclair-in-light-of-canada-soccer-drone-debacle