Canadian women’s soccer team wins Olympic opener at Rio 2016
Janine Beckie scores fastest soccer goal in Olympic history for Canada
The Rio Olympics don’t officially open until Friday. But the Canadian women’s soccer team helped kick off competition Wednesday with a pulsating 2-0 win over Australia despite being a player down for 70-plus minutes.
Captain Christine Sinclair set the stage for Olympic history, intercepting a pass to set up Janine Beckie’s goal just 21 seconds into the game — a tap-in that enters the Games record book as the fastest in soccer competition.
“It was a dream start,” said captain Sinclair. “I don’t think we could have drawn it up better for us. I am super proud of our team – the fight we showed and the spirit. It was a huge win for us.”
Sinclair then added icing to the cake in the 80th minute, taking a beautiful long-range pass from Jessie Fleming before rounding onrushing goalkeeper Lydia Williams and scoring from distance past a defender for her 163rd international goal — and ninth at the Olympics.
In-between the goals, Canadian defender Shelina Zadorsky was sent off in the 19th minute and will be suspended for the Zimbabwe game as a result, while Beckie missed a 73rd-minute penalty.
While it is early days at the Olympic tournament — 10th-ranked Canada still has to play No. 93 Zimbabwe and No. 2 Germany in pool play — the result left coach John Herdman’s team in good position to advance to the quarter-finals.
The Canadian Press
~Wakenya Canada
