Also: Huge Shock in German Cup; MUFC Updates; Ballon D’Or nonsense; Big matches this weekend; and more!

One day my daughter’s favourite player – man or woman – will likely be Julia Grosso or Evelyne Viens (who plays on our beloved AS Roma squad).

Though on the men’s side, she cheers for Lionel Messi and Lorenzo Insigne and Paulo Dybala (amongst others), when asked who her favourite player is, the reply has been “Christine Sinclair” for as long as we can remember.

The world record holder for national team goals scored with 190 goals through 329 international matches with the senior team (man or woman), Sinclair will retire with plenty of individual and team accolades at both the national and club level.

But, more than that, a woman from Canada is her sport’s GOAT and there are tens of thousands of girls and women (and any gender really) who honour her legacy week in and week out when they take the field.

I first bought an Umbro Team Canada jersey over a decade ago not because of the men’s team, but because our women – led by a still-teenage Sinclair – were set to make a statement on the world scene.

And though an argument could be made for one or two others, Sinclair has played against and outplayed the very best to do it on the biggest stages.

One of only three players to score at five different World Cups – Marta and Cristiano Ronaldo also accomplished the feat – Sinclair finishes her international career with an Olympic gold in 2021 (2020 Tokyo Games) and two bronze medals (2012 and 2016), to go with winning the CONCACAF Women’s Championship in 2010, the Pan Am Games in 2011, the Algarve Cup in 2016, three Cyprus Women’s Cups (2008, 2010 and 2011) and a Four Nations Tournament title in 2015.

To go along with Canadian National Team honours, Sinclair also won two NCAA Division I titles with the University of Portland, as well as five professional titles: the 2010 WPS Championship with FC Gold Pride, the 2011 WPS Championship with Western New York Flash, and the 2013, 2017 NWSL Championships, and 2022 with Portland Thorns FC.

Individually, Sinclair won the Lou Marsh Trophy for Canadian Athlete of the Year and Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as the Canadian Female Athlete of the Year in 2012. The next year she was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame and in 2018 was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. FIFA finally acknowledged Sinclair internationally in January 2022 when she was honoured with the a FIFA Best Special Award, as the world’s all-time leading scorer.

All the team trophies and individual accolades are boosted by some unforgettable highlights on the pitch.

Debuting in 2000 at age 16 and scoring 15 goals in 18 appearances to get the ball rolling on her world record.

Putting the Canadians on her back time and again to get results in matches they could have lost. There were too many of these to recount and of course the bronze medal winning goal in 2016 against Brazil, and her overall leadership throughout the tournament in the 2021 gold medal win, also the tournament winning goal against Mexico from the penalty spot in the 2010 Gold Cup final.

All of those moments were fantastic for various reasons. But, the one moment which will always standout is THE Hat Trick against the U.S. in the semi-finals at the 2012 Olympics (part of her tournament topping six goals scored). Though Canada lost in extra time 4-3 thanks to some very questionable calls by the match official, it was a moment to remember as it was abundantly clear who the best player on the field and in the world was at that moment.

Sinclair recently completed a two-game exhibition set with Brazil (a 1-0 loss in Montreal last week followed by a 2-0 win in Halifax on Tuesday) and it was fitting moment to see two of the all time greats share a moment when Marta an Sinclair exchanged jerseys with each other’s name on it.

Her final two matches will be near home for the GOAT from Burnaby, B.C. The first will be on Dec. 1 in Langford on the Island and the final match with be very close to home in Vancouver. In both cases, Canada will take on Australia as another one of the best on the planet, this time the Matildas’ Sam Kerr will get the opportunity to say farewell to well-respected rival.

For all she’s done for everyone of us – especially my daughter and all the girls I’ve coached over the years – Thank You G.O.A.T.

HUGE SHOCK IN GERMAN CUP

It was one of those matches that a Bayern Munich victory seemed all too predictable to go any other way: Bayern playing a lower division club on the road in the second round of the DFB-Pokal (German Cup). Perhaps the only pre-match debate would be the quality of play and how many goals they would score.

Well, someone forgot to tell third-division Saarbruecken, who were playing at home and with nothing to lose became the talk of the football world as they knocked out the perennial Bundesliga champions and Champions League elite club from Munich.

What’s even stranger than Saarbrueken (who are placed 15th in their division) winning was the fact they needed to come from behind to do it. Bayern were ahead 1-0 in the 16th minute, but allowed the lower-level club to level the match before halftime and then score a deflected winner late in the second half of Saarbrueken’s 2-1 victory.

Not even Hollywood would have the guts to write a fictional tale of this magnitude, but somehow it happened.

For Canadian fans, they’ll be sad to know that Les Rouges superstar Alphonso Davies was on the pitch for the whole match against Saarbrueken.

While Saarbrueken will continue toiling in the lower division of German football until their next Cup match (the draw was not made at the time of this writing), Bayern Munich’s life gets tougher before it gets easier as after making headlines for the wrong reason, they get to travel to face archrivals Borussia Dortmund in the first installment of this season’s Der Klassiker (The Classic).

A win by Dortmund means they leapfrog Bayern and move into second place in the Bundesliga. That match goes at 1:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, November 4.

DAZN Canada streams all Bundesliga Matches.

MLS PlayoffS

Forgot to mention this last week, but for some strange reason Major League Soccer decided to do a very North American-style best-of-three series in the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs after a one-match wild card round.

Now, if every round would be best-of-three, I could get on board. However, it’s only in the first round with the rest of the playoffs (quarter-finals, semi-finals and final) being single match eliminations held at the home field of the higher seed with extra time followed shootouts used if necessary to determine a winner.

The one thing I really like about MLS playoffs is the fact that the higher seeded team gets the home advantage all the way through and including the final. This makes more sense to me than a neutral site match and rewards the teams who performed well all season long.

Back to this ridiculous best-of-three round 1 situation. Each match needs to have a winner, but if tied after 90 minutes will go directly to penalty kicks. The format is the higher seed team hosts the first match and, if necessary, the third one. The lower seed gets the second match at home.

In the first games of the series only one away team won, meaning seven teams are at home needing a win to avoid elimination with wild card qualifier Kansas City having a chance to knocked out the Western Conference top seed after beating St. Louis 4-1 in the first game.

Here are this weekend’s matches and where things stand. Home teams listed first.

Saturday, November 4

New York vs. Cincinnati, 7 p.m. (Cincy leads the series 1-0)
Dallas vs. Seattle, 9 p.m. (Seattle leads the series 1-0)

Sunday, November 5

Kansas City vs. St. Louis, 5 p.m. (Kansas City leads 1-0)
Vancouver vs. LAFC, 7:30 p.m. (LAFC leads 1-0)

Monday, Nov. 6

Real Salt Lake vs. Houston Dynamo, 9 p.m. (Houston leads 1-0)

Tuesday, November 7

Atlanta United vs. Columbus Crew, 7 p.m. (Columbus leads 1-0)
Nashville SC vs. Orlando City SC, 9 p.m. (Orlando leads 1-0)

Wednesday, Nov. 8 

New England Revolution vs. Philadelphia Union, 7 p.m. (Philly leads 1-0)

MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and TSN will have the matches in Canada.

MUFC Updates

For MUFC U13 and older players (and parents), letters went out this week to invite those who made their respective teams asking for a relative quick reply as to whether or not the players would be accepting their roster spot.

If you were expecting a letter and haven’t received one, please check your spam/junk mail folder just in case. Replies are due this weekend.

As well, coaching staffs for the respective teams from the U10 development through U18 competitive were announced this week.

Though we can’t list everyone to ensure each coaching staff has been made aware of their selection by the club before the public is privy, we can announce that the U12 girls staff will be made up of Coach Chris (me), Coach Alex Woods, and 2023’s Team Manager of the Year Sarah Smith.

Development aged teams, U12 and under, will be receiving their lists of returning players and potential new players from the two Development days that will be invited to register for the full 2024 program (indoor and outdoor).

Once I am able to announce the full list of coaching staffs for each team, I will share with the public in this weekly column.

Now, if only we had a dome to practice in . . .

Ballon d’or NONSENSE

This trophy shouldn’t even be allowed to exist anymore after the women’s side of football was treated like an afterthought and though the winner was deserved, other decisions were incomprehensible.

In terms of the Ballon D’Or as a whole, let’s begin with what they got right: both the men’s and women’s winners were right (though some argued about the men’s side).

Lionel Messi, the men’s footballing G.O.A.T. winning an eighth Ballon D’Or from France Football for footballer of the year was a solid choice for his overall quality of play and finally winning the World Cup. Though I can see the argument for others, Messi is still a deserving winner.

On the women’s side of things, Aitana Bonmatí from Spain was a very, very worthy choice to win the Ballon D’Or. She was the best player on the World Cup winners this summer, and helped lead Barcelona to becoming champions of Spain and Europe in the spring.

Where the problem lies is the other parts surrounding the ceremony. For instance, there are only two awards that women can win – the Ballon D’Or and Women’s Team of the Year (Barcelona) – compared to six for men (we’ll list the other winners below).

As well, why would they hold this ceremony during a women’s international break which prevented many prominent athletes from attending and honouring their fellow standout player. Bonmati herself couldn’t enjoy the evening much as she traveled in between matches to attend – having to leave quickly to rejoin her Spain teammates.

One thing that stood out to many, but that I initially missed, was that tennis legend Novak Djokovic was on hand to give the trophy to Bonmati. He’s a world famous athlete and arguably the greatest of all time in his sport, but there were so many other options and plenty of high profile women athletes to give the honour of presenting the award.

In terms of awards, treble-winners Manchester City were the men’s team of the year; the Kopa Trophy for the best male U-21 player went to Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid, England); the Yachine Trophy for the best goalkeeper was awarded to Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa, Argentina); the Gerd Müller Trophy for the highest-scoring male striker was won by Erling Haaland (Manchester City, Norway); and the Socrates Award to acknowledge humanitarian work went to Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Brazil).

For years France Football’s Ballon D’Or has had a ton of controversy for who it picked as its winners (see lead of this column for one player who should have won one but didn’t).

Though all the winners this year seemed to be right (or as close to right as possible), they truly muffed their spot kick when it came to celebrating the better-than-ever women’s game.

This Weekend’s Big Matches

Serie A’s weekend line-up of matches leaves a lot to be desired in terms of headline acts. However, never sleep on a match with Cagliari and Genoa, who both tend to score and concede a lot of goals. Cagliari came from down 3-0 last weekend to win 4-3 over Frosinone, while Genoa has 11 goals for and 14 goals against in 10 matches this season. Obviously, we’ll be paying attention to our beloved Lupi (AS Roma) as they host Lecce on Sunday at noon, while Atalanta vs Inter on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Fiorentina at home to Juventus on Sunday at 2:45 p.m. are also somewhat intriguing.

All Serie A matches are available to stream on FuboTV Canada, while full schedule, results and standings can be found at https://www.legaseriea.it/en

In England, Luton Town host Liverpool on Sunday (11:30 a.m. EST), so it’s a battle between two of my favourite Englishmen’s clubs. It’s the Premiership so anything can happen, but likely the competitive part of the match will be the banter between two good friends Jez (Luton) and Graham (Liverpool).

Yes, yes, I know Newcastle hosting Arsenal (Saturday at 1:30 p.m.) and Tottenham at home to Chelsea (Monday at 3 p.m.) are huge in terms of the table, but the tiny 135-plus year old Luton Town club having a go at the mighty Liverpool – conquerors of Europe on multiple occasions – is the stuff of legends.

EPL matches are streamed on FuboTV Canada, while full results, schedule and standings can be found at: https://www.premierleague.com/

I already mentioned Der Klassiker above, while not many eye-catching things are happening this weekend in La Liga (streaming on TSN+) or Ligue 1 (streaming on FuboTV Canada).