Golden Boot

"Sinclair...Sinclair...SINCLAIR! WHO ELSE?! ONE-NIL CANADA!"

Because I don't believe anything is over until it's over, I'd like to say that it's totally possible for Christine Sinclair to not win this award after tomorrow despite her heroic antics not just yesterday, but the previous three round robin games as well. Nevertheless, the game yesterday garnered not only a Tom Larscheid or dare I say Spanish commentator homer streak in Gerry Dobson, but also a praiseworthy Stephen Brunt column about possibly being the best night for Canadian soccer for more than nationalistic purposes.

I know that soccer can turn a country into unity but it can also create chaos, as seen in the despicable foregoing of handshakes and rampant booing of alleged racism victim Patrice Evra even after a report that justified the eight-game suspension of Luis Suarez due to racial remarks. I know I'm huge in terms of being soft on crime and being slow to condemnation even when it's easy to jump on the bandwagon such as the case of the non-Sinclair-like captaincy by Francesco Schettino, but I'd rather take the high road and take active steps in pacifying this situation.

But of course, sometimes political edginess is needed for entertainment and ironic peaceful redemption, as seen in the case of Maradona in the 1986 FIFA World Cup. In the past couple of days, I somehow discussed that goal, my personal soccer strategies, the evolution of leisure throughout history, American art history, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, King Louis XVI, a book called King Louie and his adventures with elephants and gold, and an on-the-spot fictional story about the pursuit of the American dream through the wet feet, dry feet policy surrounding Cuban immigrants through their poorly-designed makeshift raft in the midst of a hurricane, which somehow descended into justified looting in the Alexander Ovechkin-made famous South Beach to save their lives before concluding on the note of wet feet.

Ovechkin should be able to do whatever he wants, for his crime committed, arguably more dangerous but less mean-spirited than Suarez's alleged racial remarks, should only prevent him from stepping on the ice for the next couple of games. In terms of the skills competition today, I suppose it had its lacklustre moments alongside moments of glory. I thought that the creative breakaway exposition would fail after the first attempts by everyone, but Corey Perry, Patrick Kane, and especially Carey Price proved me wrong.

I'm not sure if the radar guns were particularly rigged in order to set a new hardest shot record by Zdeno Chara or to highlight Jason Spezza or Daniel Alfredsson, but similar to Canada's female soccer team performance in Vancouver, it's entertaining from a fan perspective to have the home team win a golden boot of sorts in an entertaining fashion. I know it wasn't a playoff game or anything, but it wouldn't have hurt had Jim Hughson raised his excitement level to match Gerry Dobson.