Next gen of Canadian women's soccer offence gives veteran Sinclair relief in 1st CONCACAF W win

A blowout win was exactly what a goal-shy Canadian women's team badly needed to kick off its CONCACAF W Championship campaign. 

Julia Grosso bagged a brace, Christine Sinclair scored her 190th international goal, and three other players found the back of the net for Canada in a comprehensive 6-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday night in Monterrey, Mexico. 

Goals have been hard to come by for the Olympic champions after winning gold last summer. Going into Tuesday's encounter with the Soca Warriors, the Canadians had scored more than one once in just three of their 10 matches since beating Sweden in the final in Tokyo, including suffering through a dour 0-0 draw against South Korea in a friendly in Toronto in late June. 

But against Trinidad in its opening match of this CONCACAF tournament, which serves as the qualifier for next year's FIFA Women's World Cup, Canada rediscovered its scoring touch in registering its biggest victory since thrashing Jamaica 9-0 on Feb. 1, 2020. 

"The narrative about lack of goals, I think that plays into players getting tense," Canada coach Bev Priestman said afterward. "I was just pleased to put that to bed now and just focus on the process." 

WATCH | Sinclair scores 190th international goal in Canada's win:

What has to be especially gratifying for Priestman is that all but one of the goals on the night came after Sinclair was subbed out as part of a quadruple substitution early in the second half, a tactical switch that injected new life into a Canadian attack that had become somewhat stagnant following a dominant first half. 

The main criticism of this Canadian side over the years has been that it hasn't weaned itself off its dependency on Sinclair; that it still relies far too