Canada’s love affair with its women’s soccer team illustrated again in bronze medal game ratings

This country just loves Christine Sinclair, Melissa Tancredi and Diana Matheson and the rest of the women's Olympic soccer team.

The passion of that love affair, in full TV ratings evidence when the team battled the United States on Monday, didn't wane much when gold medal dreams were gone, but the bronze was still on the line.

[Slideshow: Late goal delivers soccer bronze to Canada]

Thursday morning's bronze medal Olympic battle with France, won by Canada, 1 - 0, showed the nation had a keen interest in the outcome.

A total of 5.8 million Canadians tuned in to see at least some part of the game, with an average of 1.6 million throughout the contest.

Impressive numbers at any time of day, but even more so, considering the game started at 8 am ET, cutting out, you would think, an awful lot of western Canadians, save for the exceptionally dedicated ones who might have risen as early as 5 am PT, in order to see it.

[Related: Canada must step up to sustain soccer success]

The peak audience came, according to numbers released by the Olympic broadcast consortium (80% owned by Bell, 20% by Rogers) at approximately 9:50 am ET. That's when Matheson delivered the winning goal in extra time. 3.1 million Canadians were watching.

While the bronze medal game numbers are big, they are dwarfed by those from Monday's semi-final match with the Americans. That game saw an average of 3.8 million tuned in, while more than 10 million watched at least some part of it.

[More: Why the Canadian women's soccer team is popular]

Usain Bolt's 200 metre triumph on Thursday wasn't the draw his 100 metre win, on Sunday, was. The 200 drew an average audience of 2.7 million, the 100 drew an average of 6.2 million, the largest average audience of the games for the consortium, outside of the opening ceremony.

Now, the question remains: Will Sunday's closing ceremony outdraw the opening ceremony? Likely, yes. The opener was carried live on a Friday afternoon. If the comparison between Bolt's 100 and 200 metre wins is any kind of barometer, a Sunday afternoon viewing appointment for a big event is a recipe for boffo Olympic box office.

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