Emotional Christine Sinclair manages to keep perspective following Canada's stinging loss

VANCOUVER – There was evidence of tears on the faces of every Canadian player as they streamed out of the locker room over 90 minutes after Saturday's 2-1 loss to England in the quarterfinals at the Women's World Cup. None wore a more pained facial expression than Christine Sinclair.

Canada was eliminated from their home World Cup after they were unable to erase an early two goal deficit, but Sinclair – the hometown hero – was terrific. It was easily her individual performance of the tournament, providing us with a reminder of why she's earned the reputation as one of the top players of her generation.

Sinclair conjured up some of that magic inside 10 minutes, making a daring run up the right side of the field, nutmegging not one but two English players, then settling herself to send a perfect cross to fellow forward Melissa Tancredi, only for Tancredi to shoot and high and wide of the net. Less than five minutes later England led 2-0 and there was no coming back for Canada, regardless of how hard Sinclair fought.

Her goal itself won't end up on any highlight reels — Sinclair bundled in a rebound in the 42nd minute to make it 2-1 after English goalkeeper Karen Bardsley bumbled a save — but her tremendous instincts put her in a position to score a goal her team desperately needed.

It's an overused sports cliche, but Sinclair really left it all out on the field. Unfortunately for her, it's England and not Canada that is advancing to the semifinals to take on Japan.

"Speaking with Christine, she's saying 'sorry'," said Canadian coach John Herdman. "She can't say sorry. She was just a legend again tonight. She was outstanding."

But that's who she is, accountable to a fault. As she struggled to process the crushing defeat, Sinclair huddled the entire team on the field once last time, wanting them to keep perspective on the big picture.

"You look around the stadium and there's 50,000 people wearing Canada jerseys. The young kids can now dream of representing Canada – and we did that." said Sinclair, who also told reporters she absolutely plans to play at the 2019 World Cup when she'll be 36. "This one stings, but in the grand scheme of things, this tournament was a huge success."

Here's what's clear from those comments: Even through the tears, Sinclair still has great vision on and off the pitch.

- - - - - - -

Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr