Oct 11 2007

Canada’s soccer team earned gold yesterday at the Special Olympics Summer World Games in Shanghai, China.

The core of Canada’s soccer team, which includes Mission resident Bryce Schaufelberger, has played together for many years. The team is made up of nine male players and one female, all from British Columbia.

Team Canada came out strong in the first half of the gold medal match, but Peru scored the first goal, and held on to the lead for the entire first half. With only four minutes left in the second half, Surrey’s Rick Bussey had a kick-in from the half line. The shot was stopped by a hand ball by a young Peru player in the penalty box, and the turn of events that followed after that were all in favour of Team Canada.

Marc Theriault, the team captain from North Delta, took the penalty kick, which found the bottom left corner to give Canada the 1-1 tie. The team played a tight game until the whistle blew, sending the game into overtime.

Both teams played hard and it was no surprise the first half in overtime ended without a goal.

The second half was much the same, again both teams had limited shots on goal. The lack of goals sent the game into sudden death penalty kicks.

The penalty kicks started with Peru scoring the first goal, and Team Canada had a blocked shot. The second shots on goal for both teams found the back of the net. With Peru still up by one, Team Canada looked to its goaltender, Jay Laitar, to take the next shot.

Without hesitation, Laitar lined up for his turn and ensured the kick was on target. This tied the score for Canada, and Laitar not only put his team back on track, he stopped the next two shots. The final score in penalty kicks was 5-4 for Canada.