CHARLESTON, S.C. (July 22, 2009) - Christine Nairn, the youngest player on the U.S. roster at 18-years-old, scored a dramatic winning goal in the 89th minute as the U.S. Women’s National Team defeated Canada, 1- 0, on a humid night at Blackbaud Stadium.
Nairn entered the game in the 81st minute to earn just her second career cap and tallied on a wild scramble in front of the Canadian net. With the U.S. pushing for a winning goal, midfielder Angela Hucles spun a hard cross from the wing to the near post where Abby Wambach jumped high to flick the ball in the air as Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod, her teammate on the WPS’ Washington Freedom, plowed into her from behind.
Nairn, who turns 19 on Sept. 25, becomes the youngest player to score for the USA since Heather O’Reilly tallied her first career goal in a 4-0 win against Italy on Oct. 6, 2002, when she was 17 years and 277 days old.
Nairn was a member of the U.S. team that won the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup last fall and is age-eligible for the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Germany. She enrolled at Penn State in the middle of the last academic term due to her commitment to the U- 20s and will play her first college match this August as a freshman.
"I was first of all excited to get in the game, but Cheney did all the hard work and I was just there to make sure it went in the goal," said Nairn, who debuted for the USA in its 4-0 victory against Canada on May 25. "I’ll take it if I can. If Abby didn’t make that run and that touch, and Cheney didn’t follow it up, I wouldn’t have made it. It’s awesome. I can’t even explain how I feel right now its awesome to even be on this team and be considered for this team so to put one away like that and win the game is a great feeling."
Christine Nairn, is the first Freestate Player to play for the Senior National Team. Christine started with Freestate at the U9 age group with the Freestate Shooters who just finished their last season with Freestate this past June losing in the finals at the USYS Region 1 Championships in West Virginia.
