Sydney Leroux Shushes Canadian Crowd

U.S. women’s national team forward Sydney Leroux, who was born in Vancouver, Canada, but decided to play for the United States, scored late in the match and put her fiinger to her lips to shush the crowd. It almost looked like some of her teammates were happy but shocked that she was making the gesture.

Leroux had good reason to shush the crowd, as she was booed and taunted the minute she stepped on the field. While Leroux was born in Canada, she moved to Scottsdale, Arizona in her late teens to play club and high school soccer, and then went on to attend UCLA. Since her farther is American she could play for Canada or the United States. She also grabs her jersey and shows the American flag to the crowd – as if to say this is my team, my country and who I’m proud to play for, not you.

Here’s video from a fan in the crowd right near the goal:

If it wasn’t clear to the Canadians, Leroux tweeted this message out to those wondering why she shushed the crowd. I’m sure the rivalry between the U.S. and Canada will only heat up even more in the coming years, as Canada will host the next women’s World Cup.

And it’s not the first time Leroux has sored and done a unique goal celebration. After she scored in the World Cup she didn’t hold back in showing her joy.  

Here’s what the women’s national team coach had to say about Leroux’s celebration:

“From her perspective, of all the international goals she scored so far, this far is probably the sweetest one for her and that’s probably a way to silence a crowd. But in fairness, whether she is starting or coming off the bench for us this year, she is scoring goals. The luxury that I have at this moment is that I’ve got at least four world class strikers that would walk into any other team in the world. So the challenge is trying to keep them all happy and give them playing time and hope that they keep scoring goals.”