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Even so, she said it was worth it.

“I think maybe it would have been harder to watch this World Cup if I didn’t have this concrete evidence that it wasn’t the path for me,” she said. “I really can’t look back and ever say that I didn’t try absolutely everything.”

Knee injuries forced Lang into retirement in 2011, but with the tournament looming, and on home soil, Canadian coach John Herdman lured her back to the field. Even if she only had 10 minutes a game left in that knee, Herdman figured, those 10 minutes would make a difference for Canada.

Had she stayed on that path, Lang might have been on the field as a player last week in Edmonton or Monday in Montreal, closing a circle that began with the national team more than a decade ago. She is still with the team, but as an analyst with TSN — an analyst with a bad knee and a clear conscience.

“Sometimes,” Lang said with a smile, “I think I have a horseshoe up my butt.”

For a long time, though, the good fortune belonged to the Canadian team. Lang was a 15-year-old star, a tall, stubborn and fearless attacker. By the time she was in high school, in Oakville, Ont., she was signing autographs for students only a few grades behind her. The school principal fielded interview requests from the media. She was a celebrity.

She was part of the team in 2002 when, at the under-19 world championship — an event that began almost in secret — the Canadian women captured the imagination of viewers across the country. The team advanced to the final, in Edmonton, drawing 47,784 fans to Commonwealth Stadium. Canada lost to the United States, but something had changed.