Canada's Christine Sinclair scored four goals Thursday as the host nation hammered minnows Haiti 6-0 in CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying action.

Earlier in the day in the opening match of the 11-day tournament where the top two teams in the eight-nation competition advance to this summer's London Olympic Games, Costa Rica shutout Cuba 2-0 at BC Place Stadium.

Veteran Sinclair, a 28-year-old striker who plays for the Western New York Flash in the Women's Pro Soccer league, helped Canada open the scoring when she set up Christina Julien in the eighth minute.

Sinclair, a native of Burnaby, British Columbia, a suburb city of Vancouver, then demonstrated to her hometown fans why she is arguably the greatest soccer talent her country has ever produced with goals in the 25th and 44th minutes to put Canada up 3-0 at the half.

In the 55th minute when defender Rhian Wilkinson put a long volley in from the right midfield, a header by Haitian defender Fiorda Charles went directly to Melissa Tancredi.

The veteran Canadian forward neatly flipped to ball over her head to an awaiting Sinclair who took it off her right knee and then deposited it in the back of the net for a 4-0 lead.

Sinclair scored her final goal on a penalty kick in the 85th minute, while midfielder Kelly Parker closed the scoring in added time when she got two kicks at the ball, eventually finding the net behind a scrambling Haitian defense.

Player of the match Sinclair called the dominant match a huge start for Canada, a team on the comeback after finishing last at the 2011 World Cup in Germany.

"The first five to 10 minutes of the game we were a little, you know, iffy just because of the nerves, being the first game back at home in such a big tournament. But we settled down very nicely, especially later on in that first half and put the game away," she said."So the second half, yeah, was just sort of a walk through."

Canada coach John Hersdman, who took over the team in September, said his squad got "into a flow" after the first five minutes and took it to the Haitians, ranked 62nd in the world."They (the Haitians) were quite combative.

We knew they were going to come out and be quite physical, and I was just hoping we're going to keep 11 players on the pitch and in the end, (be) injury free," he said."I mean some of the tackles were flying in, but they were aggressive and strong and at times they were able to combine out wide and caused us a few problems."

Costa Rica, looking to make its first appearance in Olympic women's soccer, opened the scoring when Saudy Rosales scored the first goal of the tournament.

The Ticas, 41st in the FIFA world ranking, took advantage of a mistake by Cuban captain Yutmila Galindo who attempted to intercept a long ball down the right side in her half of the field and missed.

The defensive miscue allowed Caroline Venegas to pick up the ball and execute a low cross over to midfielder Rosales who easily converted past Cuban goaltender Lucylena Martinez on the far post 11 minutes in.

In the second half, Costa Rica went up 2-0 when Mariela Campos put Wendy Acostas in clear behind the Cuba backline and the 22-year-old defender blasted the ball up into the roof of the net over a diving Martinez.

Ticas coach Karla Aleman said her team achieved its first objective in opening the tournament with a win.

"Cuba made things tough, but luckily the players knew how to take control of the match," she said. "I am happy more than anything with the three points. There are things we have to work on.

We didn't play that well, but winning is the most important thing."

On Friday, USA, the world's top-ranked team and the Beijing Olympic gold medalists, meet the Dominican Republic in Group B action, while Mexico faces Guatemala.

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