Close isn’t enough for women
Canadians disappointed with lapses in loss to third-ranked Germany
HAMILTON— The scoreboard read as it so often has — a onegoal win for Germany — but there was another kind of victory here.
The triumph of entertainment.
You’d pay money to watch this kind of sporting spectacle and 22,826 did, cramming into Tim Hortons Field on a sunny, windy Sunday to see the Canadian women’s soccer team’s first game in their home country in six months.
It was well-paced, skilled soccer between the 2016 Olympic champions, ranked third in the world, and the Canadians, who are right behind them at No. 4. The lightning strikes of the young German team prevailed 3-2 over the ball control of the more experienced, but still evolving, Canadian side.
It was the 15th time the Germans have beaten the Canadians in 16 meetings and in six of the last seven games, the margin has been a single goal.
On Sunday, the Canucks inexplicably sagged early, surrendering a goal while the sold-out crowd was still adjusting to sitting after the national anthems.
They still trailed 1-0 at the break. But in the second half Canada fought back to lead 2-1 on goals by the iconic Christine Sinclair — now just 11 short of American Abby Wambach’s alltime record of184 international goals — and 20-year-old Jessie Fleming. The London native had the ball on her foot for a large chunk of the game, as she continues her arc toward becoming the world’s best midfielder.
Fleming scored in the 69th minute but, before the 70th had elapsed, Germany’s Sara Dabritz marched downfield and beat Canadian goalie Stephane Labbe for the equalizer. Labbe, who’d made a brilliant save in the 25th minute, deserved a better fate in this one.
“They are lethal around the box,” Canadian head coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller agreed afterward. “But they’ll be even more lethal if we give them the opportunity to be there.
“This is not against Tier 2 opposition so to come back and lead 2-1, that’s amazing, but we need to finish the job. It was 80 per cent great stuff. The last 20 we’ll work on.”
With only four days of training after his players reassembled in Ontario from their respective pro and amateur leagues, Heiner-Moller was installing a new formation (3-5-2) to take advantage of the Canadian players’ vastly-improved ball-control skills.
That worked for the most part, but a foul just outside the box in the 84th minute forced Canada to build a thicker wall on the free kick and leave the weakside post open. Labbe made a brilliant hand stop on the kick but the ball caromed off the bar to the other side, creating an easy empty-netter by Tund Knaa
“It was a tough one,” Labbe said. “We have such high expectations for ourselves now. We say we want to be No. 1 and we’re serious about it. So when we come out against these teams we want the results.
“We scored two great goals in front of Canadian fans. A good takeaway is that we are right there. We’re so close and it’s just a few small lapses that those teams are going to punish us for.”
Every player in the German lineup plays in the Frauen-Bundesliga, the fourth-highest paying league in any women’s sport. That makes it a little easier to get together for training and for team communication. Three Canadians play in that league.
The Canadians playing Sunday came from six different leagues, including the NCAA. Ten have their salaries in the North American Women’s Soccer League — which does not have a Canadian team — paid by Soccer Canada.
“Obviously we’re disappointed we lost game, and disappointed with the way we started the game,” Sinclair said. “To go up 2-1 and have them score within 15 seconds is deflating. But we put forth a positive performance we can build on for (World Cup) qualifying.”