CANADA’S ready to roll
Despite facing low- ranked Cuba, the home side won’t be taking any chances in tonight’s Olympic qualifi er at BC Place.
On paper, Canada should roll over Cuba when the two squads meet tonight in the CONCACAF women’s Olympic qualifying tournament.
The Canadian women overwhelmed Haiti 6- 0 in openingday play at BC Place on Thursday and the latest FIFA rankings have Cuba ranked 34 places below Haiti.
But Canadian head coach John Herdman liked what he saw from Cuba’s attacking players this week during the team’s 2- 0 loss to Costa Rica — particularly Yezenia Gallardo, Maria Perez and Dayanay Baro.
“When they’re on the ball, they’re actually good to watch,” he said. “They combined well and I think it will be a good test for us.”
Herdman noted Canadian defenders will face dangerous Costa Rican forward Raquel Rodriguez on Monday so the three Cubans should provide a good warm- up for handling “technical one- on- one” players.
Injuries have accelerated Herdman’s roster- rotation plan to keep Canadian players fresh in the gruelling CONCACAF tournament.
Defender Lauren Sesselmann and forward Christina Julien won’t play tonight as both were hurt in the win over Haiti.
Herdman hopes Sesselmann will be ready for the Costa Rica game after a knee- on- knee collision during the Haitian match, but Julien, who scored the opening goal in Canada’s decisive win, might have suffered a concussion late in the match.
“It’s an opportunity for a couple of players to stake their claim,” he said.
“Hopefully we see a great performance from Melanie Booth [ in Sesselmann’s left back spot]. She had a wonderful Pan Am Games and I’m hoping the opportunity she gets will be a big stepping stone for her.”
Centre back Carmelina Moscato, who sat out the Haiti game, will likely see action against Cuba.
“They’ll definitely pose some different challenges than Haiti because they seem to be more of an attacking team with more tools in their tool box,” she said. “But we’ll be ready because we’ve prepared for all types of opponents.
“Whatever they throw at us, I think we’ll be able to figure it out on the fly.”
Canadian captain Christine Sinclair, who scored four goals against Haiti for the second time in her career, said it’s easy to focus on the task at hand — playing Cuba — rather than dream about the crucial semifinals next Friday. The winners of those matches earn a berth to London 2012.
“Once the tournament starts, you don’t have time to look too far forward because you have a game tomorrow,” Sinclair said.
The top two finishers in each four- nation group advance to semifinal play and Canada and Costa Rica are heavily favoured to advance from Group A. The U. S. and Mexico are strong bets to advance from Group B.
Sinclair said the Haiti game was probably the first time in her career that she played a full 90 minutes as a withdrawn striker, servicing other forwards, and she loved the new role.
Sinclair’s four goals give her 124 in her international career, just two behind U. S. star Abby Wambach before Team USA’S game against the Dominican Republic on Friday. But she said the goal- scoring comparisons made about the two global stars mean absolutely nothing to her.
“A lot of people talk about it, but I could care less,” Sinclair said.
“It’s all about what our team does and it’s about getting to the Olympics.”