Americans get cherry on the cake
– Rose Lavelle and Alex Morgan scored goals as the United States sealed victory in the Concacaf Women’s Championship with a 2-0 defeat of Canada in the final on Wednesday.
Lavelle swept in a longrange effort after two minutes before Morgan pounced in the 89th minute as the world champions completed a dominant campaign at San Francisco’s Toyota Stadium.
The eight-team tournament doubled as a qualifier for next year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup and the US had already assured their qualification
Los Angeles
after a 6-0 thrashing of Jamaica in the semifinals on Sunday.
Against Canada, the US women were made to work harder but once again showed their ruthless streak to finish the tournament with five wins out of five, having scored 26 goals and conceding none.
Morgan’s seventh goal of the tournament took her international tally to 97 goals from 151 appearances, leaving her on track to become the seventh US player to score 100 international goals or more.
The win stretched the
London
The collapse of the deal to sell Wembley Stadium has been described as a “huge disappointment” and a missed opportunity by two of the biggest sponsors of grassroots facilities.
Fulham owner Shahid Khan had offered the Football Association £600 million for the national stadium, as well as letting it keep the Club Wembley hospitality business, worth around £300m.
But the American withdrew his offer on Wednesday.
FA chairman Greg Clarke and CEO Martin Glenn were both strongly in favour of the deal and wanted to use the money to fix England’s dilapidated changerooms, waterlogged pitches and stretched 3G facilities.
But in separate statements, Glenn admitted the proposed sale had been “more divisive than anticipated”, US’ unbeaten streak to 26 games. Their last defeat came against Australia in a friendly in July 2017.
With the US and Canada having booked their places in France next year, Jamaica were the other team to seal their ticket after defeating Panama in the third-place play-off.
The Jamaicans prevailed 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out after the match finished level at 2-2 after extra time.
Panama now face a playoff against the third- placed team from South American qualifying for a place in the finals. – while Khan said it had become clear “there is no definitive mandate to sell Wembley”.
The UK’s largest sports charity, the Football Foundation, would have been the vehicle the FA used to pick, manage and fund the projects, as it currently does with the funding it receives from the FA, Premier League and government.
“News that Mr Khan has decided to withdraw his offer to buy Wembley should come as a huge disappointment to community footballers everywhere,” it said in a statement.
“Football participation in this country is huge. Unfortunately, those who play the game, simply for the love of doing so and for the health benefits, are having to put up with a stock of community football facilities that is in a shameful state.
“This would have been a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to make considerable inroads into probably the most pressing issue facing football in this country.”
Nick Bitel, the chairman of Sport England, the government agency that funds grassroots sport, also expressed his disappointment.
“We agree with the view that the Wembley Stadium offer was a huge opportunity to boost funding into the development and maintenance of artificial and grass pitches up and down the country,” he said. –