Spirited Haiti scares Brits
Denmark, Japan open with wins
The champions of Europe had to struggle for a 1-0 win over a Haiti lineup feeding off Melchie Dumornay’s forays through the England defense and Kerly Theus’s series of athletic saves in its Women’s World Cup debut Saturday in Brisbane, Australia.
The difference between the world’s No. 4-ranked team and the unheralded, under-resourced, No. 53-ranked team from strife-torn Haiti came down to a handball.
A retaken penalty from Georgia Stanway in the 29th minute was enough for England to earn three points, the primary objective in the Group D opener for England manager Sarina Wiegman. But it did expose some deficiencies in her injury-depleted team.
“Haiti were unpredictable, they’re very transitional. That’s what they showed,” Wiegman said. “We were struggling with that. The win is the most important thing, but now we need the final thing in finishing our chances.”
England had 19 shots on goal, including 10 on target. Theus made a succession of saves to keep Haiti in the contest, even stopping Stanway’s first penalty attempt before a VAR review ruled encroachment and gave the England midfielder a second chance — which she drilled inside the left post.
Haiti, drawing on players based mainly in France and the United States, wanted to bring some positive news to a country in turmoil. For them, the narrow loss could be viewed as a win, of sorts.
“We’re very proud of our performance,” coach Nicolas Delépine said. “We’ve worked very hard and it was a huge test for us. We were very close to England, but there are always things we can do better on the pitch.”
Japan spoils debut
Hinata Miyazawa scored a pair of goals, while Mina Tanaka and Jun Endo each added a goal and an assist, as Japan shut out Zambia, 5-0, in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Miyazawa found the back of the net with one-time finishes on either side of halftime to secure an easy win over the Copper Queens in their World Cup debut. Tanaka, denied goals twice on offside calls, scored in similar fashion in the 55th minute, assisted by Endo.
Endo then scored in the 71st minute, finding herself alone on the left side of goalkeeper Catherine Musonda’s goal and slotting home a left-footed strike.
Sub drives Denmark
Substitute Amalie Vangsgaard scored in the 90th minute as Denmark beat China, 1-0, in Perth, Australia.
With time running out in a game of few chances, she rose to head home Pernille Harder’s late corner.
Vangsgaard had only come on in the 85th and made a quick impact with her first goal for the country. It was also the first headed goal of the tournament and sparked joyous celebrations from Denmark’s players.
The win saw the Danes go level with European champions England at the top of Group D.
Josefine Hasbo had looked like blowing Denmark’s chance of victory after missing a golden opportunity to score early in the second half. With an open goal to aim at, she headed over the bar from inside the area.
Vangsgaard was more clinical when her chance came, with a looping effort from deep in the box that bounced before crossing the line.
Tuning in
The American’s 3-0 victory over Vietnamv drew 6.26 million viewers, making it the mostwatched soccer telecast in the United States since last year’s Men’s World Cup final.
It is also the largest combined English- and Spanish-language audience for a US women’s group stage match.
Saturday’s match in Auckland, New Zealand — which kicked off at 9 p.m. Friday night — averaged 5.26 million viewers on Fox, making it the secondmost watched group stage telecast since Fox started covering it in 2015. Fox and Nielsen said the audience peaked at 6.5 million.
Fox and Nielsen said viewership nearly doubled from the first United States group stage match four years ago in France against Thailand, which started at 2:30 p.m.