Canada advances to second round
GRENOBLE, France — Jessie Fleming and Nichelle Prince each had second-half goals as Canada advanced to the second round at the Women’s World Cup with a 2-0 victory over New Zealand on Saturday night.
Fleming took a wellplaced pass from Prince and scored in the 48th minute to break up a scoreless match.
Fleming, who made her debut with the senior national team at 15, currently plays for UCLA.
Prince got her goal in the 79th minute on a rebound of Christine Sinclair’s header that hit the post.
Led by Tom Sermanni, former coach of Sweden and the United States, New Zealand was hurt in the first half when defender CJ Bott was injured and had to be subbed out.
Canada, which never had advanced from the group stage playing outside of North America, will face the Netherlands in the team’s final group match on Thursday at Reims. Cameroon and New Zealand will meet the same day at Montpellier.
NETHERLANDS 3 CAMEROON 1
Vivianne Miedema scored a goal in each half to advance Netherlands into the second round for the second consecutive tournament with a victory over Cameroon at Valenciennes, France.
Miedema put the Dutch in the lead in the 41st minute of the Group E match at Stade du Hainaut and then finished it off in the 85th.
Dominique Bloodworth also scored for the Netherlands in the 48th minute, while Gabrielle Onguene got Cameroon’s goal in the 43rd.
Cameroon is in last place in the group, with no points and a minus-3 goal difference, and is all but eliminated. Cameroon plays New Zealand on Thursday, and Netherlands meets Canada in a match that kicks off at the same time.