“The ball bounced to me and I chose to juggle it a little bit and I turned and shot”, Sinclair said. And he was true to his word when the starting lineup came out. Canada will return goalkeeper Erin McLeod, whose rare time-wasting penalty set up Abby Wambach’s game-tying penalty kick, and Christine Sinclair, who scored all three of her team’s goals that night.
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Teenager Deanne Rose was also left on the bench. “Time to do the unexpected Sunday!” she tweeted after the Costa Rica win.
Carli Lloyd’s headers in the 13th and 23rd minutes were off and the Canadians were surprisingly adept at stopping the US attack in the first half.
The United States finally punched through with Horan’s header that was misjudged by Canadian goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe. Defender Kadeisha Buchanan slipped on the play. But after setting up shop in the Canadian half for the latter portion of the first half and early minutes of the second, the US scored in the 53rd and 61st minutes to render Herdman’s plan as useful as the Maginot Line. The 21-year-old center midfielder headed a 40-yard pass from center back Becky Sauerbrunn to open the scoring in dramatic fashion.
“Our goal is going to be to go out and be the best tactically proficient team we can be, and to bring to the pitch numerous elements we have been working on over the past few months as we’ve evolved”.
The physical approach antagonized the home fans and nudged the foul count upwards rapidly, but worked to knock the favored Americans off their rhythm.
The margin of victory could have been more. It has been nearly 15 years since Canada beat the US 3-0 at the Algarve Cup in March 2001.
Herdman, whose roster has been deepened by the addition of some talented youngsters, has rotated his roster throughout the tournament.
He lamented, too, that he couldn’t get some of his youngest players into the game, the emerging talents who rightly feed a sense of optimism for the Canadians, even as they stare off into the distance of a post-Sinclair world. Melissa Tancredi wore the captain’s armband. Let’s also note that her dynamic run and service on Tobin Heath’s opener took pressure off the Americans in a must-win game. Each time they went wide of the goal but the American’s bright play exposed the Canadians on the wings.
The tournament is due to draw to a close on Sunday (February 21) with the Canada and the U.S. seeking to claim gold in Houston. A tough task considering that going into Sunday’s final, Canada’s all-time record against the US was 2-42-6. I think she’s got to keep grinding away, and be able to continue to keep that level for an entire game. Canada went on to earn bronze – thanks to a Matheson stoppage-time goal – while the US won gold for the third Games in a row and fourth in five Olympics.
The Americans assured their spot for this summer’s Rio de Janeiro Games on Friday night with a 5-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament.
Both teams have been dominant en route to the final here.
Although less than a year has passed since the World Cup, the US squad will feature at least five players new to top-tier competition, thus necessitating high-end friendlies.
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Herdman will now ponder his roster options ahead of the Rio Games. Not just take her but play her. Not just play her but start her. And not just start her but do so when a loss, as improbable as it might have been given the opponent, would have been catastrophic.
