VANCOUVER — The Women’s World Cup dream is over for Canada.
Crashing out of the tournament 2-1 to England on Saturday evening at BC Place in front of 54,027 fans, a goal from captain Christine Sinclair wasn’t enough as first half strikes from Jodie Taylor and Lucy Bronze propelled the visitors to the semifinals.
“Obviously it’s not how we wanted the tournament to end,” Sinclair told reporters after the match. “Any time you get knocked out of a tournament, you’re upset, especially—I don’t think we deserved to go out like that tonight.”
Taylor opened the scoring 11 minutes in with a wonderfully taken shot from the edge of the area. An error from Lauren Sesselmann was key to the play, as the centre back failed to control a back-pass before Taylor beat Allysha Chapman and hit a strike that eluded defender Kadeisha Buchanan and goalkeeper Erin McLeod, nestling in the bottom left corner of goal.
“It’s a soccer player’s nightmare,” midfielder Sophie Schmidt said of Sesselmann’s mistake. “It happened to me in the second half, but luckily I’m a little further up the pitch and there’s defenders behind me. It’s unfortunate, but—any other time that would never have happened. But you know, we’re behind her…it’s unfortunate and that’s how soccer goes.”
Bronze doubled England’s lead in the 14th minute, as the player rose to head home a set piece by outmuscling Chapman. Her effort bounced off the crossbar before crossing the line as it rebounded down.
Canada coach John Herdman said he unsuccessfully tried to shout to get a taller player to mark Bronze, but took responsibility for his inability to get his message across over the din at BC Place.
“I’m not going to take anything off Chapman, if anything I’ve got that wrong,” said Herdman, revealing his left fullback played through an oblique tear. “I should have had height-for-height at the back there and we were trying to shout at her from the sideline and we got it wrong. They couldn’t hear a thing and that’s my problem, not Chapman’s. I’ll take that right on the chin.”
Sinclair got Canada back into the match by following up on a shot from Ashley Lawrence in the 42nd minute. Goalkeeper Karen Bardsley did very poorly on the play, failing to deal with Lawrence’s weak shot across goal. Sinclair pounced, rounding her, before firing into the empty net before two nearby defenders could intervene.
The game’s first bit of magic came in the eighth minute, as Schmidt tracked back well to dispossess Karen Carney after England’s star had beat Rhian Wilkinson at the edge of the area.
Schmidt then passed up the wing to Sinclair, who beat two players before sending a beautiful diagonal ball onto the foot of Melissa Tancredi, who controlled well and beat Bronze one-on-one, before skying the ball well over the bar when she should have tested Bardsley.
Tancredi came close again in the 18th minute, getting her head on the end of a Schmidt free kick, but her effort went well over the bar. One minute later, Sinclair found herself with a bit of room just inside the box, but the ball was on her left foot and her shot went harmlessly wide to the left of goal.
In the 28th minute, the visitors almost had three. Katie Chapman won a header from a free kick and her looping effort appeared to fool McLeod, who let the ball go, only for it to bounce off the upright before a defender cleared the danger.
England had to switch goalkeepers in the 51st minute, as starter Bardsley appeared to have some sort of eye problem, prompting the introduction of backup Siobhan Chamberlain.
McLeod pulled off a top class save in the 55th minute, swatting away a shot from Taylor with her right hand.
Sinclair couldn’t hit the target in the 64th minute with a free kick from a great position, as her shot went well over goal. Chapman generated the set piece as she was taken down just outside the left side of the area.
Steph Houghton took a free kick from a similar position down at the other end of the pitch 11 minutes later, but McLeod saved and controlled the shot comfortably.
Substitute Adriana Leon got the stadium going with a mazy run in the 82nd minute, but she couldn’t do more than generate a corner. Moments later, Leon hit a wonderful cross into the path of Schmidt, and while the midfielder connected well, she skyed her shot.
“I’m proud of [the team],” Sinclair said. “You look around the stadium tonight and there’s 50-odd thousand people wearing Canada jerseys. Young kids now dream of representing Canada, and we did that. This one stings, but in the grand scheme of things, this tournament was a huge success.”
England moves on to face Japan in Edmonton, after the Asian side defeated Australia 1-0 earlier on Saturday.