Soccer fans all over Canada are disappointed as Olympic champions made a traumatic exit from the FIFA World Cup for women. Needing only a draw to move to the knockout round of 16, Canadian women went down fighting to co-host Australia 0-4 in its final game of the group. The loss means exit from the World Cup after the group matches round.
Spirited Australians, who needed a win to advance, went all out keeping their opponents on their toes throughout the game. The Aussies had vociferous support from the nearly filled stadium while Canadians, with their seventh FIFA ranking notwithstanding, were virtually outplayed in a game that asserted complete supremacy of the home team.
It was Hayley Raso who opened the scoring for the Aussies in the ninth and followed it up with her second in the 39th minute. The 10th-ranked green and yellow jerseys had no problems in breaking open the Canadians’ vaunted defence while holding them without a shot on goal in the first half.
In the second half, an early goal by Mary Fowler almost sealed the fate of the Canadians before Stephanie Catley’s penalty kick in stoppage time made the result even more lopsided.
Interestingly, the home team was playing without its best player, forward Sam Kerr, who has been nursing a calf injury. She has not played in any of the last three matches. She sat on the bench and was ready to take the field in case of an urgency or emergency. But there was none as team mates made sure that Australia would clear the group hurdle to move to the knockout round of 16.
The Aussies, too, have their ups and downs. Last week they suffered a shock defeat at the hands of much lower ranked Nigeria. Nigeria, ranked 40th, also advanced to the knockout round with a goalless draw against Ireland. Canada, after today’s loss finished third in the group with a win, a loss and a draw in its three group games. Canada had a goalless draw against Nigeria and beat Ireland 2-1 in other group matches.
“I feel like we let down Canadians who watched that game,” said veteran midfielder Sophie Schmidt after the final World Cup match of her career. The 35-year-old’s 224 appearances for the national team are second only to Christine Sinclair’s 326.
Sinclair’s future is unclear, though the 40-year-old captain has likely played her final World Cup match. Reduced to a part-time player at this late stage of her extraordinary career, soccer’s all-time leader in international goals was unable to become the first player ever to score in six different World Cups. Asked whether she’ll stick around to help Canada defend its Olympic gold medal next summer in Paris, she said: “I don’t know. We’ll see. I’ll definitely have to give it some thought.”
Sinclair has also helped lead her squad’s battle with Canada Soccer for “equal pay and equal treatment” in relation to the men’s national team. A short-team agreement was reached last week with the cash-strapped federation that covered the women’s compensation for this year, but a long-term deal that closes the funding gap remains elusive.
Sinclair said today that the women’s team’s failure to make it out of the group stage (this makes five times in eight World Cup appearances) should serve as a “wake-up call” about the shortcomings of the Canadian soccer system. Those, according to her, include “the lack of resources for the national teams” and the non-existence of a domestic women’s professional league.