Canada 5-0 Australia
by Ben Gilby (2/12/23).
Above: Three of Canada’s four goalscorers come together to celebrate – (from left to right) Adriana Leon, Nichelle Prince, and Cloe Lacasse. Photo: CANWNT.
An Australia side, which could be described at best as “experimental” crashed to a 5-0 defeat to Canada on Vancouver Island in the first of the two-match series marking the end of Christine Sinclair’s international career.
Speaking after the game, head coach Tony Gustavsson said: “We said we wanted to go extreme today and really test ourselves against one of the best teams in the world.” That they did.
Going into the international window, the Matildas were already without Sam Kerr, Mackenzie Arnold, and Charli Grant. For this match, Emily van Egmond, Mary Fowler, Alanna Kennedy, Hayley Raso, Katrina Gorry, and Kyra Cooney-Cross came off the bench. The likes of Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, Clare Hunt, and Ellie Carpenter were unused substitutes.
Coming into the backline was Charlize Rule after an impressive start to her WSL career with Brighton and Hove Albion. Remy Siemsen, who has missed a fair chunk of the same league this season with Leicester City due to injury started up front. Amy Sayer was retained after her impressive string of performances in the Olympic qualifiers in October. Sarah Hunter, who is beginning to break into the Paris FC matchday squad after her move came into the midfield.
Conversely, Canada started with seven of the team that won the Gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics to pose the toughest of tests for the Matildas.
The boutique Starlight Stadium was filled to its capacity of just over 6,000 on a night when the temperature did not get above zero degrees.
The home side hit the front 10 minutes in when Rule played the ball back for Clare Polkinghorne. The most capped Matilda had her pocket picked by Nichelle Prince around 15 yards from goal. The Canadian star advanced and cooly slotted into the right-hand corner of the net.
Teagan Micah denied both Prince and Vanessa Gilles before the half-hour mark. Prince’s sparkling form continued with a shot that went agonisingly wide of the post. However, her performance would be rewarded with her second of the night.
Three minutes before the break, Canada found space in the midfield to play out to the right flank where Ashley Lawrence showed her pace to accelerate away from Tameka Yallop and play a delightful square ball for an unmarked Prince to poke home first-time from just inside the box.
Any hopes of a recovery in the second half were undone within three minutes after another defensive woe. Adriana Leon went down in a challenge by Rule, which saw possession fall to Hunter at the back for Australia. However, Arsenal star Cloe Lacasse pounced to dispossess the Matildas midfielder on the edge of the box and calmly ran through to slide her finish past Micah.
Just six minutes later it became 4-0. Jayde Rose had the freedom to accelerate along the right and fire in a pacey ball which was initially headed clear but came out to Simi Awujo centrally just outside the area on the bounce and the midfielder fired home a low shot.
Just after the hour mark it got worse still. Kadeisha Buchanan released Jordyn Hutiema on the right. Her fierce shot from the byline was pushed up by Micah to the back post where it was headed goalwards once more by Sydney Collins and directed over the line by the head of Leon.
Whilst stats never tell the full story of the match, Canada had 19 shots to Australia’s two, with The Matildas having one on target to the hosts’ eight. Canada also bossed the corner count seven to one. With such an experimental offensive line, it was always going to be a massive challenge for Australia to break through Canada’s experienced and high-quality back line. In order to stay in the game, The Matildas needed their own defence to remain as watertight as possible for as long as possible. Neither eventuated.
One cannot help but feel that Gustavsson’s hand was forced in his selection for this game by the Matildas’ stars’ club sides requesting a lighter load for their players this window with major WSL and Champions League clashes coming immediately after the second match of this window. Despite this, I expect those who were on the bench tonight to play a far longer role in the second match this window on Tuesday night Canadian time.
In his post-match media conference, the Matildas boss said: “We said we wanted to go extreme today and really test ourselves against one of the best teams in the world,” he explained. “We tried to play out from the back, tried to break lines, tried to combine to see where we are in that process, both as a team and also with individual players. That cost us – we knew that could cost us.”
Despite the outcome, Gustavsson saw some positive takeaways. “The 30 minutes with Charlie Rule’s centre-back play was impressive. She hasn’t played that before. She has a profile that we think is exciting if you want to play more with the ball and I think her last 30 minutes was very impressive.”
“There was still enough there to feel that we had a balance and a structure,” the Australia boss noted. “But I really credit the players for being committed to what we did. A couple of players have already said it straight after the game – this is exactly what we needed.”
Teams: CANADA (3-4-3): Sheridan, Rose, Gilles, Buchanan, Lawrence, Fleming, Awujo, Collins, Leon, Prince, Lacasse. Substitutes used: Zadorsky, Huitema, Sinclair, Schmidt, St-Georges, Abdu.
Scorers: Prince 10′, 43′. Lacasse 49′, Awujo 55′, Leon 62′.
AUSTRALIA (4-4-2): Micah, Nevin, Luik, Polkinghorne, Rule, Chidiac, Wheeler, Hunter, Yallop, Sayer, Siemsen. Substitutes used: van Egmond, Fowler, Kennedy, Raso, Gorry, Cooney-Cross.
Attendance: 6,102.
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