| Canadian women's soccer team to face Mexico | | Print | |
| Written by Dino Pasalic | ||
| Thursday, 26 January 2012 13:56 | ||
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The Canadian Women’s National Soccer Team can book their place at this summer's London games with a semi-final victory over Mexico Friday night. Canada’s dominant showing in their CONCACAF Olympic qualifying group earned them a 3-0 record, outscoring their opposition 13-1 and topping Group A. The Canucks will meet El Tri at Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium with the winner playing either Costa Rica or the United States in the final on Jan. 29. Canada has been led by the goal scoring prowess of captain Christine Sinclair who currently leads the tournament with seven goals. Managing Editor of Canadian Soccer News, Duane Rollins said Sinclair's performance will be a key factor for Canada. “No one is close to her on the Mexican team. They have some good players, but they don’t have any players that really can match her,” he told thedailyplanet.com reporter Matt Leroux.
“She is truly one of the top ten players in the world, likely on any given day. Certainly her ability to step up and play and score the big goal, and the way she’s performed in this tournament so far would indicate that they would need to shut her down and that doesn’t seem like something they can do,” said Rollins. Yahoo Sports reporter Andrew Bucholtz told thedaiyplanet.com that Canada has a great opportunity. “Canada has an excellent chance against Mexico, they’ve been more impressive than the Mexican team to this point. With a home field crowd on their side, it will definitely help. Canada’s had success against Mexico in the past and in general the Canadians are a deeper team and a stronger team than the Mexicans,“ said Bucholtz. Following this past summer’s disappointing display at the World Cup, John Herdman was brought on as head coach. Since then, the team has won gold at the 2011 Pan American Games and shown progress with their recent performances. “We wanted to progressively get better throughout the tournament and I think we’ve accomplished that,” Canadian midfielder Kelly Parker told the Toronto Star on Wednesday. 'Greater confidence'Rollins told thedailyplanet.com that recent coaching decisions by Herdman and his staff have transformed the mentality of the side. “One of the great things that John Herdman has done is he’s brought in a psychologist that’s worked with the All Blacks, the notorious rugby team that won the World Cup of rugby recently this summer,” said Rollins. “He’s working with the club now and I think that that’s really reflective of how they’re playing. They’re playing with a greater confidence.” With files from Matthew Leroux Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites |
