GDT: FIFA Women's World Cup - Edmonton 2015 - Game 1: China @ Canada, June 6 @ 3 PM

[Baby Nilsson]

poor instinct in the final third so far..

 

[RattsSSV]

Gotta love the way Buchanan threw herself in the line to draw a foul.

 

[DrDrai]

Canada not looking too dangerous, Asian teams always play an organized defence, a really frustrating system to play against

 

[RattsSSV]

Come on!

 

[Tom Brady]

Penalty kick for Canada.

 

[DrDrai]

Penalty shot in the 90th min for canada...here we go

 

[RattsSSV]

Yes! Great Shot.

 

[DrDrai]

Lucky break, but hopefully a win here

 

[Tom Brady]

Beautiful finish by Sinclair, until that moment Canada played poorly, IMO.

 

[RattsSSV]

Not a great game by any means but a win is a win.

 

[DrDrai]

A reality check in the first game isn't a bad thing, hopefully they have a better performance next game

 

[Reilly13]

Big win!

 

[SDig14]

As far as I could tell, they were playing the Minnesota Wild of a few years ago of soccer, so I'm not shocked they had a tough time offensively.

Don't know much about soccer but China seemed to always have an extra player back and rarely had players push up quickly.

Not much gap between their defense and offense.

 

[Jepprey]

Sinclair is the goat. No doubt about it.

 

[Kirikanoir]

Arguably the greatest women`s soccer player of all time and certainly the best Canadian soccer player ever Christine Sinclair gets it done in clutch time once again. Canada was a bit sloppy in the game but still manages the win and gives a great boost to their chances of getting out of their group. I expect after getting rid of the opening game jitters that they will come out and play much better next game vs New Zealand.

 

[Replacement*]

man the center back(s) are such poor passers.. all they need to do is make the simple pass and they still mess it up.

Yeah the service was awful all day. Canada would have some good development going, find people in open space who couldn't complete the simplest of forward passes. With all kinds of time. I watched time and time again that Canadian movement found a person wide open who had time to arch a cross into the penalty area or onto a breaking player and botched it EVERY time.

Not a good performance by Canada but I'll take the win. Frankly Netherlands looked better in 2nd tilt and shouldn't. Team Canada looked like it rarely plays together and that it hasn't had enough match experience.

Thank heavens for Sinclair and getting the gift penalty kick in injury time but Canada should have had more going against China.

 

[guymez]

A reality check in the first game isn't a bad thing, hopefully they have a better performance next game

A reality check indeed.
Sloppy play and an inability to take the play out wide and disperse the Chinese defence nearly cost Canada a win.

Maybe it was nerves but that was a very unimpressive win. They have to be better than that if they are going to be a Final 8 team in this tournament.

Hopefully their play will pick up (a lot) starting in their next game on Thursday.

 

[KCC]

Lucky break, but hopefully a win here

Yeah I just saw the highlights. Personally I thought that was a brutal call and that it was a lucky break for Canada. But hey, a win is a win.

 

[Replacement*]

As far as I could tell, they were playing the Minnesota Wild of a few years ago of soccer, so I'm not shocked they had a tough time offensively.

Don't know much about soccer but China seemed to always have an extra player back and rarely had players push up quickly.

Not much gap between their defense and offense.

I can't even give China that much credit. They weren't even defending well. They were overpursuing and most of the game leaving farside flank wide open. Which Canada execute on occasion but even when they did their crosses and passes to breaking players were absolutely abysmal. Of around 25 of these passes made in the match none were successful. The service was that bad. On the day the best passes for Team Canada, and at least 4 of them came from Erin Mcleod who was pinpoint hitting people 70yds away. When no other Canadian was hitting a 30yd pass upfield.

That's a huge concern as this tournament develops.

Also that Canadas back end looked extremely suspicious at times under the very mundane attack China could bring is problematic. Sesselmans pass back to Mcleod that was basically a misfooted pass sending a China player in alone was among the worst plays I've seen in Soccer ever. Short of a player scoring an own goal.

I understand Team Canada is playing with nerves. I also understand that a dozen players on that roster ought to be able to handle this by now and have had in some cases over a dozen years experience with it. Only Sinclair and Mcleod did handle the pressure. A lot of other players folded. Fortunately the opponent was China, and fortunately we won on an extra time penalty kick.

 

[Replacement*]

Yeah I just saw the highlights. Personally I thought that was a brutal call and that it was a lucky break for Canada. But hey, a win is a win.

Sitting in the crowd on an amazing day with over 53K fans one almost wonders if this is FIFA throwing Canada a crumb after the abysmal and worst ever soccer ruling in the Olympics that everybody knows was a blatant botched call that empowered the US win in the single greatest game a Womens Soccer player had ever played (Sinclair) Canada was robbed of that moment. It lives in infamy. Fans yesterday were even mocking the China goalie and counting down from 10 each time she touched the ball. Which would be hard for the officials not to notice.

 

[Connor McSaviour]

Sitting in the crowd on an amazing day with over 53K fans one almost wonders if this is FIFA throwing Canada a crumb after the abysmal and worst ever soccer ruling in the Olympics that everybody knows was a blatant botched call that empowered the US win in the single greatest game a Womens Soccer player had ever played (Sinclair) Canada was robbed of that moment. It lives in infamy. Fans yesterday were even mocking the China goalie and counting down from 10 each time she touched the ball. Which would be hard for the officials not to notice.

I don't think that game was regulated by FIFA to be completely honest. Does FIFA take care of the refs and such in the Olympics?

 

[Replacement*]

I don't think that game was regulated by FIFA to be completely honest. Does FIFA take care of the refs and such in the Olympics?

My understanding is FIFA sanctions the Olympic participation and rules in the Olympic Soccer tournament and that some overlapping officials, refs, are used.

That said its my sense we got thrown a crumb here, an even up call. China was jobbed this time actually and I'm sure their delegation is feeling that way. The other optic, and FIFA are rarely beyond this, is that the tournament is financially successful, or not, with Canada advancing far. This latter point indelibly stamped with a Womens record over 53K paying customers in the stands.

For Canada not to advance from group stage and draw in one of the weakest group stage matches would cast a pall over the entire proceeding. Even ticket sales for the Next Canada game which have not been startling.

A few other comments as well. I'm a Sarah McLachlan fan. Love her music and what she stands for. Splendid human being. Imagine my shock when the opening begins with Sarah having to take the stand with few people even bothering to be in their seats (maybe 15K by then) and singing with no backdrop entertainment, dancers, and seemingly no support in the program. Then barely even getting a clap at the end of her beautiful song. Artistically walking off the stage and the crowd barely even noticing or barely acknowledging is disconcerting. Fortunately as Sarah walked out of the stadium sections including mine acknowledged her and gave vocal support. Which strangely did not occur when she stepped off stage. Strange moment. I raise this also because Sarah has been adamant that Edmonton has been the best choice for the opening ceremonies and big games in the tournament and that she loved our passion and support.
Conversely the Tegan and Sarah part of the act had huge permormance/dancing backdrop, fireworks, and the two acts were afforded widely different propping. Just odd. overall the Opening ceremonies really wasn't one in any usual sense of the word. Would have preffered something more involved and as befitted the extra ticket price for this match.

 

[gqmixmaster]

My understanding is FIFA sanctions the Olympic participation and rules in the Olympic Soccer tournament and that some overlapping officials, refs, are used.

That said its my sense we got thrown a crumb here, an even up call. China was jobbed this time actually and I'm sure their delegation is feeling that way. The other optic, and FIFA are rarely beyond this, is that the tournament is financially successful, or not, with Canada advancing far. This latter point indelibly stamped with a Womens record over 53K paying customers in the stands.

For Canada not to advance from group stage and draw in one of the weakest group stage matches would cast a pall over the entire proceeding. Even ticket sales for the Next Canada game which have not been startling.

A few other comments as well. I'm a Sarah McLachlan fan. Love her music and what she stands for. Splendid human being. Imagine my shock when the opening begins with Sarah having to take the stand with few people even bothering to be in their seats (maybe 15K by then) and singing with no backdrop entertainment, dancers, and seemingly no support in the program. Then barely even getting a clap at the end of her beautiful song. Artistically walking off the stage and the crowd barely even noticing or barely acknowledging is disconcerting. Fortunately as Sarah walked out of the stadium sections including mine acknowledged her and gave vocal support. Which strangely did not occur when she stepped off stage. Strange moment. I raise this also because Sarah has been adamant that Edmonton has been the best choice for the opening ceremonies and big games in the tournament and that she loved our passion and support.
Conversely the Tegan and Sarah part of the act had huge permormance/dancing backdrop, fireworks, and the two acts were afforded widely different propping. Just odd. overall the Opening ceremonies really wasn't one in any usual sense of the word. Would have preffered something more involved and as befitted the extra ticket price for this match.

All the singing performances were lipsynced and the whole thing had more sap than the entire population of trees on earth.

 

[guymez]

All the singing performances were lipsynced and the whole thing had more sap than the entire population of trees on earth.

Yup.
I found it to be very superficial and cringe worthy. Considering all the time they had to prepare surely they could have done better than that.

I quite like Sarah and have seen her live in small venues and this was by far the least enjoyable and least engaging performance I have ever seen from her. The cavernous presentation manner certainly didnt help and as much as I like Commonwealth it is a cavernous stadium at best.

BTW...since when did lip syncing become an acceptable form of entertainment?

 

[lopper]

Yup.
I found it to be very superficial and cringe worthy. Considering all the time they had to prepare surely they could have done better than that.

I quite like Sarah and have seen her live in small venues and this was by far the least enjoyable and least engaging performance I have ever seen from her. The cavernous presentation manner certainly didnt help.

Since when did lip syncing become an acceptable form of entertainment?

TBH I went to the games and I found the whole experience from the "opening ceremonies" to the Canada game itself to be lacklustre. Not to mention the idiotic setup of the beer stands on the concourse making people line up across the flow of traffic. Don't think I would spend anymore money to go to more games.