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Canada opens the 2015 Women’s World Cup today against China in Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, and it is crucial that they start off the tournament on a positive note.
The women’s national team opened up their 2011 World Cup campaign in the opening match as well, then against hosts Germany, so they have witnessed the pressure that comes with a game of this magnitude before. This time around, Canada will be feeling this pressure, with a close to capacity crowd (maybe even a sellout by kickoff). Though Commonwealth stadium’s capacity is close to 56,000, capacity for the Women’s World Cup is “expected to be between 50,000 and 52,000,” according to the Globe and Mail.
Last Friday, after Canada’s 1-0 win over England in Hamilton, Canada’s coach John Herdman criticized his team’s slow start, emphasizing that it cannot happen today: “I thought the start was slow, we’ve got to get over that. How are we going to cope with the national anthem? How are we going to cope with the emotion of a packed house?...So I think that twenty minutes, we could have got punished today. It was sloppy and we certainly weren’t happy with how we started, so that’s a good indication for going into the China game, because if the Chinese watched that, they’ll be like ‘let’s see if we can take advantage of them in that period of time’.”
The Chinese are a young and technical team that can move the ball around on the ground quite well, and they could punish a Canadian side that starts slow and sloppy. The last thing Canada wants is to be chasing the game from an organized team that can set up well defensively, in front of 50,000 plus anxious fans.
Read: RedNation Online’s Group A Preview
As mentioned in RNO’s group A preview, China is missing star striker Yang Li, who was left off their squad due to injury. That is certainly a relief for Canada, as China’s 23-woman squad has been left without many proven goal scorers. Just three players have ten goals or more at the international level, in Ma Jun (15 goals), Zhang Rui (11 goals) and Gu Yasha (10 goals), though it certainly is a young squad.
As for Canada, well, scoring is a big problem too. Their forwards were not nearly as involved as they needed to be last Friday against England, and had a hard time breaking their opponent down. We outlined that concern and some others from that 1-0 win on RNO in five thoughts.
Another one of these concerns for Canada lies on the backline. Fullbacks Rhian Wilkinson and Marie-Eve Nault are both injured, and trained on the side of Canada’s practice on Thursday for the portion open to the media. If Wilkinson was not participating in full training just two days ago, it’s doubtful she’ll be ready for today’s match.
In that case, it’s likely that forward Josee Belanger fills in at right back again, like she did last Friday. Belanger was certainly nervous and had a shaky opening 20 minutes, but settled into the match well, providing great attacking presence on the flank. However, whether she can be as solid defensively as she needs to be is still very much up in the air. Having a player who has played in an attacking role for her career suddenly fill in on the back line in a World Cup after just two weeks of practice is a tremendous ask, and a big risk for Herdman to take.
But, hey! Numerous doubts and Canada’s presence in an international soccer competition always goes hand-in-hand, and this one is certainly no different. Let the tournament begin!
Recent results and possible starting XIs for both teams are below:
Recent head-to-head results: 2-1 win for Canada on January 15, 2015; 1-0 win for Canada on January 12, 2013
China’s Recent Results
Possible starting XI:
Canada’s Recent Results
Possible starting XI:
Broadcast information: The match will be on CTV, TSN 1, TSN 3, TSN 4, TSN 5, and RDS at 6pm ET/ 4pm MT/ 3pm PT with opening ceremonies before the match.
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