World Cup host Canada start on right foot by winning opener against China
Lucky Canada.
As the host country, Canada got a nice and easy draw for this 2015 Women's World Cup and they eked out a 1-0 win in stoppage time on Saturday night — despite a very un-Canadian attack against a defensively stout China side. As a result, Canada keeps the dream alive. Best of all, Sarah McLachlan sang at the opening ceremonies and it wasn't a tear-jerking dirge about abandoned dogs.
As the only bidder to host this Women's World Cup, Canada is very eager to showcase the strength of its national soccer program. The country was ready for its close-up — despite the rude infiltration of FIFA's historic corruption implosion that, at least for Saturday, was swept aside.
The Canadian Women's World Cup debut helped set a new attendance record at Commonwealth Stadium. The 53,058 soccer fans was the largest crowd to ever watch a national team in any sport in Canada — though the total sales have yet to reach the 1 million mark Canadian soccer officials are hoping to meet. Other games have yet to sell more than a third of their allotted tickets. Canadian officials are hoping that as Canada progresses, the country will rally behind Christine Sinclair & Co.
Still, the country deserved its opening day of celebration, highlighted by star striker Sinclair, largely credited as the main if not only reason why Canada's women's soccer team was good enough, and popular enough, to bring the World Cup here. Fittingly, it was Sinclair who threaded a post-nudging penalty kick to give Canada the three points it needs to try to win its group.
Meanwhile, in another one of Canada's myriad time zones, the U.S. women's national team was holding yet another training session in a puddled field somewhere off a four-lane highway in Winnipeg.
While their North American rivals got the show underway in Edmonton, U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe and center back Becky Sauerbrunn were trotted out for yet another press conference. You could tell they were not exactly thrilled when they were asked "What are you most sick of?" and they both smirked and refused to answer.
The media! They're sick of answering questions!
"I'm anxious and ready to go and I can't wait to play games,'' Rapinoe said. "Maybe because it's my second World Cup, but it's more that the build-up has been so big and the game has grown so much since the last time, so I feel like we've been talking about it forever."
At that moment, the U.S. women were still two days away from their first World Cup game in 2015 and the odd mix of anxiety and ennui showed on their faces. Who can blame them? They've literally and officially been counting down this World Cup for 279 days.
"I just want to play a game,'' said Sauerbrunn, the U.S. center back who was celebrating her 30th birthday. Rapinoe tried to appease the media crowd, saying that the U.S. team was trying to keep busy and stay relaxed, playing ping pong at the hotel, watching movies, getting massages.
"We're going to be traveling with the same 40 people for the next 30 days, so, we're going to get on each other's nerves,'' she said.
The good news for the Americans is that Rapinoe's quad knock is better. She said she's ready to go. Equally important, star striker Alex Morgan was on the field for practice doing drills, kneeling in the wet turf on the very bruised knee bone that kept her out of action for all four of the U.S. Send-Off Series matches in St. Louis, San Jose, Los Angeles and New Jersey.
Rapinoe said she believes the most important difference for the U.S. squad heading into their opening match Monday against Australia is the team's depth. With 23 players on the roster all capable of being starters, Rapinoe said that is the biggest difference between now and the team the U.S. brought to Germany in 2011, when they lost a heartbreaker to Japan in the Finals.
But as the Women's World Cup cranked into gear on Saturday, Rapinoe and Co. seemed eager to stop being the center of media attention and to start shifting into a World Cup match schedule that features 24 teams that are about to set on a course through potentially seven games expected to attract a worldwide television audience of 1 billion people.
Despite a contentious past playing against Canada, Rapinoe said that on opening day, she shared the host country's excitement about finally getting underway.
"I'm ecstatic for them. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to have a World Cup in your country," she told reporters. "That's an incredible feeling. On the field we have a healthy rivalry but off the field I have pretty good friendships with some of those players so I'm pretty smitten for them to be able to play in front of their home crowd.''
