It's been 76 years. 76 years.
76 years since Canada won an Olympic medal in a team sport. The last time was in 1936 in Berlin, where Canada won silver in men's basketball.
The Canadian team were clearly going to be playing a tough game today. France is ranked 6th in the world, and the last time we played France (which was March 6th of this year), Canada lost 2-0. When they played France at the FIFA Women's World Cup, Canada lost 4-0.
Just because they played a near winning game against the States, didn't mean that the game against France was going to come easy - considering Canada's history against France, considering the fact that France is incredibly good, and considering Canada has been through more physical and emotional turmoil than any other team in the tournament right now. Having FIFA on your heels investigating you can't be comforting.
France went into the game attacking, gaining most of the possession and getting so many chances against Erin McLeod - one of which was an indirect free kick that Desiree Scott got her hands on (or in this case, knee) to deflect it away from the goal line. Lots of post contact and lots of balls that were just not on target either. Canada was amazing on defence, but they were not doing much in terms of getting the ball out into French territory, and any passes they made to get it forward would almost always be intercepted. Definitely areas in Canada's game that need to be worked on before 2015, but this game did showcase their strengths defensively as well. With the French basically on their heels at all times, it wasn't until the +90th minute, basically, where fed by Schmidt on a very nice and busy attack on the part of the Canadians, Matheson drove the ball into the net.
It was only Canada's third real chance on net the entire game, and it got in. France was clearly the better team throughout the game, but because of great goal-keeping and great defensive play by Canada, the French win was prevented. Canada taking everything out of their minimal opportunities was what got them the win in the end.
Also, I don't think Canada wanted to play more extra time like they did the last game.
One of the highlights though, besides the amazing Diana Matheson goal and the Erin McLeod leap saves, was midfielder and French captain Sandrine Soubeyrand checking out our players while they were lining up. She was blatantly checking them out, seemingly oblivious to the camera set right on her. It was hilarious.
Some pics from this match:
Matheson goal pics:
Celebratory pics:
Remember when I called Diana Matheson in my July 1st post regarding the Canada v.s. USA game on June 30th?
DIANA, YOU'RE OUR HERO - ALL 4 FEET 11 INCHES OF YOU. GAH SO PROUD OF THAT GIRL AND OF THIS TEAM. WAY TO MAKE HISTORY AND INSPIRE FEMALE SOCCER PLAYERS IN THIS AWESOME COUNTRY.
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