Canada - U.S. Battle to Tie
Sinclair saves the day with tying goal.
by David Bailey, Special to CanadaKicks

June was a rough month for the Canadian Women's World Cup Team as they endured a nightmarish friendly tour of Europe that consisted of four straight losses to Sweden, Germany (twice) and Norway by a combined score of 26 to 4 making Saturday nights sold out match vs. the USA all the more important to Head Coach Even Pellurud, making his long delayed match debut on Canadian soil.

Neither Pellerud nor the 9,023 excited spectators can have been disappointed by the highly entertaining match that resulted in a 2-2 draw.  In fact, in the previous three meetings of the two sides since June 2000, Canada has had the USA's number with two victories and one draw outscoring the Americans 7-2 in the process so the Canadians entered the match with high hopes.

The game got off to a rough start when in the seventh minute, Canadian captain Amy Walsh was stretchered off the field in great pain with what appeared to be a severe leg injury after a collision with the USA's Cindy Parlow.

Her replacement, Kristina Kriss, was instrumental in the first goal of the match in the 15th minute after Christine Sinclair was pulled down by Kate Sobrero just outside the USA's penalty area.  Kriss sent the subsequent free kick to the far post and the head of Andrea Neil.  USA keeper Jaime Pagliarulo parried Neil's effort but the rebound fell to Charmaine Hooper who buried it in the back of the USA goal.

The lead was short lived however as 13 minutes later the USA would draw even on a play with an element of controversy.  After Canadian defender Sharolta Nonen was whistled for a foul in the midfield, while referee Sonia Denoncourt pointed at the location for the free kick, US veteran Mia Hamm restarted play approximately 20 feet up field without first deadening the ball.  Denoncourt in a very rare moment of indecision allowed play to continue with the ball eventually finding it's way to Shannon MacMillan who hit a relatively weak shot from 20 yards out.  The ball took an odd bounce and flew up and over the shoulder of Canada's Taryn Swiatek.  Andrea Neil and Silvana Burtini both questioned Denoncourt on the free kick but to no avail and the game was even at ones.

While Swiatek, in only her third appearance for Canada, looked weak on the goal and while television replays showed the severity of the bounce, Pellurud made his opinion clear stating "It can happen to anybody but it shouldn't happen."

Canada's coach was also upset about how slowly his players reacted to Hamm's quick free kick.  "This should not happen.  It as one of the few moments that they did not behave as professionals."  Said Pellerud.  He continued  "They need to come behind the ball and anticipate what can happen.  They didn't."

Three minutes later Swiatek made amends for her earlier faux pas. MacMillan fired a laser beam at the high right corner but the Ottawa Fury keeper went full extension and got her hands to the ball pushing it onto the post with the Canadian defence clearing the ball out of danger.

The USA took the lead in the 57th minute when Tiffany Milbrett received the ball 20 yards out from the Canadian goal.  She turned and fired an unstoppable rocket just under the bar that gave Swiatek no chance.

Just as it looked like the Americans had gained the momentum, Canada fought back and within one minute had equalized.

Isabelle Morneau won the ball in the Canadian defensive zone and sent a short pass to Silvana Burtini at midfield.  Burtini sent a long ball down the left wing to Christine Sinclair who fired a hard cross into the area.  US defender Catherine Reddick got her foot to the ball but her attempted clearance went straight up in the air.  Hooper and Pagliarulo both went up for the ball but the US keeper was able to get only a small touch and it fell perfectly to a charging Sinclair who fired an unstoppable shot into the high right corner of the US goal.

The goal sparked Canada and in the 63rd minute Christine Latham went on a brilliant run down the left wing before dishing to Hooper who was immediately fouled.  On the subsequent free kick, Hooper curled the ball around the wall and clearly beat Pagliarulo but hit the post.  Hooper said "That was a heartbreaker.  It is going to be played over in my head all night.  That was the game winner  right there but at the same time we had other chances to score but that was the surest chance right there."

Two minutes later, it was Hooper that set up Latham but her full volley went just wide of the far post.  Latham said "Charmaine gave me a perfect flick and it dropped perfectly on my foot and I wound up and swung and just missed the corner.  It was too bad.  I missed it by less than a foot."

After their disastrous European tour, this result was an obvious short in the arm for Canada.  Pellerud commented "I thought it was a fantastic first game for me and 2-2 a very good result but even more important a very good performance.  I haven't counted the goal chances yet but I think it is pretty even there also.  So that means we played an even game against one of the first ranked teams in the world which this team has the potential to do more often but we need to play these games more often."

Latham was also pleased with the result after the disappointment of Europe.  "The tour was the first time that we were all together and we struggled to work together as a team so we used that as a learning experience and moved on from there.  We came here and trained well together on home soil and showed how we can really play.   Hopefully in Minneapolis we can do the same thing." said Latham regarding Tuesday's rematch.

Charmaine Hooper was less than pleased at the result stating "We were not happy because we felt we could have won.  I know they pressured us probably more than we pressured them but we seemed to have a lot more sure chances than they did, shots that just went wide of the post.   I hit the post and we couldn't get the winner."

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