Betalogue

For about 10 minutes after opening the score in the second half, the Canadians must have thought that the ultimate dream of reaching the final was theirs.

In truth, they were rather fortunate to be ahead, HAVING been dominated by Sweden for the most part. The Kara Lang free kick was a powerful shot, but the keeper should have been able to stop it or at least deflect it for a corner.

Unfortunately for them, Sweden was stung and responded quickly, first tying the game with a quickly taken free kick that took the Canadian defense by surprise, and then logically taking the lead through relentless attacking and pouncing.

While it didn’t reach a very high level, it was a pleasant enough game. Just reaching the semi-finals was already a remarkable achievement for the Canadian team, and they have every reason to be proud of what they have accomplished. Many of the players are still very young, and they will be there for the next World Cup, and the one after. They were definitely hampered by a severely depleted defense. (Too many essential players were injured.) After a very shaky start, they did really well under the circumstances.

I guess we’ll have to support Sweden next Sunday against the German juggernaut. The consolation game on Saturday for the third place between the USA and Canada will be the latest chapter in an on-going saga between those two. It’ll be a question of who is more able to overcome their huge disappointment. The fact that the USA is a much more experienced side (a couple of players have over 200 caps!) will give them an advantage. But they too must be hugely disappointed not to have made it to the final.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Tuesday, October 7th, 2003 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.