Canada “A” team ties with Chile 1-1

August 1, 2010

By: Yan Huckendubler

The Series between the men’s and women’s teams of Canada and Chile opened on Saturday, on a perfect sunny afternoon, at UBC Wright Field in Vancouver, with a good performance of the Canadian Women’s Development Team which managed to tie with Chile 1-1.

Chile started strongly and immediately had chances on a penalty-corner and on a confusing sequence in front of goal, but Azelia LIU did well to protect the Canadian goal. The Canadian forwards were combining well on the right wing, through Kate GILLIS and Tyla FLEXMAN, but could not penetrate the Chilean circle. Finally in the 15th minute, Michelle WEBER collected a ball behind the Chilean defense and coolly beat the Chilean keeper with a low shot.

Chile dominated the end of first half but were denied a few more times by Azelia LIU and half-time was reached with a narrow one-goal margin for the young Canadians.  The second period started on the same pattern, with Canada defending well two more penalty-corners, but they could not clear the third one, in the 45th minute, and the ball was pushed in goal by Sofia WALBAUM who was prompt to jump on the loose ball behind the keeper.

Chile was now passing the ball well in the backfield and in midfield and the Canadian defense was struggling to clear their zone. They tried some aerial balls to get some breathing space,  but the Chileans were collecting them and immediately coming back to besiege the Canadian goal.  Nevertheless, Canada were dangerous on their rare incursions in Chilean territory and had three scoring chances on good deflections.

The end of the game was very animated at both ends and Azelia LIU was called multiple times into action, showing her excellent form.

Nick Sandhu, the Coach of the Canadian Development Team, was happy with the performance of his young team. “We had four 17 years old players on the team today, including two in defense, and it was certainly a valuable experience for them against a team circulating the ball well like Chile. Making mistake is acceptable in a game, the important thing is how you recover from them, and today we reacted well to some dangerous situation.”

Canada “A”:

Marian Dickinson, Kate Gillis, Katie Collison, Ali Lee, Sara McManus, Danielle Henning, Crystal Poland,
Abigail Raye, Diane Roemer, Tyla Flexman, Samantha Smith, Kristine Wishart, Laura Dowling, Michelle Weber,
Shannon Elmitt, Anna Kozniuk, Azelia Liu (GK)

Goals:

15mn  CAN  Michelle Weber (FG)
45mn  CHI  Sofia WALBAUM (PC)