Australia, #1 in the world and peaking for the World Cup, was set to play Canada on a muggy Sunday night in front of a loud and enthusiastic crowd. There has been no rain in Malaysia for 2 months and Ipoh has been suffering from a drought. The rain finally came today and there were light sprinkles falling under cloudy skies at game time.
Canada was dressed in all red and Australia yellow shirts and green shorts. Canada started the game excited and nervous but they were able to keep their composure. Canada used the aerial ball successfully against the very good technical skilled Australians. The game was played back and forth in the early minutes of the game with a circle penetration by the Canadians in the 5th minute and a shot on net high by the Australians in the 7th minute.
Australia scored in the 10th minute by a cross circle pass. The Canadian defence held strong to keep the ball out of the net. In the 20th minute a breakdown in play at the mid mark led to a breakaway down the left flank by Keegan Pereira. He had an excellent opportunity to tie the score but the shot was sent high over the net. A corner in the 25thminute by Australia was run down by Mark Pearson but in the ensuing PC a goal was scored. Several key saves by goalie Antoni Kindler in the next few minutes kept the score line at 2-0. In the last minute of the 1st half Australia went up 3-0 on a field goal.
The second half started well for the Canadians with some good possession at the back. The Australians scored a couple of more goals in the 40th and 53rd minutes. Matt Guest earned the Canadians 2 penalty corners near the end of the game and a third was awarded but none were converted. Australia scored their 6th goal in the 63rd minute and the game ended 6-0.
Congratulations to Taylor Curran who earned his 50th cap tonight. Taylor played his first game for Canada in 2009 while the team was on tour in Russia.
Coach Farry said of the game that “It was a fantastic experience to play against the number one ranked team in the world and we need to do this more often. Playing games like this really fast tracks our learning. Our players benefited by competing up close with the best in the world. We are looking forward to playing our host nation, Malaysia, tomorrow. The fans in the stadium are sure to noisy and boisterous”.
Next up for the Canadians is a game against Malaysia under the lights at 8:00pm March 17th.
