Canada falls to the Republic of Ireland

Canada’s Women’s U-17 lost a tough match against the Republic of Ireland 0:1 on Thursday at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Trinidad and Tobago 2010. Despite improving on its opening match performance against Ghana (a 1:0 win) Canada was unable to capitalize on its opportunities against Ireland. Siobhan Killeen scored her second goal of the tournament in the 75th minute to secure the win for the Irish.

“Basically we played an Irish team that wanted to win the game more than we did,” said head coach Rosenfeld. “We didn’t play with any urgency until we were scored on and at that time we were chasing the game and it was just too late.”

The two sides exchanged periods of dominance in an evenly played opening half.

Ireland opened the match on the front foot, attacking Canada from the opening whistle. Canadian goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo was called into action early and needed to react quickly to smother a dangerous cross in the opening few moments. Ireland continued pressing and nearly opened the scoring in the third minute from the first corner of the match. The deep corner was nodded towards the Canadian goal but Vanessa Kovacs was well positioned at the back post clear the ball away from danger.

Canada gradually found its legs after its slow start and began to pass the ball better while maintaining possession. In the seventh minute the young Canucks worked a crisp passing play up the field that resulted in a high cross aimed at Caroline Beaulne streaking in at the back post. Unfortunately for Canada, Grace Moloney in the Irish goal intercepted the cross before Beaulne could get a head to it.

Caroline Beaulne had the Canadian fans on their feet in the 20th minute as she danced down the left wing after controlling long pass with a deft touch. Her cut back pass found Haisha Cantave at the top of the box but her low first time effort was easily saved by the Irish Keeper.

Canada came close to creating a carbon copy of its goal against Ghana as a Chantale Campbell corner kick found Cantave unmarked in the Irish box but this time the keeper was well positioned to make the save. It was on a similar corner kick routine that Canada scored its goal in the opening match of the tournament.

Canada’s Beaulne and Cantave were causing the Irish defence the headaches with their willingness to run at defenders with the ball. In the 38th Beaulne again weaved through defenders before unleashing a swerving shot that flew just wide of the Irish goal.

Cantave created one final first half chance just before halftime as she received a short free kick with her back to goal, turned her defender and fired a hard shot straight at the goalkeeper.

Coach Rosenfeld made two substitutions at half time as Nour Ghoneim and Charlène Achille were replaced by Jade Kovacevic and Ally Courtnall.

Similar to its match against Ghana, Canada came out strongly to start the second half. Cantave engineered the first Canadian chance of the half as she broke in on goal but choose attempt a square pass to Kinley McNicoll when she was well positioned to shoot. The Irish defence recovered to clear the danger.

With the score still knotted at 0-0 Canada was lucky to escape after a loose pass between Canadian defenders fell to Ireland’s Denise O’Sullivan alone in the Canadian box. O’Sullivan seemed surprised with the time and space she was in and her rushed shot flew straight into D’Angelo’s hands.

Rosenfeld made his final substitution of the match in the 71st minute as McNicoll came off for Abigail Raymer.

Against the run of play and in slightly fortuitist circumstances the Republic of Ireland took a 1-0 lead in the 75th minute. Canada’s Beaulne was called for a foul at the halfway line. The Irish hit the free kick long into the Canadian box and the resulting Canadian clearance hit the Japanese official. The ball rebounded back into the box where it eventually landed at the feet of Siobhan Killeen. Killeen took a couple of touches to steady herself before firing an unstoppable shot past a helpless D’Angelo.

Canada had a glorious chance to score a late equalizer in the 85th minute. Ally Courtnall tracked a loose ball in the Irish box but her chip was bravely stopped by Moloney in the Irish goal.

For this match, coach Bryan Rosenfeld’s starting XI featured Sabrina D’Angelo in goal, Charlène Achille, Nicole Setterlund, Alison Clarke, and Vanessa Kovacs left to right in defence, Kinley McNicoll, Diamond Simpson, Chantale Campbell, and Caroline Beaulne across the midfield and Nour Ghoneim and Haisha Cantave up front at forward.

With the loss Canada is now tied with the Republic of Ireland on three points after two matches.