Canada Must Show a More Complete Game in Knockout Round of Women's World Cup

The team's goal was to win their group, something Canada had only done once before in a Women’s World Cup.

And they did that, barely, taking Group A with a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands on Monday night.

In all, they have only conceded a single goal. Their defence, not their attack, has kept Canada in a position to make a run in this tournament.

Two goals in three games usually isn’t enough to progress, let alone finish first. But here they are.

“All in all, top of the group, five points, we’re off to the West Coast, this was the plan,” Canada's coach John Herdman told The Canadian Press' Bill Beacon (h/t National Post). “We’d love to have another three points in the bag but, job done, we’re happy.”

Imagine if Christine Sinclair had not put away that fortuitous penalty in the 92nd minute of the opening match against China: The hosts may well have been eliminated with three draws.

Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

The lack of scoring up front is most definitely their biggest concern, especially in front of solid home crowds. There were 45,420 in Montreal to watch Canada seal their group victory, per The Globe and Mail's John Doyle the team has not yet repaid its home support with the kind of attacking football that Herdman had promised. 

He did make four changes to the lineup, replacing Melissa Tancredi with Adriana Leon in the attack, but it did not change the outcome. In fact, it was the first time in World Cup play that Canada registered less than 50 per cent of possession, as a more ambitious Netherlands pushed and pushed for the equaliser.

Canada’s veterans are not doing enough, including Sinclair, who is mostly left alone up front. She has missed great chances in the penalty area, too.

Instead, the younger players have stepped up. Twenty-year-old midfielder Ashley Lawrence capped a fantastic spell of pressure in the first 10 minutes of the match with a goal, becoming the third-youngest player to score for Canada in the World Cup, per ESPN Stats & Info:

"

At 20 years & 4 days, Ashley Lawrence is Canada's 3rd-youngest WWC goalscorer (Kara Lang x2, Sophie Schmidt). #CAN

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 15, 2015"

A 17-year-old Jessie Fleming (born in 1998!) started the game as well, and she could have scored too. 

Perhaps the most important player for the Canadian squad has been the other teenager in defence: 19-year-old Kadeisha Buchanan. She has anchored Canada in difficult times, looking so calm in the middle of a storm of opposition. Buchanan is always in a position to clear the ball and make a timely tackle or interception, and she is not afraid to step up and start a play of her own.

Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

But Buchanan is the exception on this team, which has not produced a full 90 minutes the entire tournament.

The defensive breakdown that led to the Netherlands’ equaliser highlighted a weakness in tactics: Both central defenders rushed to the middle of the pitch to clear the ball, but it instead bounced backward and allowed Kirsten van de Ven to score off the break.

Canada really did things the hard way. They could have sealed the game if they had kept piling the shots on the Netherlands as they did in the first quarter of the match. They didn’t. Canada have simply failed to build on leads, giving away possession cheaply in midfield and retreating more and more into their own end.

If they want to reach the semi-finals—and that should be the next objective—Canada must play a more complete game. They’re the hosts; they should not feel intimidated by opponents in their own stadiums.