Soccer has never been a big thing in Canada. Kids grow up wanting to play hockey and other sports instead of soccer. Therefore, it’s been tough for our Men’s or Women’s teams to reach there full potential. Despite the growth in the sport in recent years, Canada hasn’t had an amazing moment in soccer in the past several years.
This afternoon. Canada will get a chance to have a break through moment when they play Great Britain. In the FIFA Women’s rakings, Canada is higher ranked then the host Brits. They have a 4-0-2 record against Great Brittan and have looked well in all three of their previous games leading up to the Olympic Quarter Final game.
Everything would be in good place for Team Canada. A fortunate draw has landed them in a Quarter Final against some other team then one of the five powers. (USA, Sweden, Brazil, Japan and Germany), USA plays New Zeeland, this morning while Sweden faces France. In the other Quarter Final Brazil will play Japan. Germany surprisingly didn’t even make the Olympics. The only downer about facing Great Brittan is that they are of course the host. In Great Britain’s final group stage game against Brazil, Wembley Stadium had 70,584 with the majority of them cheering for the home team. Canada will have to win this game in a hostile stadium if the players want their olympic dream to continue..
A win would go a long way for the Canada women’s team. A year removed from the disaster in Germany that saw the team only score one goal and failed to get out of the group stage.
In addition, a team Canada win would be Canada’s best showing at the Olympics. This is Canada’s second time at the Olympics in women's soccer. Their first appearance came at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Canada had a good start to the tournament going 1-1-1. However, an indirect upset in another group placed them wit the dreaded USA team. After a lightning delay, the game got back underway. The game was tied 1-1 going into Extra Time. Unfortunately for Canada, USA got the eventual winning goal on their way to winning the gold medal.
It won’t be easy for Canada, but I’m taking this Quarter Final draw over most draws that Canada could have received. Playing the USA or Brazil would be much worse and could turn into a nightmare.
If Canada plays to what they are capable of they will win this game and stun the home crowd. The only questions are, will they and will Great Britain play nervous or excited when it matters the most on home soil? I think Canada steps it up today and Christine Sinclair gets a huge goal at huge time of the game. I predict Canada will win 1-1 (5-3) in penalty kicks.
The game kicks off at 11:30am PT/2:30pm/ET on CTV, Sportsnet or TSN
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