Group A
Canada 5-1 Costa Rica
Cuba 0-3 Haiti
Group B
Guatemala 6-0 Dominican Republic
United States 4-0 Mexico
Canada put on a dominant showing against Costa Rica to win Group A. Canada was up 4-0 at the half and took the pedal off the gas in the second half. Costa Rica's keeper Juliet Arias was responsible for the first, second, and fifth goals for Canada, incredibly. She served up rebounds off good shots when she should have kept them for the first two, but the final goal was an own goal resulting from a back pass from her defender Marianne Ugalde. It is not an exaggeration to say that my four year old can trap a ball with his foot better than the keeper did, as it rolled right under her foot and into the goal. They did get a late consolation goal though, with a nice run and finish in the 89' by Fernanda Barrantes, and spoiling Karina LeBlanc's group stage shutout.
Cuba, however, suffered defections from their squad (something that seems pretty regular when a Cuban national team travels into the US or Canada), and was downtrodden in attitude even before they took the field. Haiti were apparently singing before the game, and put on a nice display with their 3-0 win.
Apparently the difference between losing to the Americans 14-0 and 13-0 is so great that when those teams meet, as the Dominican Republic and Guatemala did, the result is a 6-0 trouncing in favor of that slim margin. Wendy Pineda had a hat trick in the first half hour;she took the big losses to US and Mexico personally, and wanted to showcase how good the Guatemalan league has become.
The United States scored twice in the first ten minutes and ran the score up to four to emphatically defeat Mexico and win Group B. Carli Lloyd put in a hat trick with Heather O'Reilly being the hammer of the nail in Mexico's coffin with her goal, the second, at 9 minutes. The Americans will now face Costa Rica in the semifinals, while Mexico will line up against Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment