Canadian winger Adriana Leon struck twice in the second half to secure a 2-1 victory in her side’s friendly match against Australia at the newly-opened Sydney Football Stadium on Tuesday night.
Matildas midfielder Mary Fowler opened the scoring after only three minutes, becoming the first player to score at the $830 million venue, however Leon’s heroics put a dampener on the city’s celebration of the first football match at the Moore Park facility in over three years.
Missing starting centre-half Alanna Kennedy with a hamstring injury and not willing to risk wingback Steph Catley and midfielder Chloe Logarzo from the off, Matildas manager Tony Gustavsson rolled the dice with his selections, slotting Aivi Luik and Tameka Yallop into the two left-most defensive positions, with Caitlin Foord returning to the starting XI in place of Kyra Cooney-Cross.
This less-familiar defensive set-up had barely shaken hands when Fowler opened the scoring for the home side, pouncing on a poor clearance from Canadian goalkeeper Kaiden Sheridan and playing skipper Sam Kerr into the visiting 18-yard box before slamming home her captain’s squared cross from aside the penalty box.
Despite peppering the Canadian goal for the best part of half-an-hour, Australia had a legitimate penalty shout 10 minutes before the main break when Marie Levasseur appeared to cut down Foord inside the Canadian penalty box, only to have her appeal waved away by referee Park Sejin.
Foord again threatened four minutes later, collecting Yallop’s pass on the left flank before dancing away from Bianca St.-Georges and toe-poking an effort on goal only to see it be mopped up without tribulation by Sheridan.
With Vine replaced by Emily Gielnik and Levasseur swapped for the more-attacking Janine Beckie, Canada seized the initiative immediately from kickoff and attacked against the grain in true Priestman fashion.
Wasting barely three minutes from the restart, the Red Menace washed over Australia’s defensive half as Nichelle Prince threaded a pass through gold-adorned legs to Leon and then onto captain Sinclair, finding her provider at the second time of asking and turning her effort beyond the sprawled Lydia Williams to square the ledger.
Leon would find her second through the most fortunate of circumstances, latching on to a Jade Rose pass from what appeared to be an offside position before slotting past Williams to take the lead despite replays showing her beyond the last defender as Rose made her fateful pass.
The home side would have another golden chance one minute before the end of regulation time, this time through substitute Alex Chidiac, as the South Australian maestra was found all alone inside the Canadian six-yard box by her skipper only for substitute Quinn to block her shot at the final moment at great personal cost.
Speaking after the game, Foord spoke of how frustrating the instant change in Canada’s attitude was for the home side.
“How it looked is how it felt for us: we felt like we were dominating – we felt like us again, we felt like we were playing well, we felt like we were dominating and unlucky not to score a couple more,” she said.
“We don’t have that much time together leading in to the World Cup and that’s why these moments – like that 45 (minutes) – it’s really important that we build on that and take that momentum into the next game and learn from obviously the second 45 (minutes) as well.”
Despite his side’s early domination, Gustavsson acknowledged how his side’s movement from spread-the-field to press-the-space had enabled their adversaries to corner his charges on the counter-attack.
“We played slow – we didn’t match their speed of press with their speed of play, and I’ve said it before – I want … us to play, we have the ability to play – but we didn’t play fast enough, so we started to get dispossessed more often.”
Australia 1 (Fowler 3′)
Canada 2 (Leon 48′ 64′)
Australia: Lydia Williams; Tameka Yallop (Courtney Nevin 63′), Aivi Luik (Larissa Crummer 82′), Clare Polkinghorne, Charlotte Grant; Caitlin Foord (Kyra Cooney-Cross 63′), Katrina Gorry, Emily van Egmond (Clare Wheeler 77′), Cortnee Vine (Emily Gielnik 46′); Mary Fowler (Alex Chidiac 77′), Sam Kerr.
Unused subs: Teagan Micah, Mackenzie Arnold, Princess Ibini.
Yellow cards: Gorry 59′
Canada: Kaiden Sheridan; Marie Levasseur (Janine Beckie 46′), Shelina Zadorsky, Jade Rose, Bianca St.-Georges (Gabrielle Carle 55′); Desiree Scott, Jessie Fleming (Quinn 77′); Nichelle Prince (CloĂ© Lacasse 67′), Christine Sinclair (Sophie Schmidt 77′), Adriana Leon; Jordyn Huitema.
Unused subs: Sabrina d’Angelo, Lysianne Proulx, Sura Yekka, Simi Awujo, Clarissa Larissey.
Yellow cards: Beckie 90’+6
Attendance 26,977 at Sydney Football Stadium
