Canada advances to the semi-final stage of the 2010 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship
Canada’s women’s U-17 team won 2:1 over Panama in its second match of the 2010 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship. Forward Haisha Cantave opened the scoring in the ninth minute and Diamond Simpson doubled Canada ‘s lead in the 37th minute. Panama ‘s Lisbany Alveo scored her team’s lone goal late in the second half.
The victory guaranteed Canada a spot in the semi-final stage against either USA or Costa Rica . Both group winners will be determined in the next two days, with Costa Rica facing USA on Sunday 14 March and Canada facing Mexico on Monday 15 March.
“I am pleased with the fact that we take away a result which puts us into the semi-final stage,” said national head coach Bryan Rosenfeld. “The team also has to take away a big learning lesson that it has to respect the opponent, regardless of what their past scores may have been.”
Panama was much improved following an 0:6 loss to Mexico on the opening day. Still, Panama’s performance was not enough on this day to advance to the semi-final stage. Both Panama and Jamaica (which lost 0:3 to Mexico) were eliminated from group play with their second-straight losses.
For Canada’s second match of the competition, coach Bryan Rosenfeld’s starting XI featured Sabrina D’Angelo in goal, Katherine Caverly at left back, Alison Clarke and Nicole Setterlund at centre back, Yazmin Ongtengco-Hintzen at right back, Diamond Simpson, Kylie Davis and Chantale Campbell at midfield, and Caroline Beaulne, Nour Ghoneim and Haisha Cantave up front. Unfortunately, coach Rosenfeld was forced to make an early substitution in just the 19th minute of the match, replacing an injured Caverly with left back Sophie Thérien.
Canada started the match brightly and created several chances within the first five minutes. First Davis received a pass in space, but her first-time shot was blocked by Panama ‘s goalkeeper Anyuri Montenegro . From the ensuing corner kick, a Panamanian defender nearly scored an own goal as her clearing effort looped just past the post.
Canada continued its early pressure and Nour Ghoneim nearly opened the scoring in the eighth minute, but her hard shot was hit straight at Montenegro. One minute later, Canada ‘s early dominance was rewarded with a goal. Cantave ran onto a through ball, saw Montenegro rushing off her line, and intelligently hit a low chip from outside of the box that rolled into the empty goal.
Panama seemed overwhelmed by the early Canadian dominance, but Cantave’s early goal seemed to awaken them as they slowly began to get back into the match. In the 22nd minute, Canada’s D’Angelo needed to be sharp as she won the ball off a Panamanian attacker who had gotten away in the box.
Canada finally doubled its lead in the 37th minute through a great individual effort from Simpson. On a seemingly harmless play, Simpson charged down and blocked a Panamanian clearance attempt. Simpson then reacted first to the loose ball and placed a low drive into the bottom corner of the Panama goal.
Canada started the second half in the same dominant fashion that it had started the match. Cantave, who was having a very strong match, was at the centre of Canada ‘s early scoring opportunities. First, Cantave beat her defender down the right and pulled the ball back to an open Beaulne, but her effort flew well over the Panama goal. Next, Cantave slipped in Davis down the right side, Davis steadied herself and looked to play a return the pass to an open Cantave in the box but the Panama defence held firm and cleared the pass.
As the half wore on, Beaulne was causing the Panama defence fits with her mazy runs down the Canadian wing. In the 56th minute, Beaulne picked up the ball just inside the Panama half and made a beautiful 30-yard dash all the way into the Panama box where her low shot was well stopped by Montenegro .
In the 71st minute, midfielder Campbell stepped forward and hit a long drive that had Montenegro beaten, but went just over the cross bar.
Cantave continued her fine play in the 80th minute when she elected to shoot across goal after turning her defender in the Panama box, but Montenegro was equal to the hard shot, tipping the shot around her post and out for a corner.
Two minutes later, Simpson nearly scored her second, shooting just wide under heavy pressure, after being set up beautifully by Beaulne in Panama box.
Beaulne, the provider for many of Canada ‘s second half-chances, missed an excellent opportunity to score when she directed her header just wide from a Canadian corner kick.
Despite creating numerous second-half scoring chances, Canada was unable to capitalize beyond its 2-0 lead heading into the final minutes. Panama duly made things interesting, pulling a goal back in the 88th minute after a corner kick evaded D’Angelo in the Canadian goal and fell softly onto the head of Panama ‘s Lisbany Alveo.
Despite the late goal Canada defended well to comfortably close out the match and earn its second consecutive victory at the 2010 CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship.
Canada will complete Group 2 play against Mexico on Monday 15 March.
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