‘Perfect’ Canada face Germany test in Olympic women’s football quarter-finals
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Canada players before their group match against Colombia at the Paris Olympics. They won 1-0 and are now through to the quarter-finals.
PHOTO: AFP
PARIS – Defending champions Canada have a point to prove as they take on Germany on Aug 3 in a bid to reach the semi-finals of the Olympic women’s football tournament.
The Canadians have made the knockout stage in Paris despite a points deduction over a drone spying scandal.
Four-time gold medallists the United States and World Cup holders Spain are also in action in the last eight.
Canada’s hopes of repeating their run to gold in Tokyo three years ago appeared to be over when they were docked six points by Fifa, as a punishment for using a drone to spy on a New Zealand training session.
They later won the match 2-1.
Coach Bev Priestman, who was reportedly aware of the incident that was carried out by members of her staff, was suspended for a year.
Despite all this, the Canadians beat Colombia 1-0 in Nice on July 31 to make it three wins out of three, hours after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against their penalty was dismissed.
After a remarkable sequence of events, the eighth-ranked nation still finished second in Group A behind France and are through to the quarter-finals, and now face 2016 gold medallists Germany in Marseille.
“We always knew that we could do it. The chances were stacked against us but we pulled through,” defender Vanessa Gilles, the match-winner against France and Colombia, told Canada’s CBC.
“We still believe the sanction was unfair, unjust and unprecedented.”
Germany lost 4-1 to the US in the group stage but went through with wins against Australia and Zambia, and Horst Hrubesch’s team may be a step up on anything Canada have faced yet.
The Americans, targeting a record-extending fifth women’s football gold, meet Japan in Paris in a repeat of the London 2012 final, which they won 2-1.
Under new coach Emma Hayes, the US won all three group games, with their attacking trio of Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith all impressing.
“Honestly, we are kind of like sisters. This group we have right now is special and we are having a lot of fun,” said Swanson.
The teams also met in the World Cup finals of 2011 and 2015, with one victory apiece, and Japan will be confident they can compete with the traditional powerhouse of the women’s game.
Spain, meanwhile, will take some stopping after the world champions eased through to the last eight also with a 100 per cent record in Group C.
A side led by Ballon d’Or Feminin winner Aitana Bonmati will be strong favourites in Lyon against Colombia, who progressed as one of the best third-placed teams.
However, Alexia Putellas warned her teammates not to take the South Americans lightly.
“It’s going to be difficult to win every game,” she said, explaining that teams are setting up defensively against Spain.
“We’ve struggled to find our rhythm at times. Brazil, for example, really managed to stifle our attacks.”
The Brazilians were handicapped against Spain – a 2-0 defeat for the South Americans – by the sending-off of captain Marta, one of the greats of the women’s game.
Now suspended, the 38-year-old’s chances of featuring again at her sixth Olympics hinge on them beating France in Nantes.
Herve Renard’s French team were not always convincing in the group stage but boast a lethal striker in Marie-Antoinette Katoto, the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals. “Marie carries the team because she is so clinical,” said the coach. “She doesn’t need many chances to score.”
France or Brazil will meet Spain or Colombia in the semi-finals, with the US or Japan facing Canada or Germany. AFP
