Lauren Hemp didn’t let the Women’s World Cup semifinal match between Australia and England become the Sam Kerr show.
Hemp scored to restore England’s lead eight minutes after a superb equalizer from Kerr, and then provided a perfect pass for the clincher as the Lionesses moved into their first World Cup championship game with a 3-1 victory over Australia on Wednesday.
The semifinal outcome ended a Matildas run that captivated Australia for almost a month and sent England to a matchup with Spain in the final, where the Lionesses will have a chance to bring a World Cup home for the first time since 1966.
Sarina Wiegman became the first coach to lead two countries to the Women’s World Cup final, and in back-to-back tournaments. Her run with the Netherlands in 2019 ended with a loss to the United States.
On either side of that, she guided Netherlands to the European title in 2017 and then took over the England squad for its breakthrough Euro 2022 title.
“I’m the lucky one — the last two tournaments I’m going to the final,” said Wiegman, the only female head coach of any team to reach the quarterfinals.
“You make it to finals, it’s really special,” she said. “I’m like, `Am I here in the middle of a fairytale or something?”‘
Australia’s Sam Kerr reacts after a missed chance to score. (AFP via Getty Images)
England dominated possession in the first half, starving the Australians of the ball and shutting down the Matildas’ transitional, counter-attacking game.
It was rewarded when Ella Toone scored in the 36th minute with a powerful right-foot shot diagonally inside the far post. A throw-in from Rachel Daly went to Hemp, who turned and sent it into the area where Alessia Russo turned the ball back past Hemp for Toone to swoop.
Kerr was in Australia’s starting lineup for the first time in the tournament after overcoming a left calf injury.
Her equalizer in the 63rd gave the 75,784-strong crowd and millions of fans watching around Australia renewed hope, but Hemp responded with a goal in the 71st and provided a perfect through ball for Russo to finish from a tight angle four minutes from the end of regulation.
“Even after Sam’s goal there was no fear in the squad. We weren’t nervous. We just played our football,” Hemp said. “We showed the relentlessness inside the squad to make it 2-1. And then even when we’re on the backfoot going into the final few minutes, I felt like we showed calm, composure on the ball to manage to counterattack them and obviously make it 3-1.”
First all-Euro final in 2 decades
England and Spain will each be playing in the Women’s World Cup final for the first time at Stadium Australia on Sunday. It will be the first all-European final since 2003.
Australia will play Sweden, which lost to Spain 2-1 in the other semifinal, for third place on Saturday in Brisbane.
“We had a chance for 2-2 and a couple of minutes later it was 3-1,” Australia coach Tony Gustavsson said. “It was one of those games, unfortunately.”
Katrina Gorry created chances in each half of her 100th game for Australia but said the Matildas weren’t able to dominate the way they needed to.
“But you know, we’ve got a quick turnaround and we want to win the bronze medal,” she said.
After topping its group, advancing over Nigeria on penalties in the round of 16 and beating Colombia in the quarterfinals, England was playing in the semifinals for the third consecutive Women’s World Cup. Australia was in the final four for the first time.
It showed, particularly in the first half and in the last 20 minutes, when England had a harder edge and was more clinical when it counted.
The Australians seem to have played their final in the 7-6 penalty shootout win over France last weekend, their first win in four quarterfinal appearances at the Women’s World Cup.
Kerr makes mark
Kerr missed the group stage, played the last 10 minutes in the round-of-16 win over Denmark and went on as a second-half substitute in that narrow win over fifth-ranked France before finally getting a start against England.
She ended up on the ground after her first touch after a tangle with Keira Walsh. In the ninth minute, England defender Alex Greenwood received a yellow card for a sliding tackle from behind that left Kerr on the ground again.
After being subdued by England’s defence for an hour, Kerr took the ball around halfway, sprinted forward in a solo run and launching a long-range right-foot shot that lightly touched defender Millie Bright before going into the top left corner.
Kerr started making inroads as momentum shifted briefly before England responded, with Hemp running onto a long ball into the area and scoring with a left-foot finish after Australia defender Ellie Carpenter over-ran the ball.
Kerr missed a chance to equalize again with a header in the 82nd and miscued another shot as Australia squandered three opportunities before Hemp set up Russo to finish off the scoring.
After putting Australia out of contention, Hemp said the England squad wanted to relive the kind of euphoria that their win in the European Championship generated last year.
“Obviously you’ve seen last year how successful we were. We want to do the same again, we want to go one step further,” Hemp said. “We’ve all got a dream and I feel like we’re really pushing each other to be the best that we can.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
