LANGFORD, B.C. — Nichelle Prince scored twice as Canada thumped an experimental Australia lineup 5-0 Friday in Christine Sinclair’s penultimate international game.
The 10th-ranked Canadians had their way with the 11th-ranked Matildas on a wet night. Cloe Lacasse, Simi Awujo and Adriana Leon also scored for Canada, which led 2-0 at the half.
Canada coach Bev Priestman liked plenty of what she saw but said she still wants more consistency and a bit more killer instinct.
“We’ve got to put our foot on the throttle more often,” she said.
Sinclair, the world’s all-time leading scorer with 190 goals, came on in the 63rd minute for her 330th cap with Canada up 5-0.
The 40-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., was honoured before the game with her two nieces presenting her with a commemorative jersey. There was also a presentation marking B.C. designating Dec. 12 Christine Sinclair Day.
Sinclair will call time on her international career against the same opposition Tuesday in her backyard before a crowd of 41,000-plus at B.C. Place Stadium, which is being renamed Christine Sinclair Place for the night.
A gala celebration in Sinclair’s honour, complete with a performance by Dallas Smith, is planned the next night at the same venue.
Canada dominated from the get-go and went ahead in the 10th minute when Prince dispossessed captain Clare Polkinghorne in the Australian penalty box and beat goalkeeper Teagan Micah with a low shot to the corner.
Prince, Leon and Vanessa Gilles had good scoring chances as the first half wore on. Prince made it 2-0 in the 42nd minute, redirecting a low Ashley Lawrence cross for her 16th goal for Canada.
It could have been 5-0 by halftime. Jordyn Huitema came on for Prince at the break.
Lacasse made it 3-0 in the 49th, pilfering the ball from an Australian defender and steaming into the penalty box before beating Micah with a low shot.
Awujo added to the lead six minutes later with a left-footed shot from just outside the penalty box. It was a first Canadian goal for the 20-year-old University of Southern California midfielder, in her eighth Canada game.
Leon made it 5-0 in the 62nd minute with a header — her 31st goal for Canada — as the Australian defence was carved open again.
Sophie Schmidt, who is also bowing out Tuesday, came on late in the game for her 225th cap. Sinclair had a chance in the 71st minute but Micah got to the ball just before she did.
Australian coach Tony Gustavsson brought on more experienced players late in the game, with the outcome already decided.
“We were willing to risk a result,” said Gustavsson. “Not that we wanted to lose but we were willing to look at players tonight and it cost us.”
It was the first meeting of the two teams since co-host Australia ended Canada’s World Cup with a humbling 4-0 win July 31 in Melbourne. That defeat consigned Canada to third place in Group B and a trip home while Australia went on to finish fourth.
Gustavsson said prior to the Langford game that he was using it to see new talent in camp.
“It’s maybe not about winning a game but winning a player,” he said.
Australia will be fielding “two completely different lineups” in the Canada series, he added.
Gustavsson was true to his word. His starting 11 Friday featured none of the starters from the World Cup game with Canada although it did feature seven of the subs from the Melbourne meeting. Defender Charlie Rule and midfielder Sarah Hunter made their debuts for the Matildas.
Canada fielded six starters from the Melbourne meeting in its starting lineup.
Friday’s game was played at a sold-out Starlight Stadium, home to the CPL’s Pacific FC and Rugby Canada, some 15 kilometres west of Vancouver. The attendance was announced at 6,102, a record for a soccer game at the venue.
It was a damp seven degrees Celsius, feeling like five degrees at game time. The rain started minutes before the evening kickoff.
Midfielder Jessie Fleming continued as Canada captain, leading out a starting lineup with a combined 676 caps. Fleming, Kadeisha Buchanan, Lawrence and Leon accounted for 486 of those.
Kailen Sheridan was a late replacement in the Canadian goal, with Sabrina D’Angelo feeling unwell.
Both teams were missing players through injury.
Canada was without forward Evelyne Viens, midfielders Julia Grosso, Emma Regan and Desiree Scott and forward Deanne Rose. Forward Janine Beckie is in camp but still rehabbing a knee injury.
The Matildas were missing captain/star forward Sam Kerr, goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold, defender Charlotte Grant and forward Holly McNamara.
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2023.
Follow @NeilMDavidson on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
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.
