England have made a first semi-final of a major tournament
since 1996 and it is the women who have done it, beating Canada 2-1 on Sunday.
Jodie Taylor and Lucy Bronze scored two goals in quick
succession in the opening 14 minutes as England eliminated Canada from its home
World Cup.
The Lionesses overcame a frenzied Canadian crowd at BC Place
and a second-half goalkeeping change to secure their nation’s first trip to the
semi-finals at the Women’s version of the tournament.
England crushed the hopes of a host nation hoping to celebrate
Canada’s first World Cup title on this same field next month.
Instead, England will face defending champion Japan in the
semi-finals in Edmonton on Wednesday — which also happens to be Canada Day.
In the 11th minute, Taylor pounced when the ball got away
from a falling Lauren Sesselman, dodged another defender and tucked a shot past
Erin McLeod for her first goal of the tournament.
With the crowd still in disbelief, Bronze doubled the
Lionesses’ lead in the 14th minute by heading Fara Williams’ long pass off the
crossbar and in for her second goal of the World Cup. England’s bench players
leaped onto the field in elation, joined by the small English contingent in the
vast crowd.
The sellout crowd of 54,027 banged drums and sang as it
welcomed Canada back to Vancouver, where it beat Switzerland 1-0 last weekend
to reach its first quarterfinal since 2003.
Sinclair got the crowd on its feet in the eighth minute with
a tremendous rush down the sideline, nutmegging two players before making a
tremendous sweeping pass that left Melissa Tancredi one-on-one with the goalie
- but Canada’s oldest starter missed the net badly.
But Canada struggled to generate many good chances in the
waning minutes of the scoreless second half and the drought slowly crushed the
crowd of 54,027, most wearing red and supporting their plucky, defense-minded
team.
Not even a change of goalkeeper for England — with Siobhan
Chamberlain replacing Karen Bardsley early in the second half due to a problem
with her right eye — could give the host nation a way back into the match and
England’s surge into the quarterfinals has raised attention to the perpetually
overlooked Lionesses.
With the strong backing of Prince William
further increasing the spotlight, England are now just two wins away from their
first World Cup — something their male counterparts haven’t won since 1966
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