Canada’s opening match of 2022 came with a slow start. But a sublime second-half strike by Janine Beckie leveled the playing field in a 1-1 draw with England at the Arnold Clark Cup.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women are back at it Sunday, facing No. 3 Germany in the four-team tournament. Canada manager Bev Priestman will be hoping her Olympic champion team comes out of the gate faster at Norwich’s Carrow Road.
“First half we weren’t ourselves, I would say,” Priestman said. “Second half we made some adjustments, but also just the mindset to play forward more, to take more risks. And I thought that was a much better account of ourselves.
“But don’t get me wrong. It was a tough game, tough opposition. A group who were fully in-season. And I think you could feel that at moments in the game.”
Eighth-ranked England had 57 per cent possession, outshot Canada 16-5 (4-2 in shots on target) and had a 6-2 edge in corners.
Millie Bright put England ahead in the 22nd minute from a short corner. The ball was sent into the box with Canadian ‘keeper Kailen Sheridan punching it away in traffic. But the ball went straight to Bright and the Chelsea defender took advantage, scoring with a sweet right-footed volley that deflected off Canadian forward Jordyn Huitema en route to goal.
The lead could have been larger had it not been for some timely interventions by Canadian centre back Kadeisha Buchanan, who was immense on the day.
Canada tied it in the 55th minute after Ashley Lawrence intercepted a pass and made a surging run towards the England goal. Her pass deflected off a defender to Huitema, who slipped it to Beckie. The Manchester City forward stopped and curled a left-footed shot into the top corner from just outside of the penalty box.
It was Beckie’s 34th goal for Canada, tying her with Kara Lang for fourth spot on the Canadian scoring list.
Beckie stated she actually regretted her first touch, saying she wanted the ball on her right foot. But the left worked quite nicely.
England coach Sarina Wiegman was complimentary towards the Canadians, calling them a “top-level team.”
“They did come as advertised,” she said. “Of course, they’re the Olympic champions and I think they’re a very strong team. They have a lot of speed in their team, so that’s really dangerous in transition. That’s what we saw, that’s what happened with the goal. They were just gone.
“But they’re also well-structured. Today they also showed that they can change their structure a little bit which made us struggle a little bit.”
Canada is 9-3-6 under Priestman including two shootout wins at the Tokyo Olympics. The losses were to the U.S., Brazil and Mexico.
The tournament title sponsor, Arnold Clark, is a family-run car dealer.
