Canada prepares for rendezvous with France

Canada will face France in its second group match at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 this 30 June. The match kicks off at 18.00 at Stadion Bochum in Bochum, Germany, the first of two Group A matches to be played on Thursday. Germany will square off with Nigeria in the other group match of the day.



The Canada-France match will kickoff at 11.45 ET / 08.45 PT live on CBC (English), Radio-Canada (French) and Telelatino (Spanish). The match will also be streamed live in Canada at cbcsports.ca and radio-canada.ca.



Mathematically, Canada needs either a win or a draw in the 30 June match against France. Anything less will eliminate Canada from the competition. France already has three points following a 1:0 victory against Nigeria, while Canada has no points following a 1:2 loss to Germany. Only two teams will advance from each group in the 16-team competition.



The 26 June Canada-Germany match drew an average audience of 662,000 viewers on CBC. Approximately 2.1 million Canadians tuned in from across the country to watch Canada’s opening match last Sunday.



Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners and whose presenting sponsor is Teck, will meet up with France tomorrow for the first time since 2008. The two sides both took part in the 2011 Cyprus Women’s Cup, but avoided each other by virtue of being in separate groups and by having different placement matches. Canada finished first while France finished third.



Up until earlier this year, France has long enjoyed the better ranking on the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking. Canada only surpassed France in the most recent ranking published on 18 March 2011, with Canada listed sixth and France listed seventh with a mere 31 points separating the two teams. France still maintains the best record of all the teams in Group A over the last 18 months, with just one loss over the course of 18 matches (a 1:2 loss to the Netherlands at the Cyprus Women’s Cup).



As for Canada, its 2011 record consists of ten wins, one draw and three losses in fourteen matches. In the last year, Canada has only lost against Germany, USA and Sweden, three top-ranked teams that France has not faced in the last year and a half.



The FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 runs this 18 June to 17 July in nine German cities. This is Canada’s fifth participation in a FIFA Women’s World Cup. Canada has also qualified as the host country of the next FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015.