Strong opening match for Canada

For more information on this match, please read the Canada-Germany match report.



Germany showed that it is still the best in the world, although Canada proved it has narrowed the gap in a hard-fought battle in the opening match of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011. Canada created chances early, went down by a brace before the half, but held tight and cut the lead in half before falling 1:2 to the host nation. Kerstin Garefrekes and Celia Okoyino Da Mbabi scored for Germany before Christine Sinclair countered for Canada.



“We are more confident today than we were yesterday,” said national head coach Carolina Morace. “We played a good game.We are not so arrogant to come here and say we are the best team in the world; absolutely not.”



Germany is the two-time reigning FIFA Women’s World Cup champion. Today’s 26 June 2011 opening match drew 73,860 fans to the Olympiastadion in Berlin.



“If Christine Sinclair had scored on that first chance, we may have been talking about a different result,” said Morace.



Also on the opening day, France won 1:0 over Nigeria to gain three points and hold second place in the group standings behind Germany. Marie-Laure Delie scored the lone goal for France.



The FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 runs 26 June to 17 July in nine cities. Canada’s next two match are 30 June against France (in Bochum) and 5 July against Nigeria (in Dresden).



Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners and presenting sponsor is Teck, will leave for Bochum on 27 June.