Carolina Morace era begins for Canada

A new era for the Canadian women’s national team was launched today as Canada drew 1:1 with New Zealand in their first match of the 2009 Cyprus Cup. Christina Julien opened the scoring in the 11th minute with an excellent finish. New Zealand answered in the 34th minute through Betsy Hassett’s strike. Both teams had chances to win the game but were not able to finish.



“I am happy with the performance of the team after not playing for five months. For me the match went very, very well as the players on the other team are playing every week, said coach Carolina Morace following the match. “I am pleased with the team effort as they tried to do what I asked of them. We will build on this performance.”



There were several notable statistics on the day. Three Canadian players earned their first caps in the match: Alyssa Lagonia, Chelsea Stewart, and Christina Julien. Amy Walsh reached 99 career caps for Canada while Christine Sinclair made her national record 123rd career start.



Julien marked her first appearance by scoring her first international goal, Canada’s lone goal of the 1:1 draw.



In other Cyprus Cup Group B action from Thursday, Netherlands won 2:1 over Russia. As such, Canada is tied for second in Group B with 1 point; Holland leads the group with three points. In group A, England won 6:0 over South Africa and France won 2:0 over Scotland. Canada next plays Netherlands on Saturday 7 March in the Makarios Stadium.



Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners, won the 2008 Cyprus Cup. It was one of the many successes from a landmark year in which Canada qualified for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament for the first time in Association history. At the Olympics in Beijing, Canada reached the quarter-final stage before falling to the number-one ranked USA in the quarter final.







For more information on the Cyprus Women’s Cup, please visit www.cypruswomenscup.com. For more information on Cyprus, please visit www.visitcyprus.com.