Canada falls to England in final

A bruised and battered Canadian squad ran out of gas, losing 1:3 to England in the Cyprus Women’s Cup final. Canada, playing their first series of matches under new coach Carolina Morace, had shown improvement in their play with each game at the Cyrpus Cup before succumbing to a well organized and disciplined England squad. Christine Sinclair gave Canada a 14th minute lead, scoring the 99th goal of her career, before England scored three goals in a 15 minute period before the end of the first half, a deficit from which Canada was unable to recover.



“Today we lost but we have to be proud of the performance,” said coach Carolina Morace. “For us it is a start, this team has great potential. Of course, we are not happy that we have lost. I think the players understand that we can do more.”



Sinclair scored her goal after receiving a pass from strike partner Melissa Tancredi and lobbing the onrushing England Goalkeeper. England hit back with goals from Lianne Sanderson (32nd), Kelly Smith (40th), and Carla Faye (45th).



Canada will leave the tournament feeling positive about the steps they’ve taken as a group. The Canadian performances improved consistently and players and staff alike became more comfortable with a new playing style as well as with each other.



“After being together for only one month our results at this tournament have been excellent,” said Morace. “The players have improved match by match. They understand what we expect from them and that is important.”



Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners and whose presenting sponsor is Teck, now looks forward to their next scheduled match, a 25 May home date with Japan at BMO field in Toronto.



In other scores from finals day at the Cyprus Cup, France won 6-5 on penalties after a 1:1 draw with New Zealand, Netherlands beat South Africa 5:0, and Scotland defeated Russia 2:1.



Final standings at the 2009 Cyprus Women’s Cup:

1. England

2. Canada

3. France

4. New Zealand

5. Holland

6. South Africa

7. Scotland

8. Russia



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



For more information on Cyprus, please visit www.visitcyprus.com.