Captain of the Canadian team, Christine Sinclair, says their 2-0 win over the Super Falcons in Saturday’s international friendly at the BC Place in Vancouver was not a true reflection of the game, Sunday PUNCH reports.
Sinclair believes the encounter should have ended 7-0 or 8-0 in their favour.
After a goalless first half, Jesse Fleming broke the deadlock with the opener in the 50th minute beating the keeper after receiving a cut-back pass from Deanne Rose.
Vanessa Gilles secured a victory for the reigning Olympic champions 18 minutes from time with a powerful header off Janine Beckie’s cross.
The Falcons were without five (Asisat Oshoala, Francisca Ordega, Vivian Ikechukwu, Chinwendu Ihezuo and Osinachi Ohale) for the encounter.
“The Falcons are a great team and they surprised us a little bit in the first half by how athletic they were, but we should have won like 7-0 or 8-0,” she said. But since we’ve played Nigeria last, they are a lot more organised and disciplined now.”
Despite Sinclair’s pride, Falcons head coach, Randy Waldrum, says he retains ‘absolute’ confidence in his team despite their defeat.
Speaking after the defeat, Waldrum insisted that his side posted a quality display against their host which will help them prepare well for the forthcoming 2022 Women’s African Cup of Nations in Morocco.
“This is part of the process, to get to where a team like Canada or a top team in the world is at now you need games like this,” Waldrum said.
“Canada didn’t just arrive here overnight either, so we get to understand that the result in a friendly against a team with top quality like this is not as important as the quality of play.
“Obviously, everyone wants to get a result when they step on the field. This will make us better, because we had to play some younger players.
“You mentioned Asisat, we didn’t have Vivian as well, we didn’t have Ihezuo who plays for us upfront and Ohale.
“So we can in one way justify that it wasn’t a full squad, but the good thing is that we try to teach our players that we play with what we have and it’s definitely going to prepare us for WAFCON.”
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