Canada's Christine Sinclair (center) in Cyprus Women's Cup action against England on March 10, 2014, in Nicosia, Cyprus. (Photo courtesy of the Canadian Soccer Association)
NICOSIA, Cyprus – Canada fell 2-0 to England on Monday in the 2014 Cyprus Women’s Cup at GSP Stadium.
Lianne Sanderson (1’, 33’) scored a pair of first-half goals in a winning effort.
The loss meant that the CONCACAF power (6 points) completed Group A play in second place, three points behind the English, who will face France in the championship match.
“That ability to beat a player one-on-one, we didn’t seem to have that today,” admitted Canada head coach John Herdman admitted. “We really just didn’t have that spark in the final third and we’ve got to find it.”
It marks the first time in the tournament’s seven-year history that three-time champion Canada will not compete in the final. Instead, it will square off against Group C runner-up Ireland for fifth place on Wednesday.
at Albufeira, Portugal
USA 3, Denmark 5
For the first time since 2001, the United States suffered consecutive losses, falling 5-3 to Denmark on Monday in the Algarve Cup at the Estadio Municipal.
The result, which came on the heels of a 1-0 setback to Sweden three days earlier, dropped the Americans to last place in Group B. They will now meet Korea DPR on Wednesday in the match for seventh place.
Denmark jumped out to a 3-0 lead before half-time on goals from Katine Veje (24’), Nadia Nadim (35’) and Simone Sorensen (39’).
The U.S. emerged from the break in a determined mood and struck in the 51st minute. Midfielder Samantha Mewis threaded a pass inside the penalty area to Heather O’Reilly, who touched it for Christen Press to roll into the lower left corner of the net.
Joanna Rasmussen put the game out of reach in the 62nd minute, netting Denmark’s fourth goal.
The Americans cut the deficit to 4-3 thanks to strikes by Sydney Leroux (64’) and Megan Rapinoe (68’), but Karoline Nielsen closed the Danes’ goal account in the third minute of stoppage time.
NOTES: It was the first time in U.S. women’s national team history that it allowed five goals in a match … The back-to-back defeats marked the first time the USA lost consecutive games since the 2001 Algarve Cup; a 2-0 loss to Sweden in the group finale and a 4-3 loss to Norway in the fifth-place match … Denmark were shutout in its previous games.
