Gold Cup: Day 3 (Canada Day)

June 7th was setting up to be a very big day for Canadian Soccer but in the end the results were not quite we would have all liked to see.  The afternoon kicked off with the Women's National team playing their final warmup friendly in Budapest against the Hungarian team.  The women would have been hoping to rediscover their scoring touches and hopefully fire a few past the Hungarians but that was not to be.  In the end they got the win that they wanted thanks to an 88th minute goal from Matheson which was enough for the 1-0 win.  The win set the stage well for a great day for Canada with the mens team preparing to play in the evening and it also ensured that the Women's team would be going into the World Cup feeling pretty good about themselves.  The match was also the 100th cap for captain Brittany Timko making her only the 7th Canadian woman to reach that mark.  (Women's World Cup preview coming later this month)

Now we get to the Gold Cup.  The first match last night opened up play in Group C with Panama taking on Guadeloupe in Detroit.  In the early stages this match looked like it was going to be yet another lopsided score as Panama took a 2-0 lead in the first half only to see Guadeloupe have a player sent off to the second questionable red card in as many nights.  Having been reduced to 10 men Guadeloupe could have folded but they were ready to put up a fight.  Things only got worse for them though when they opened the second half by conceding a penalty which was converted by Gabriel Gomez to give Panama a 3-0 lead.  Even though Panama was up by 3 the game had seemed a lot closer then that based on run of play.  Both sides were creating chances and it was fairly balances but everything seemed to be going in Panama's favour in the first hour.  After the 60th minute Guadeloupe began an impressive fight back led by Brice Jovial who plays for Le Havre in France.  Jovial would net goals in the 64th and 78th minute to hand Guadeloupe a lifeline but it was all to little to late as time ran out on them before they could salvage anything.  To the other teams in the group it should now be clear that Guadeloupe are not a team that you can take lightly as they will never give a game up and it also showed that both they and Panama possess the kind of quality needed to give Canada and USA tough games.

The second match was the one that we have all be waiting for basically since June of 2007.  Ever since the last meeting between Canada and the United States ended so badly Canadian soccer fans have been left with a really bad taste in their mouth.  The Canadian supporters would have been hoping to get a measure of revenge in Detroit for the recent struggles that we have had against the Americans.  I for one was hoping that for the first time in my life Canada would get a win over the United States in a competitive match.  With all the hope among Canadian fans I almost forgot that Canada was still the major underdogs for this match.  Spend enough time around passionate fans and they might just have you believing that Canada can hold their own against anyone in the world.  That is a good thing though since fans really should have an almost blind faith in the teams that they support.

The game itself went nothing like we had all hoped.  Canada's Josh Simpson made a promising run down the wings to start the game off but his cross was over hit and after that the run of play became all USA.  The Americans were dominant in possession and creating all sorts of chances in the early minutes.  The breakthrough came on 14 minutes when a play that seemed like it was no real danger.  Jozy Altidore picked up the ball in the book and he was held out wide but his low shot was hard enough that it snuck under Lars Hirschfeld before he could get down to stop it.  Hirschfeld probably should have done a lot better with the strike as he was in position to make the save and the shot came from a poor angle.

Following the opening goal Canada seemed to be rather stunned.  The players were all passing off the ball like they didn't want it.  Other then a bending effort from De Rosario just past the half hour mark that barely missed bending into Howard's top corner there was little to be excited about for the Canadian fans.  It appeared that the choice to go with only Jackson up front left Canada without a really threat in attack as their buildup play was not good enough to provide Jackson any support and Jackson was not big enough to serve as a target man against the American centre backs.  The second half of the game began with more of the same as the Americans controlled the run of play and were the only ones really generating any chances.  They were rewarded for that dominance in the 61st minute when Clint Dempsey got in at the back post to tuck home a low cross from Altidore.

Having gone down 2-0 and not shown much in terms of being able to get forward and attack Canada were forced to make some changes.  The moves that Hart did make gave Canada much more of an edge with Ali Gerba being able to generate probably the two best chances of the game for Canada.  Gerba first forced Howard to deal with a powerful effort which would have been heading into the top corner until Howard got his hand on the ball and forced it over.  Gerba's second chance was probably even better as the ball fell to him in close after a scramble in the American box but a great reaction save from Howard kept Canada off the board.

Based on the late surge from Canada they were probably a bit unlucky to not get a goal for their efforts.  I think that in the end the Americans showed that they are still the better team and that they have the quality to control the pace of matches like this one.  Canada showed that they have more questions then answers at this point as they need to find a way to generate more and play with a bit more edge in their attacks.  The game might have been a lot different if say Tim Howard was in Canada's net since it may just have ended up 2-1 Canada but we can only work with what we have and despite the early mistake that led to Altidore's goal Hirschfeld put in a solid effort.

The real highlight of the match for me was seeing the excited and loud bunch of Canadians that had travelled down to Detroit for the match.  Section 118 of Ford Field was filled with a bunch of familiar faces from the game at BMO and folks that came down made the best of their trip.  Despite Canada giving them very little to cheer about they were in full voice for more then 90 minutes and deserve to be considered the man of the match for this one.  Well done to the Voyageurs and anyone else who made the trip down, I wish I could have joined you.

Up next for Canada is a trip down to Tampa Bay where they will play Guadeloupe on Saturday at 6 PM EST.  The team will likely feature a few changes from the group that started against the Americans.  I can see Peters, De Guzman, Gerba, and Borjan all getting starts in this one in hopes of improving the teams attack as well as tying down Borjan as a Canadian international.  I more complete preview of the next game will be up in the coming days!