LOS ANGELES — The biggest challenge facing the Canadian women’s national team Saturday was facing a Costa Rican team that it had defeated less than five days ago.
On the final day of Group C play, Canada handed Costa Rica a 3-0 defeat.
Saturday’s encounter, in the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup quarterfinal, Costa Rica dodged several potential dangerous moments, and defended heroically for 90 minutes, forcing the game into two 15-minute extra time periods.
“This is probably what I expected when I scouted Costa Rica before the tournament,” Canada coach Bev Priestman said. “It means everything to them, to beat Canada for the first time. We had to match that mindset and I knew…I said that to the group it was going to be up another level. It’s not necessarily the skill, it’s the will and their will was to defend for their life. They did an unbelievable job of keeping that ball out of the back of the net.”
The breakthrough finally came in the 105th minute off of a restart. Evelyne Viens delivered with a quick head-flick header into the goal for the 1-0 lead and eventual win at BMO Stadium in front of 2,824.
“I think it was one of them games, you know, the amount of chances and shots that we had, it just felt like the ball just couldn’t cross the line,” Priestman said. “All credit to Costa Rica, I expected this game to be, if I’m being honest …we had a bit of a great run and in many ways maybe we needed this to set us up for the next game.”
Next for Canada is a trip to San Diego for Wednesday’s semifinal against either Colombia or USWNT.
Canada’s advancement in the tournament was booked with Viens’ goal, but it was a moment in goal from goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan that kept the game scoreless. In the third minute of stoppage time in the second half, Costa Rica’s first shot on goal (by Alexa Herrera) seemed to be on track for the bottom left corner of the goal, but Sheridan came up with a kick save to keep the game…
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