After suffering a 3-1 defeat to France las week, England were looking to get back to winning ways last night against Canada. Unfortunately they were unable to do so. Even though England’s performance was better, a defensive error in the 2nd minute meant Canada took the lead. Near the end of the game another error (this time from the goalkeeper) meant Canada doubled their lead and came out as 2-0 winners.
One of England’s problems against both France and Canada was that England weren’t creating enough chances. This was something that Hege Riise wasn’t happy about. “The thing that I’m most disappointed in is that we don’t create chances. We have the ball, we switch the play better second half than the first half. But we don’t create enough to get the goals.”
Georgia Stanway described the loss as a frustrating one: “Yeah it’s frustrating! I think it’s just them fine margins that we’re still talking about. We play really really good football, the statistics are on our side but we’re just quite not getting there in the final third. Our build-up, our creating, it’s there but it’s just that final ball into the box or that final end product that we’re working on. But I personally feel we’re heading in the right direction and hopefully it looks like that from yous watching.”
From a viewer perspective it may seem as though England are behind the top teams but Hege doesn’t think that that is the case. “I’m very confident that next time we will learn from this and take great opportunities going forward, so I’m happy having these two games to get to see all the players and moving forward I’m confident that we will perform better.”
One of the positives Riise could take from the game was that England defended better in transitions. “I’m quite happy how we defended, how the two centre midfielders reacted when we lost the ball, their positioning. So I felt like we were connected as a team and I was pleased to see that.”
Stanway will be one of the players hoping to be on the plane to Tokyo for Team GB. She was the youngest player to head to the World Cup in 2019 and she’s done what she can to try and be in the squad. “There’s that many people challenging for specific spots, there are that many unbelievable players and it’s kind of exciting for the coaches to be able to pick such a talented bunch and such an enthusiastic group of players. I’ll just wait my time, if it’s meant to be it’s meant to be.
“I’ve worked my socks off to try and get in this position that I’m in now and it’s been a rollercoaster, it’s had its ups and downs but yeah you’ve just got to enjoy the ride. If the Olympics happens for me, it happens, if it doesn’t then best of luck to the girls.”
Photo: @Lionesses
