Canada Draws England In Scoreless World Cup Tune-Up
By The two countries played an unofficial match behind closed doors.
The game was hosted at Queensland Sports Stadium and was called a training fixture, with no caps being awarded to any player that participated in it.
Canada Soccer and England’s Football Association provided the score and the players who played, but no other details.
According to TSN’s Claire Hanna, who is already on location in Australia, 17 of the 23 players saw the pitch and Kailen Sheridan played the full 90 minutes.
See Also: Canada’s Women’s World Cup Roster Revealed
After the game, Bev Priestman sat down with the Canada Soccer media team to discuss the game.
“I was really pleased,” Priestman said when asked about her reaction to the game. “I think the group put a real shift coming into this game with a hard pre-camp and a lot of work done.”
“I think you could see that on the pitch, and I thought we looked really good. We could have put away a few chances and I am kinda disappointed not to come away with a win.”
“At the end of the day, we are building. This game was about building and taking some learnings from the previous games. We took a step forward today.”
“To keep a clean sheet against England, you need to be happy with that. Now you have to make sure those chances go in, but overall I am really pleased.”
Priestman was asked to evaluate the squad with some players playing their first minutes since returning from injury, most notably Nichelle Prince and Deanne Rose.
“The squad is in a great place. We needed that tough challenge, we have two days off before we head into Melbourne and get the excitement of that World Cup. It’s a great test.”
Canada will face Nigeria exactly one week from today, and Priestman was asked what needs to be done in order to prepare for that first Women’s World Cup group stage game.
“I think we have to keep climbing. We can’t be happy with the draw, we wanted the win but ultimately performance-wise, some key things, we need to take that step forward.”
As mentioned, Canada will have two days off and will spend them in a wellness retreat and will head to Melbourne on Sunday.