World Cup NOW: Where did things go wrong for Canada?

Australia needed a big result against Canada in its final group stage match of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and it got one. Knowing they needed a win to keep their campaign alive, the Matildas delivered in Melbourne, beating the reigning Olympic champions 4-0.

The “World Cup NOW” crew –—Jimmy Conrad, Leslie Osborne, Melissa Ortiz, Ari Hingst and Heather O’Reilly — discussed how Australia was able to control the match against a tough Canadian team.

Conrad: “Congratulations to Australia for getting the full three points against Canada, who had nothing to show for it today. Really impressive performance by them and hopefully they can continue it throughout the tournament. This was a little bit of a surprise. I think we thought we would see a little bit more from Canada.

“One thing I would add before you answer is that if you want to win a game you need to have a majority of your team be a seven or eight out of 10. And we saw that almost across the board from Australia. I think we got two or three or four out of 10 from the Canadians.”

O’Reilly: “What a great opportunity for Australia to turn this tournament around. It has been a tough one with the Sam Kerr injury and then dropping the one result and now the tide is turning.”

Hingst: “I just want to mention you were talking about a surprise, but there was one person sitting in these chairs who was not surprised, remember? Surprised by the numbers, okay maybe, but we are on the same page.”

Osborne: “Listen this Australia side, this team, is who you want to see. I mean they were so incredibly disciplined from the start. Their mentality, Canada just could not match it. At every level, they brought it and were just better. They were able to fire on all cylinders and for an entire game, we only saw a few sequences where Canada actually had the ball.

“Australia just continued to shut them up every single time and Canada had no response. It was from the start, Australia knew it was their game, and they were playing for Sam Kerr and their home crowd. But overall, their mentality and being on their front foot and starting this game and finally a 90-minute performance from this team? This was very impressive.”

Hingst: “So there was one player who was absolutely outstanding. Who was it? Caitlin Foord. She was really, really good. And then on the other side, we have Hayley Raso, who is so quick and scored the first two goals. I have got to say though, they had a lot of space and were sitting a little deep, but they were compact.

“Canada didn’t have the solutions on how to get through. And then they were clicking and were fast and composed and wanted to score. That was the big difference from the matches before. Today they didn’t play as many long balls and actually played soccer and used the strength of Foord, used the strength of Raso, and her speed. And that is a big reason they were successful today.”