Canada, which dominated the whole territory, was a tight but completely deserved victory. The North American’s least deserved was Kadeisha Buchanan’s lone, match-winning objective–a strong header from a rehearsed corner. Cameroon was hard to break down, but seldom threatened to equalize for the second half and hoped to become stronger in the next few matches.
The circumstances differed widely from the abrupt Montpellier night Canada battles of Cameroon. But four years ago, the score in their opening match was the same and the winner needed a long time.
“We knew coming into this game that it would be difficult and crucial, and you see already in this tournament that not all the favourites come out of these matches with three points. When you’re controlling the ball and controlling the game, some small mistakes can creep in. And Cameroon were always looking for those mistakes to counter-attack with the fast players they had up front. But I was pretty happy with the performance. There were some jitters, of course, but now they’re gone.”
– Kenneth Heiner-Moller, Canada coach
No closer to the record of Abby Wambach. But she was always a team player, Christine Sinclair, and she’ll be simply delighted that Canada begun this year’s Women’s World Cup.
Canada began the two teams better and stayed top all over. Cameroon was looking to counter attack, but a powerful Canadian defense stopped them. Once Canada took the lead, it was more relaxed and monopolized.
“We prepared our structure and formation, but Canada are fifth in the Women’s Ranking and we are 46th. So we had to be realistic and focus on defending and hitting on the counter-attack. From a tactical point of view, I think the way our formation worked was very good. We were just up against a good team and found ourselves in sticky situations. I’m very happy with the way my girls played but Canada are a more mature team and we saw that out there.”
– Alain Djeumfa, Cameroon coach
What about the debut of France 2019 in Cameroon? Well, on the other side, it always looked like they expect Canada to make a mistake. They were powerful on the back. And that never occurred. That never occurred.
The shortage of objectives and opportunities reminds us of the competitiveness of women’s football. The gap is narrower by year between the traditional giants and the rest. Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene’s ability may be the X factor in a future assault in Cameroon. She always appears deadly when she touches the ball.
Image: Kane Oosty/FIFA
