VANCOUVER — The Canadian ladies’s football crew celebrated their Olympic championship with a 2-0 victory over Nigeria in a pleasant fit on Friday.
Jessie Flemming opened the scoring within the 51st minute and Vanessa Gilles padded the house aspect’s lead with a function within the 72nd.
Veteran Canadian goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe was once best in the course of the ultimate 45 mins of her football occupation. She was once changed simply after part by way of Kailen Sheridan, who preserved the blank sheet.
Canada performed in pink jerseys with every participant’s title and quantity emblazoned at the again in gold, a nod to the medal the crew received on the Tokyo Olympics remaining summer time.
The Canadians are lately ranked 6th on the earth and Nigeria sits at No. 39.
The 2 aspects will meet once more for the second one sport within the B.C. leg of the party excursion Monday in Langford, B.C.
Canada went up 2-0 within the 72nd minute following a nook kick from Janine Beckie.
Jordyn Huitema were given a head at the ball, sending it in to Gilles, who headed it in previous Nigerian ‘keeper Chiamaka Nnadozie.
Sheridan made her largest prevent of the evening within the 68th minute, diving to ship a blast from Oyedupe Payne simply vast of the publish.
Deanne Rose arrange the primary function of the sport, sending the ball to Flemming on the best of the six-yard field within the 51st minute. Flemming took a sharp-angle shot that went prime over the shoulder of goalkeeper Tochukwu Oluehi.
Oluehi was once changed in web by way of Nnadozie within the seventieth minute after showing to undergo an harm.
The second one part began with an emotional second as Sheridan changed Labbe in function.
The elder ‘keeper saluted the status, cheering crowd — together with a whole phase of her family and friends — sooner than hugging her substitute at the sideline.
Tears ran down Labbe’s face as she hugged head trainer Bev Priestman, the remainder of the Canadian coaching personnel and her teammates at the sideline.
The 35-year-old local of Stony Undeniable, Alta., introduced her retirement in January and has already performed her ultimate sport for her skilled crew, Paris-Saint Germain.
The house aspect managed nearly all of the motion around the first part however Labbe was once pressed into motion within the twenty eighth minute.
Rasheedat Ajibade broke in the course of the Canadian defence and despatched a rocket flying from the highest of the field however Labbe dove to make a fingertip save and stay the rating knotted at 0-0.
Canada had a main likelihood within the nineteenth minute when Beckie despatched a go into Sinclair within the field. The captain went for a header and despatched a shot into Oluehi’s midsection from simply out of doors the six-yard field.
Sinclair was once honoured in a pre-game rite for breaking the global function scoring report when she recorded her 185th again in January 2019.
The much-delayed party noticed a video of a few of Sinclair’s highlights proven at the large display screen sooner than the 38-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., and her two nieces took to the sector the place she won a commemorative print and a status ovation from the fatherland crowd.
Giant cheers crammed the stadium because the Canada walked out directly to the sector sooner than kickoff. The gamers, with gold medals draped round their necks, clapped and waved for the cheering crowd sooner than being offered with Olympic championship rings.
Friday marked the primary time the Canadian and Nigerian ladies’s groups confronted every different since April 2019 when Canada took a 2-1 choice in a pleasant in Spain.
Canada was once taking part in its first sport at B.C. Position since November 2017 when the ladies’s squad battled the American citizens to a 1-1 draw.
NOTES: Two Nigerian gamers had been taken off the sector on stretchers. Ebi Onome left the sport within the 59th minute and Grace Kanu within the eightieth minute. … A rite was once held post-game to have a good time Labbe. … All 22 gamers who received gold for Canada in Tokyo are lately with the ladies’s crew, plus seven younger gamers Priestman hopes to include into upcoming lineups.
