With the group stage in the books, it’s now time to get serious for the knockout stages in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. We open things up with a matchup between the top team from Group A in Canada going up against Switzerland, who finished third in Group C but made the cut for the Round of 16.
Read on as we take a closer look at this upcoming scintillating match. Afterwards, have another helping or two of previews for the Round of 16 of the Women’s World Cup. Check out our coverage for USA vs. Colombia, and Brazil vs. Australia.
It’s rather hard to determine exactly where Canada ranks amongst the rest of the playing field in the World Cup. Sure, the Canadians have a huge advantage by playing on their home turf, and they finished on top of their group. But the results from their matches in the group stage have been rather unflattering.
[sc:Soccer240banner ]Case and point: a 1-1 draw in their final group stage match against the Netherlands. Canada would still go on to top the Group A standings, but only ended up tallying a total of five points in three matches – worst among all six first-placers in the group stage.
The Canucks have to find a way to start scoring more goals especially now that we’re at the win-or-go-home stage of the tournament. The World No. 8 team only managed to score two goals thus far, which is also the least number of goals made compared to the other first-place teams.
Ashley Lawrence seems poised to lead the charge for Canada’s sputtering attack. The fiery 20-year old midfielder just recorded her first goal in international play in the draw against the Netherlands. And if team captain Christine Sinclair can finally pitch in to the cause, then Canada will have a good shot at advancing deep into the tournament. Sinclair has 224 caps and 154 goals in her decorated playing career.
If there’s one aspect that the Canadians excel at in this tournament, though, it is that they have good ball control. In their first two matches, they had ball possession for a little over 60 percent of the time. That changed drastically in their match against the Netherlands, as the Canucks only had possession of the ball for 46 percent of the time.
It’s a good sign though that they equaled the Oranje Leeuwinnen squad’s 16 shot attempts in that match to keep their aggression on offense going. Canada has 10 or more shot attempts in all three of its matches in the tournament.
Similar to Canada, Switzerland is just as much of an enigma. La Nati finished third in Group C, but amassed 11 goals in three games to qualify for the knock-out stage. Granted, 10 of their goals came from the 10-1 drubbing they dealt to lowly Ecuador.
The Swiss don’t seem to lack power on the attack, but the 2-1 loss to 53rd-ranked Cameroon this past Tuesday has got to be killing them. They had an early lead in that match thanks to Ana Maria Crnogorcevic’s goal in the 24th minute, but surrendered two goals to Cameroon in the second half. Switzerland has 13 or more shot attempts in all three of its matches in the tournament thus far.
If Crnogorcevic, Ramona Bachmann and Fabienne Humm can sustain their forceful assault, the Swiss will pose as a big threat to the rest of the teams in the tournament. Bachmann and Humm each scored a hat-trick in the game over Ecuador. Humm got her three goals in a World Cup record-setting five-minute span, while Bachmann netted two of her three shots within less than a minute apart.
While this is the Swiss’ inaugural trip to the Women’s World Cup, they certainly have the tools to stay competitive and be the appealing dark horse contender in the event. La Nati’s two losses to World No. 5 Japan and Cameroon were both decided by a mere goal, whereas they managed to outscore their opponents 53-1 in their 10 Women’s World Cup qualifying matches.
Writer’s Prediction
Switzerland (+290) pulls the stunning 2-1 upset in extra time and in front of Canada’s home crowd.
