Sober Second Thoughts: Better late than never

Three needed points for CanWNT

Photo by Tony Hand on Unsplash

It was a tough day to be Irish.

Not to remotely compare the death of one of the greatest voices to ever emerge from an island that has produced some truly great singers over the years, but you know that somewhere there was a fan of both the Republic of Ireland’s wonderful women’s football team and Sinead O’Conner who is having a truly rotten day.

I feel for that fan. I feel for the Irish team, who was full measure on the day today and I can legitimately say that I mourn the loss of an artist that was never appreciated by the world in the way that she should have been.

I was a fan. I wanted to acknowledge that. That’s for indulging me and go back and listen to her work.

Ok, back to the football and the CanWNT.

Boy, that was an ugly first half, eh? I’m not going to lie, I was preparing a Canada-is-eliminated post in my head while watching Ireland dominate the first half. They did so by absolutely dictating the tactics of the game. They were daring Canada to break them down.

Makes sense. Canada can’t really break teams down. They sure as hell weren’t in the first half today.

They were better in the second half, thankfully. More on that in a minute, but first we need to examine that first half failure. As they have been for a while now there simply wasn’t enough decisive movement in the middle of the pitch. Everything was side to side, with hopeful balls played into the box.

That’s not going to work in a World Cup. You need to open things up to get the space out wide.

You also need more finish, but as I wrote after the Nigeria game that’s not going to come during this tournament.

On Monday, against Australia, they aren’t going to get to be absent for 45 minutes. So, they had better learn.

I suspect the Aussies will let Canada have more of the ball than you’d expect from a host team. All teams Canada plays will do that. So, CanWNT will need find a way.

That way will likely come by looking at what they did in today’s second half. When they were on today, they were faster and more direct. Sinclair isn’t a 90 minute player now, but she also was influential to making that change happened. Sophie Schmidt, too.

Both are going to need to turn the clock back about a decade.

Thankfully, they will get to do so in a game that will matter. Win and you likely take top spot in the group. Even if the Nigerians play spoiler there, you are still going through with the win.

In a World Cup that’s all you can ask for. There’s no more mulligans now. Just keep winning, no matter what it looks like.

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Thank you for the music, Sinead.