Two goals in the early moments of the game would be all it took.
England punched their ticket to the semi-finals of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup after defeating the host Canada 2-1 Saturday afternoon in Vancouver.
Jodie Taylor and Lucy Bronze scored mere minutes apart to propel the Lionesses to their first ever-final fourth berth at a World Cup. Christine Sinclair would cut the deficit in half on the stroke of halftime, but that’d be as close as Canada would come.
Canada started the brighter of the two sides with several opportunities from the first whistle. The best chance came when Sinclair made a nice individual run down the right flank and flared a cross-field ball that found Melissa Tancredi. Tancredi found herself in acres of space, cut right, but her shot harmlessly flew over Karen Bardsley’s net.
After it seemed like Canada would go ahead, it was England who made the home side rue their chances in the early going.
The Canadians moved the ball across their back line before finding the feet of centre back Lauren Sesselmann. Sesselmann miskicked the ball and slipped trying to recover and it fell right to Taylor. The English forward pounced on the opportunity, avoided a tackle and placed it far post by Erin McLeod.
If the first goal wasn’t enough for a dream start for Mark Sampson’s side, they struck for a second time just three minutes later.
Fara Williams fired in a free kick to the back post from the right side that found Bronze. The fullback had also scored England’s game winner in their round of 16 game and rose to the occasion once again. She leaped over Allysha Chapman and redirected a header that trickled in off the crossbar.
England continued their onslaught when they hit the woodwork yet again off a looping header from Katie Chapman, but this one stayed out.
John Herdman looked to captain and all-time leading scorer Sinclair to inspire an improbable comeback.
Midfielder Ashley Lawrence turned and twisted on the edge of the England penalty box and blasted a shot on net that fell into the hands of Bardsley. The keeper spilled the ball and it fell right to the feet of Sinclair who made no mistake and poked it home to make it 2-1 in the 42nd minute.
BC Place erupted and all the momentum was in the hands of the Canadians. Backed by the record crowd, Canada pressed the rest of the game, looking for the all-elusive equalizer. England would withstand the pressure, however, and held out for the narrow victory.
It was a scene right out of a Hollywood movie at the final whistle. The Canadian players fell to the ground as tears filled the eyes of most of the players while the English players rejoiced with delight.
England will now travel to Edmonton for a date with the reigning world champions Japan on Wednesday while Canada bow out and ponder what could have been.