Rhian Wilkinson's Official Website

SOCCER MEDIA REPORTS:

CANADA DROPS FIRST FRIENDLY MATCH WITH CHINA 4th May 2007

From a CSA Report

Canada's National Senior Women's team lost the first of a two-game international friendly series with China today. The Canucks struck first, but the home team fought back with three unanswered goals to take the victory. The rematch will be played on Sunday 6 May.

"We are not happy with the loss, although I have to give the athletes credit for their performance in their first game since 26th November, 2006, says head coach Even Pellerud." We dominated early and scored early. Then, in spite of creating plenty of good opportunities, we failed to settle the game and allowed China to get back into the game to score the tying goal."

Canada's captain Christine Sinclair opened the scoring in the ninth minute. China came back, though, with goals at the 22nd minute (Jie Min), 58th minute (Duan Min), and 90th minute (Yali Min).

Pellerud continued," The second half started again very well for us, with Candace Chapman, Christine Sinclair, Rhian Wilkinson and substitute Jodi-Ann Robinson all looking very dangerous. Unfortunately, we let in another set-piece goal against the run of play. We did not perform well on set pieces today.

" In the final minutes, we pushed Martina Franko up in an effort to get a goal, but a classic counter-attack by China killed the game for us. As we prepare for the second game on Sunday, we are sending some players home so that other players can get playing time. Some players struggled with the air quality today, but overall most have managed to handle the heavy pollution.