Defensive errors and lack of finish proved too much to overcome for John Herdman’s side, as England reaches the semifinals for the first time.
VANCOUVER – It was not supposed to end this soon for Canada’s women’s national team.
In reality, the team's dreams of winning women’s soccer’s highest honor on home soil were dashed at the quarterfinal stages, as the host nation failed to recover from a calamitous three minutes of first-half play to lose 2-1 to England in front of a mostly disappointed crowd of 54,027 in downtown Vancouver.
In a match that highlighted some of Canada’s weaknesses in this competition, a pair of costly defensive errors from center back Lauren Sesselmann and left back Allysha Chapman allowed England’s Jodie Taylor and Lucy Bronze to score the decisive goals that take The Three Lionesses through to their first Women’s World Cup semifinal in history.