Canadian women fall 2-0 to Germany in Olympic soccer, will play for bronze

For the second-straight Olympics, Canada has endured a tough semifinal loss in women's soccer, but the story of this one wasn't about controversial refereeing, but rather poor finishing and poor defending at crucial moments. The Canadians came into Tuesday's game with Germany with plenty of hope, having beat them in the preliminary round (albeit with the Germans not going all out), and despite being the lower-ranked team, they held most of the possession and created more chances. Canada couldn't finish and Germany made their shots count, though, leading to a 2-0 win that sent the Germans through and relegated the Canadians to the bronze-medal match.

Canada got off to a solid start Tuesday, creating the first shot of the game in the 12th minute on a sideline run by Ashley Lawrence which finished with a cross to emerging star striker Janine Beckie, who headed it into the side of the net. The Canadians held 55 per cent of the possession through the first 15 minutes, but Germany started moving forward from there. Kadeisha Buchanan gave away a ball in her own end in the 16th minute, forcing Shelina Zadorsky to backtrack and concede a corner, and although Sophie Schmidt headed that clear, some of the danger continued. The match particularly turned in the 20th minute when Buchanan came back hard and took out an opponent rather than the ball with a sliding tackle, conceding a 21st-minute penalty that Melanie Behringer drove past Steph Labbé to give Germany a 1-0 lead.

The Canadians kept fighting after that, and they had chances, but the finishing just wasn't quite there. Jessie Fleming slipped and fell while trying to get a shot off from the top of the box in the 36th minute, and a superb 45th-minute corner from Beckie led to a Buchanan header that a German defender headed off the line. The teams exchanged early second-half chances, then Germany struck again in the 59th minute when Sara Däbritz buried a shot from the top of the box. The goal came somewhat against the run of play, but Canada wasn't exactly generating a lot of chances ahead of it either, and falling into a 2-0 hole seemed particularly insurmountable for them.

To their credit, the Canadians did apply a lot of pressure after conceding that second goal. The 60th-minute substitution of Diana Matheson in for Rhian Wilkinson paid major dividends, with Matheson creating chance after chance. Canada managed to earn several corners and create chances from them, but keeper Almuth Schult stood strong in the net, and the German defence managed to keep the Canadians from lining up too many great shots. Canada had chances from distance, such as Beckie's 70th-minute strike, and from occasional breaks in close, such as Christine Sinclair's 67th-minute chance and Matheson's 77th-minute run and 90th-minute shot, but they weren't able to bury any of them, ending their dreams of gold.

There's still a lot for Canada to play for here. They'll take on host country Brazil (who had their own golden hopes dashed in a shootout loss to Sweden earlier Tuesday), and they'll have an opportunity to leave Rio with a medal. That isn't a bad outcome at all considering the calibre of the sides in this tournament, and that this Canadian team has been building up its youth, not just relying on proven veterans. Still, for many, the hopes were higher, and this will be a disappointing loss. We'll see how Canada rebounds heading into the bronze-medal match.