England boots host nation Canada from tournament with 2-1 win

England needed just three minutes of sustained offense to defeat Canada 2-1 and advance to the semifinals of the World Cup for the first time in its history.

Jodie Taylor kicked off the scoring in the 11^th minute when she stole the ball from Lauren Sesselmann, beat her defender and slid the ball past goalkeeper Erin McLeod. Less than three minutes later, Lucy Bronze headed the ball over McLeod to notch her second game-winning goal in as many days.

Bronze, a defender, had only two previous international goals coming into the tournament.

After that unexpected offensive flurry against a Canadian defense that had only allowed one goal in the tournament, the Lionesses bunkered in on defense like they have so many times this World Cup.

Canada dictated play, but didn’t get many quality shots on goal. Striker Christine Sinclair cut the lead in half in the 42^nd minute when she corralled a rebound off goalkeeper Karen Bardsley and knocked it into the net, but outside of that, the quality chances were few and far between.

Canada even appeared to gain an advantage early in the second half when Bardsley had to leave the game with an eye issue. She later said her eye started to itch in the first half and then started to swell in the second, inhibiting her vision. Siobhan Chamberlain came into the game cold and faced one shot on goal. Even though Canada mounted a flurry of action in front of her, it couldn’t actually get anything on net.

England has survived this tournament by counterpunching and playing defense. It has allowed teams to dominate possession and even shots, but it has come away with narrow victories. Even though that was a poor strategy against France in the tournament opener, it’s served England well enough to secure a semifinal matchup against Japan.

Throughout the tournament, Canada has felt like it was living off borrowed time. Whie the defense played well, the offense struggled mightily. At no point in the tournament did Canada play its best soccer, but it did find ways to win. However, that lack of offense came back to bite the Canadians against a team that was just good enough to keep them from breaking their slump.

It was a tough loss for a home team that was hoping to drum up more support for the future of its women’s soccer program. While we might not know the effects on the program for several months, it is clear with the sellout crowds that Canadian Women's national Team gained the support of its nation.

"The dream is over,” Coach John Herdman said following the game. “Gutted, gutted for all of Canada. Christine (Sinclair) said sorry, but she can’t say that.

"Those fans showed people around the world how to support women’s football."

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