[R] Canada v Northern Ireland
Stephen Halchuk
Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton
Temp 16C, Sunny
Attendance 12112
Canada 2 - 0 Northern Ireland
Peschisolido 8'
Peschisolido 23'
CANADA
Dolan
Fraser Watson Samuel Yallop
Aunger(sub Holness) Hooper Miller Dasovic(sub Rizi)
Corazzin Peschisolido
Yellows Corazzin, Miller
NORTHERN IRELAND
Fettis
Patterson McDonald(sub McGibbon) Taggart Rowland
Gillespie Magilton Horlock(sub Worthington) Hughes
Dowie(sub Boyle) Gray
Yellows Dowie
Ref. Brian Hall (USA)
The inaugural match of the Canada Cup saw the hosts Canada looking for
respect and the visiting Northern Irish (currently sitting third in
Group 6 of the European Nations Cup qualifiers) looking for some much
needed practice for their upcoming match against Latvia.
Canada was without its top goalkeeper Craig Forrest (foot injury and
without a contract from his relegated club Ipswich) and striker Alex
Bunbury (due to play for his club Maritimo in the Portuguese Cup
final). As it turned out, neither of them were needed.
Northern Ireland dominated the opening 5 minutes of the match, and it
looked to be a long night for the home side. In the eigth minute,
however, a nice give and go between Aunger and Corrazin saw Aunger with
some space in the box. Aunger was tackled but managed to push the ball
to a charging Peschisolido (I could say it was incredible peripheral
vision but more likely a bit of good fortune). Peschi slotted it home
past an already beaten Fettis. 15 minutes later captian Colin Miller
put a lovely through ball to a streaking Peschisolido, who outran two
defenders and showed enough poise to round Fettis before netting his
second.
This took the wind out of the northern Irish, although they nearly
scored om the restart. Gray and Dowie both had chances in a goal mouth
scramble. Crytal Palace's Ian Dowie was definetely the bright point on
the visitor's side. A one time volley in the 28th minute and a "turn
and spin" shot in the 50th minute looked sure goals, but for the solid
saves of Paul Dolan. Dowie was frustrated both by his lack of finish
and the hard marking of Randy Samuel, who earned his Canadian
international record 62nd cap with this match.
Canada could have had a third goal from Nick Dasovic but his blast from
the top of the box met the bottom of the crossbar instead of the back
of the net.
All in all the scoreline was generous to the home side, but the
Northern Irish showed little imagination and sadly missed their
starting goalkeeper (Fettis only had 6 or 7 caps, I believe).
Northern Ireland plays Chile on Thursday and the final match between
the hosts and the Chileans will be Sunday. TSN will show both matches,
although the midweek clash will be tape delayed. Hopefully commentator
Vic Rauter will figure out the difference between a corner kick and a
throw in by the time the competition is over.
Cheers
Stephen
--
S. Halchuk, hal...@seismo.emr.ca
'The major countries should not have to play so often against little teams who
cannot hope to give us a game' Franz Beckenbauer, sharing his wisdom (and
arrogance) just before Germany struggled at home to beat "little" Albania 2-1
in the European Nations Cup qualifiers (February 1995 issue of "World Soccer").