[USA-CANADA WOMEN] Is there a Germany ’11 effect? The U.S. women’s national team attracted a crowd of 16,191 at the new Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City,Kan. — almost as many fans at it drew for its three pre-Women’s World Cup friendlies — for its 1-1 tie with Canada on Saturday night.
The USA had not drawn as large a crowd since 16,856fans watched it beat Brazil, 2-0, at Giants Stadium four years ago as part of its Send-Off Series before leaving for the 2007 Women’s World Cup in China.
U.S. forward Abby Wambach scored her 123rdcareer international goal, burying a penalty kick in the 10th minute, while Canadian forward Melissa Tancredi equalized just before halftime.
Wambach lined up as the lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation Pia Sundhage tried out.
“I think we played our best soccer in the [World Cup]final, but now they are coming back from a break,” she said. “They weren’t sharp and we tried to tweak the system a little bit while keeping a possession style. There will be a lotof practices if we [are going to be successful] in changing the system a little bit or maybe we’ll go back to 4-4-2. We know that we can play a 4-4-2. It will be very interesting the next fewmonths.”
Canada was playing its first match under new head coach John Herdman.
The USA and Canada will complete the two-game“Celebration Series” on Thursday at JELD-WEN Field in Portland, Ore. (TV: ESPN2, live, 11 pm ET).
Sept. 17 in Kansas City, Kan.
USA 1 Canada 1. Goals: Wambach (pen.) 10; Tancredi 42.
USA — Solo (Barnhart, 46), Krieger, Buehler (Sauerbrunn,46), Rampone, LePeilbet, O’Reilly, Lloyd, Cheney, Rapinoe (Heath, 46), Rodriguez, Wambach (Morgan, 57)
Canada — McLeod, Wilkinson (Gayle,76), Zurrer, Moscato, Sesselmann, Kyle (Scott, 69), Matheson, Schmidt, Julien (Stewart, 68), Tancredi (Booth, 76), Parker (Sawicki, 90).
Referee:Margaret Domka (USA)
Att.: 16,191.
USA-Canada Reaction:
What, no player ratings?