The Canadian women’s soccer team kicked off their celebratory tour by easily beating New Zealand 5-1 at TD Place on Saturday.
This tour serves to honor the gold medal the team won at the Tokyo Olympics last summer. The two teams will cross swords on Tuesday in Montreal.
Jessie Fleming opened the scoring on a penalty shot in the 12th minute and Christine Sinclair doubled Canada’s lead in the 41st minute.
Nichelle Prince added a third goal in the 58th minute. New Zealand deprived Stephanie Labbé of a shutout when Ria Percival closed the gap on a penalty shot in the 71st minute.
Adriana Leon completed the scoring with two goals in seven minutes.
It was the first game for the Canadians, ranked sixth in the world, since defeating Sweden in the final in Tokyo on August 6.
It was also the first game for the national team on Canadian soil since May 18, 2019, when they defeated Mexico 3-0 at BMO Field in Toronto.
The team played 29 straight games away from Canada before coming home to face the New Zealand women, who sit in the 23rd place.
Canada and New Zealand have crossed swords in the last two Women’s Soccer World Cups. The first duel was concluded 0-0 in Edmonton, in 2015. Four years later, in Grenoble, Canada had signed a victory of 2-0.
In the last clash between the two teams, at a tournament in China in November 2019, the Canadians defeated New Zealand 3-0.
Allegations against Bob Birarda
Shortly before kick-off, Canada Soccer released a statement saying it would meet three requirements of the Canadian Women’s National Team Players Association.
The association called on the federation to commit to creating a safe environment for athletes and to apologize to those who have been “victimized and abused while playing the sport they love”.
In addition, the association asked Canada Soccer to undertake a “transparent and independent review” at a mutually agreed time of the investigation into the allegations against Bob Birarda while he was employed by. the federation, “to fully understand what happened and to develop recommendations and best practices to better protect athletes”.
Birarda, a former coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Canada Soccer women’s teams, was charged last December with sexual offenses involving four people.
The British Columbia prosecution service said Birarda faces six counts of sexual exploitation, two counts of sexual assault and one count of luring children. The alleged infractions occurred in North Vancouver, Burnaby and West Vancouver between January 1988 and March 25, 2008.
More than a dozen women who played for the Whitecaps and were part of Canada’s Under-20 talent pool around 2008 have come forward to allege Birarda acted inappropriately with team members.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Birarda appeared in court last December and was released under strict conditions. He is scheduled to appear in North Vancouver court Thursday.
Birarda was fired by the Whitecaps and Canada Soccer in 2008.
The association also called for the full implementation of the Independent Safe Sport Mechanism and called on the federal government to protect vulnerable athletes by making the Independent Safe Sport Mechanism mandatory for all national sports organizations here. the end of the year 2021.