Women's World Cup 2019: Three takeaways from Canada's 2-0 win over New Zealand

Rudi Schuller

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Women's World Cup 2019: Three takeaways from Canada's 2-0 win over New Zealand image

Two games, two wins.

After a frustrating start against a New Zealand team uninterested in attacking, Canada turned things up a few notches in the second half to claim a 2-0 win on Saturday. The result sees Canada into a two-way tie with Netherlands atop Group E of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the Dutch holding a slight advantage in goals scored.

Both Canada and Netherlands have secured advancement in the Round of 16, but there's still the small matter of deciding the group winner when the teams meet on Thursday.

MORE: Canadians clinch knockout round berth with comfortable win over NZ

Against New Zealand, Canada showed the ability to break down an ultra-defensive opponent and play smart, patient soccer. Kenneth Heiner-Møller's squad learned a bit more about themselves Saturday, with a few lessons to take forward.

With that in mind, here are three takeaways from Saturday's match:

Formation change

Heiner-Møller threw a bit of a curveball toward the New Zealanders early in the match, when he abandoned his preferred 4-3-3 formation for a 3-5-2, dropping Sophie Schmidt into central defence in order to help Canada control play from the back. 

The shift paid almost immediate dividends, with New Zealand struggling to get anything going in the Canadian half. On the other side of the ball, Canada was able to more effectively use the entire pitch to dominate the opposition, and the statistics reflected just how one-sided the game was: Canada ended the game with 70 percent possession, double-digit shots, and over twice as many passes than New Zealand.

Most importantly, the Canadians didn't allow a single shot on goal.

Attack the flanks

Another thing the shift to a 3-5-2 allowed was more wide play from Canada, and Saturday's was the second straight match in which the team was dominant on the flanks.

Janine Beckie, Nichelle Prince and Jayde Riviere all found success attacking wide areas, and Canada's first goal came directly off a strong run down the left. If not for some unfortunate finishing, we could've seen several more Canadian goals created from the flanks.

Prince reigns

Nichelle Prince had a breakout game against the New Zealanders. The 24-year-old has been a key component of Canada's attack for a while now, but on Saturday her combination of blazing speed and heightened awareness in the final third made her a terror for the opposition, especially in the second half as the Canadians pushed for goals.

Prince was directly involved in both of her team's tallies, setting up Jessie Fleming's opener before opportunistically poking home Canada's second, as she was easily the most dangerous player on the field for either team.

Rudi Schuller