China Doesn’t Rest on Its Laurels
The end of first-round play in many ways signaled the beginning of the Women’s World Cup for China.
Although it was assured of a berth in the quarterfinals before its 3-1 victory over Australia Saturday at Giants Stadium, its effort never flagged. That was by design, according to Coach Ma Yuanan, who started all his regulars and gave a break to standout midfielder Sun Wen only in the 63rd minute, after she had scored twice to increase her tournament total to five goals.
“The match is the best practice for the players,” he said, “because there is a long time between the last match and the next match. For the main players, this was the best practice for them for the next game.”
Group D champion China (3-0) will face Russia on Wednesday in San Jose.
“I wish in the later matches I could score more goals and I wish my teammates would score more goals,” Sun said.
Australia (0-1-2) was down a player after forward Alicia Ferguson was ejected for an illegal tackle in the second minute.
“I think the crowd would have seen a better game 11 against 11,” Australia Coach Greg Brown said of the 29,401 spectators. “To be fair, I didn’t see the tackle. I was still tying my shoelaces.”
Given that disadvantage and the oppressive heat, Australia did well to hold China scoreless until the 39th minute, when Sun scored on a header. Her second goal, from about eight yards out, was set up by Pu Wei.
Cheryl Salisbury spared Australia a shutout when she booted a left-footed shot that rolled off the hands of goalkeeper Gao Hong in the 66th minute, the first goal against China since the second minute of its 2-1 opening victory over Sweden, a span of 243 minutes. Liu Ying reestablished a comfortable margin for China in the 73rd minute.
