Women’s World Cup: Netherlands defeats Cameroon; Canada wins and advances
Vivianne Miedema scored a goal in each half Saturday to advance the Netherlands into the second round of the Women’s World Cup for the second straight tournament with a 3-1 win over Cameroon on Saturday at Valenciennes, France.
Miedema put the Dutch in the lead in the 41st minute of the Group E match at Stade du Hainaut and then finished it off in the 85th.
Dominique Bloodworth also scored for the Netherlands in the 48th minute, while Gabrielle Onguene got Cameroon’s goal in the 43rd.
Cameroon is in last place in the group, with no points and a minus-3 goal difference, and it is all but eliminated. Cameroon plays New Zealand on Thursday, and the Netherlands meets Canada in a match that kicks off at the same time.
Canada 2, New Zealand 0: Jessie Fleming and Nichelle Prince each had second-half goals and Canada advanced to the knockout round.
Fleming took a well-placed pass from Prince and scored in the 48th minute to break up a scoreless match. The Netherlands also made it through to the round of 16 with a 3-1 victory over Cameroon in the other Group E match earlier in the day.
Fleming, who made her debut with the senior national team at 15, currently plays for UCLA.
Prince got her goal in the 79th minute, a rebound of Christine Sinclair’s header that hit the post.
Led by Tom Sermanni, former coach of Sweden and the United States, New Zealand was hurt in the first half when defender CJ Bott was injured and had to be subbed out.
Canada will face the Netherlands in the team’s final group match On Thursday in Reims. Cameroon and New Zealand will meet the same day in Montpellier.
The Canadians had never advanced from the group stage playing outside of North America.
