BEIJING - BC-OLY-SOC-Canada-China, 2nd Writethru
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Update:ADDS quotes, WILL be budgeted Writethru
INDEX:Sports
HL:Canada loses 2-1 to Sweden to cap round-robin Olympic soccer action
By Lori Ewing
THE CANADIAN PRESS
BEIJING -- Canada is through the quarter-finals in the team's Olympic women's soccer debut, despite a 2-1 loss to Sweden on Tuesday in its final preliminary-round game.
Lotta Schelin scored both goals for Sweden, while Melissa Tancredi scored Canada's only goal on a beautiful diving header in a near-full 58,000 Beijing Workers' Stadium.
The Canadians were already through to the quarter-finals before they even stepped on the pitch for their game against Sweden, thanks to a 1-0 German victory over North Korea in an early Group F game.
But the game was crucial to setting up a favourable matchup for Friday's quarter-finals. They certainly didn't get that, drawing the top-ranked defending-champion United States on Friday in Shanghai after dropping to third place in Group E.
"They played very well, it was a high level soccer game between two very good teams," said Canadian head coach Even Pellerud. "There was more at stake for Sweden of course, and you could see they were very pumped up for the task. So were my players. They had qualified, but the players kept their focus very well."
Schelin's first goal came in the 19th minute when Victoria Svensson held up the ball before laying it off to the sprinting Swedish striker, who scored from just inside the 18-yard box.
Her second came in the 51st minute. Swedish substitute Jessica Landstrom easily beat Canadian defender Rhian Wilkinson in a foot race down the wing, then passed the ball to a wide open Schelin, who hammered home the goal.
Tancredi, who was back after missing Canada's previous game against China with an ankle injury, scored in the 64th minute, taking flight for a diving header off a cross from Amy Walsh.
The No. 9 Canadians went into the game tied with China atop Pool E with four points apiece. The top two teams in group advanced to the quarter-finals with the top two-third place teams.
The hard-charging Canadians had numerous scoring chances, but so did the Swedes in a back-and-forth affair that kept Canada's 'keeper Erin McLeod and her Swedish counterpart Hedvig Lindahl hard at work all night long in the 58,000-seat Beijing Workers' Stadium.
But No. 3-ranked Sweden, who dispatched Canada in the semifinals of the 2003 World Cup, proved too much for the Canada with their superior tactical play.
Now Canada must face an American team that has handed the Canadians a pair of recent heartbreaking losses. The Americans beat Canada in a penalty shootout in the final of the Olympic qualifying tournament, and edged the Canadians 1-0 on an injury-time goal in the final of the Peace Queen's Cup in South Korea.
"There's a huge rivalry between them and us, we get excited to play the U.S. all the time, and now we get to do it in the Olympics," said Canadian captain Christine Sinclair.
The Canadians finally had some relief from the heat, humidity and smothering smog that had plagued them in their two previous games in Tianjin, about a 120 kilometres south of Beijing. The recent rain here had dissipated the smog, and there was blue sky peeking through the clouds for the first time in a week.
