Canada's Bianca St Georges (white jersey) defends Andrea Falcon of Spain during their FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup match on November 13, 2016, in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. (Photo: FIFA via Getty Images)
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea – Spain scored multiple goals in each half to earn a 5-0 win over Canada in the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup opener for each on Sunday at Bava Park.
The European runner-up went ahead 1-0 two minutes after the opening whistle. Maria Caldentey raced down the Canadian spine to control a long ball with her chest and step in front of defender Mika Richards, before beating goalkeeper Rylee Foster from eight-yards out.
In the 30th minute, Lucia Garcia doubled the lead with the first of her two goals by holding off Richards to flicking a left-sided cross with the outside her right foot.
The Spanish maintained an attacking posture into the second half and went ahead 3-0 in the 58th minute, when Aitana Bonmati in to head home authoritatively from seven yards off Andrea Falcon’s cross from the left.
Canada thought it cut into the deficit, only for substitute Alexandria Lamontagne’s effort to be disallowed for offside.
Patricia Guijarro hammered a right-footer just inside the left post 21-yards out in the 87th minute, while Garcia completed the scoreline in the fifth minute of stoppage time, lifting over Foster from close range as Bonati assisted.
Canada returns to action on Wednesday against Nigeria, which lost 6-0 to Japan.
“I think it was a difficult game against a good opponent,” said Canada head coach Danny Worthington. “Spain is a team with many clinical finishers and we saw that today, but we’re going to regroup and take learnings from this match, and move on to Nigeria.”
