2015 Summer Universiade: Canadians knocked out of medal contention
GWANGU, South Korea (Team Canada) – The Canadian men’s soccer team suffered a disappointing 1-0 loss to the Chinese Taipei in their second game of preliminary competition Sunday.
GWANGU, South Korea (Team Canada) – The Canadian men's soccer team suffered a disappointing 1-0 loss to the Chinese Taipei in their second game of preliminary competition Sunday.
Team Canada website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/summer/2015/index
Gwangju 2015 website: www.gwangju2015.com
Team Canada Twitter: @CDNUniversiade | #goCanadaU
With the loss, Canadians moves to 0-2 and out of medal contention. Following their final game against the host South Korea on Tuesday, they will continue on into the consolation round.
Unlike their first game against Italy, Canada battled hard right from the start and had control of the play for 60% of regulation time. They capitalized on every opportunity they created but were stone walled by Chinese Taipei goaltender Pan Wen-chieh.
"We pushed hard in the second half and put in a lot of effort without the final quality that we needed to get the two goals to win this game," said head coach Keith Mason. "It's disappointing not to go through and not to win this match. We thought we had a good chance today and we thought we would get the three points to keep us in the tournament."
Although out of the medal round, Canada will look to re-group and fight for the ninth place finish which guarantees the team a spot in the next Universiade in 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan.
"We thought we really had a good chance, we have a really good group of guys," said midfielder Kilian Elkinson of Toronto, Ont. "It was unlucky that we started the first game on the back foot, we were a bit unlucky in that one and we tried to turn it around in the second half of that one. In this game, we thought we could get a win and we thought we had the quality. I think it showed in the game but we just couldn't get the bounce. We are just going to have to pick ourselves up. We can still play for ninth and that is what we plan on doing."
Canada will close out preliminary play Tuesday afternoon against South Korea at Yeonggwang Sportium Football Field.
Source: CIS
