Tag: Vanessa Gilles

Canada stays alive at Olympics with incredible 112th-minute winner vs. France

Canada’s squad may be facing a six-point penalty, but a late winner vs. France showed how hard they can fight

The Olympics women’s soccer tournament has seen Canada go through one of the most bizarre major competitions any team has experienced in recent times, and the latest development in the saga was nothing if not dramatic.

Canada staged a late comeback against host nation France on Sunday, claiming a cathartic 2-1 win thanks to Vanessa Gilles’ goal 12 minutes into second-half stoppage time.

The bigger-picture story starts back on Tuesday, when New Zealand alleged that Canada used a drone to spy on a training session before the two sides contested the first match of the entire women’s soccer tournament at the 2024 Olympics.

That turned out to be the tip of the iceberg, as Canada’s attempts to contain the scandal went completely awry. Head coach Bev Priestman initially offered to not coach against New Zealand before being sent home by the Canadian Olympic Committee, while the scandal extended to the men’s side of the Canadian national team program.

While several threads remain unresolved, the Olympics required a quick resolution for the women’s tournament. The result? Priestman, assistant coach Jasmine Mander, and staffer Joseph Lombardi were banned from all soccer activities for a year by FIFA, and Canada was handed a six-point penalty for the group stage.

All of that set the stage for a strange situation: the defending gold medalists struggled with New Zealand before ultimately winning the opener 2-1, only for the point penalty to push them back to a minus-3 total in Group A.

With Canada’s point total effectively capped at three, any sort of advancement would essentially require running the table in a strong group that included hosts France and budding South American power Colombia.

Things were looking grim on Sunday, as France took a 1-0 lead into halftime thanks to Marie-Antoinette Katoto’s 42nd minute strike. Even a draw would mean Canada’s best possible point total in the group would be one, and would likely result in a fourth-place finish in the group and an early flight home.

The host nation seemed confident in pushing on for a victory, but Portland Thorns midfielder Jessie Fleming pounced on a 58th minute rebound resulting from a collision between France goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin and defender Griedge Mbock Bathy.

It was, in other words, the first good news Canada had gotten since arriving in France, and it spurred the team to fight for its Olympic life.

While France created a handful of good looks at one end, Canada might have thought the opportunity had slipped away as Evelyne Viens’ 96th minute shot skipped wide.

Katoto probably should have ended Canada’s hopes only for Kailen Sheridan to conjure a magical save deeper in stoppage time, setting the stage for an emotional winner.

Jordyn Huitema’s powerful shot was denied by Constance Picaud (who replaced Peyraud-Magnin, who didn’t recover from the collision on Fleming’s goal), but Gilles — a center back who stayed forward in desperation — was on hand to steer the rebound over the line.

The Canadian players, who at this point appear to be blameless victims in the drone scandal, celebrated as if this were a gold-medal-clinching strike. With the game clock reading 90:00 + 11:16, Canada was somehow still afloat at the Paris Olympics.

It wasn’t just a purely cathartic goal, either. By defeating France, Canada is now in position to advance despite the six-point penalty.

A win over Colombia on Wednesday would guarantee the Canadians no worse than a third-place finish in the group. If France were to draw or beat New Zealand in the group’s other game, Canada would finish in second place, which comes with a sure place in the quarterfinals.

Watch Canada’s dramatic late goal vs. France

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Chelsea fends off Lyon as UWCL quarterfinal goes into Twilight Zone

The UWCL drama levels, and the strangeness, were extremely high

Chelsea and Lyon played out a UEFA Women’s Champions League classic on Thursday, with the finish containing equal parts weirdness and drama

The Blues emerged victorious on penalties despite losing 2-1 on the night, with Maren Mjelde’s spot kick in the eighth minute of stoppage time leveling the aggregate scoreline at 2-2 with the game’s final touch.

Ann-Katrin Berger then emerged as the hero, saving two spot kicks to end Lyon’s reign as the champions of Europe.

Chelsea won the first leg 1-0 in France, setting up an extremely tense second leg. Both teams pursued the opening goal, and between that exuberance, typically rainy London conditions, and desperation from both teams to win, a true battle played out at Stamford Bridge.

Berger stopped an early Delphine Cascarino chance (with Lindsey Horan inches away from poking the rebound home), only for Christiane Endler to respond by denying a Sam Kerr one-on-one later in the first half.

The tension kept going up, and the game got progressively more strange. Melanie Leupolz had to leave the match a bloody mess after she was struck in the face by Danielle van de Donk’s trailing hand. A short-handed Chelsea would end up withdrawing their entire central midfield for a range of reasons, while a typically stacked Lyon was able to turn to the likes of Ada Hegerberg and Dzsenifer Marozsán off the bench.

Finally a goal came, and for Lyon it was symbolic of how scrappy they had to be to gain an edge over Chelsea on the night. A recycled set piece was chested down by Wendie Renard to Horan, who had just enough speed to round Jess Charles and hit a blind cross along the endline.

Vanessa Gilles had stayed forward, and did just barely enough to reach a foot out before Magdalena Eriksson could arrive, somehow prodding the ball towards goal, off Berger’s upper arm, and (by mere inches) over the line.

Through sheer willpower, Lyon appeared to have gained an edge as Chelsea’s energy levels flagged. Extra time largely saw the visitors look more potent, and if anything a goal for the defending champions felt inevitable.

In the 110th minute, the pressure finally told. Vicki Bècho’s clever flick gave Lyon width, and Hegerberg’s cross from the right floated just out of Eriksson’s reach. With the rest of the Chelsea defense too stagnant, Sara Däbritz’s bobbling finish — while far from convincing — was just enough to get past Berger.

Chelsea began the predictable “last chance saloon” approach, hoofing it long and hoping for the best. Lyon, with a team stocked with strong headers and seeming to have more energy, looked solid.

However, with essentially the last play of the match, the French giants couldn’t quite clear Berger’s free kick from midfield. Wendie Renard won the first header, but could only glance the ball away from the goalmouth. Kerr tried a cross, but Bècho beat multiple Chelsea players to the ball.

Chelsea’s Lauren James saw that header fall to her, and for a split-second, the option to shoot was open. James took another touch though, then tried to get to the endline. Bècho followed, and James hit the deck.

Initially, referee Ivana Martinčić had no interest in giving a penalty, but a two-minute VAR check (all coming after the two minutes of stoppage time that had initially been announced) centered on whether Bècho had clipped James, or if James had clipped her own feet.

At long last, Martinčić gave the penalty, but even that wasn’t enough drama for this match. It took over a minute from that point for Mjelde to have the ball on the spot, but there were still two more minutes to wait. The reason? Martinčić wanted every player from both teams, other than Mjelde and Endler, to clear out of the area. It seemed like this was a literal last kick.

More than three minutes after knowing she’d have to take a stoppage-time penalty in a UWCL quarterfinal against mighty Lyon, and with manager Emma Hayes literally unable to look, Mjelde held her nerve, powering the equalizer past one of the world’s best goalkeepers.

Chelsea shot first in the tiebreaker, and Mjelde — just four minutes in real time from when she’d beaten Endler the first time — was among the successful shots from both teams. However, Berger flew to her left to deny Renard in the third round, giving Chelsea the edge.

It lasted just moments. On the very next shot, Endler dove to her right to slap James’ penalty away, and Däbritz would bring Lyon back to even terms heading into the final round.

Jess Carter made no mistake for Chelsea, but with the game on the line, Berger read Horan’s intentions all the way, tipping the U.S. women’s national team star’s effort away.

Chelsea, despite looking like they’d run out of gas before crossing the finish line, were somehow through.

Having come through extraordinary drama, Chelsea joins Barcelona, Arsenal, and Wolfsburg — who knocked out France’s other big power, Paris Saint-Germain, earlier on Thursday — in the semifinal draw.

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