World Cup NOW: China's resilience on display in short-handed win
In a highly competitive match with a squad of only 10 players, China PR defeated Haiti on Friday.
China secured its first goal of the tournament off of a penalty kick made by Wang Shuang. But the story of the match was the team's resilience following a red card for Zhang Rui as the win helped China remain in the running to advance to the knock-out stage out of Group D.
The win marked just the second time in Women’s World Cup history that a team with 10 players on the field came out victorious. The other occurrence came in 2011.
Following the match, the "World Cup NOW" crew — Jimmy Conrad, Freya Coombe, Kate Gill and Leslie Osborne — discussed China's resilience in playing down a player for an extended period.
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Gill: "It was crazy, that's the only real word I have for it. We thought it started a bit slow but I mean China down to 10 players for 70 minutes and the end-to-end madness. We didn't actually know if it was going to end in a goal, it seemed like it could go on for days and there might actually not be a result."
Conrad: "Disbelief if your Haiti's perspective, probably relieved for the China perspective."
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Coombe: "I thought it was fairly scrappy to be honest, and Haiti needed to finish some of their chances. It was a great save from the goalkeeper but at the same time from that range, you need to be able to put that in the net if you're a striker we are all talking about, you've got to finish it. They lacked quality in the boxes and unfortunately, we saw it from the defensive challenges that were fairly careless that led to penalties, so I hope for more in the future from these teams."
Osborne: "Interesting both teams didn't start their best players. Them coming on and how they were both game changers and changed the game immediately. I'm happy for China, I think they're going to build upon this."