Canada 4-2-3-1 (Labbe – Lawrence, Buchanan, Zadorsky, Chapman – Scott, Schmidt – Prince, Fleming, Beckie – Sinclair)

Cameroon 5-4-1 (Ndom – Meffometou, Awona, Manie, Johnson, Leuko – Nchout, Yango, Feudjo, Onguene – Ndoumbouk)

Canada’s win over Cameroon saw a complete contrast in styles. The former looked to attack, while the latter looked solely to defend and then counter. It led to an interesting game.

Cameroon defended in a 5-2-3 shape in which the wingers and lone striker looked to apply some pressure to Canada’s build-up around the halfway line. However, this was rarely successful, and all three ended up dropping deep to almost form a 5-5-0 shape with every player behind the ball. They man-marked in central midfield and their centre-backs were quite aggressive in tracking dropping Canada forwards. And, once they won the ball, they didn’t mess around.

They were very direct when counter-attacking, generally playing no more than two passes before looking for a long ball over the top centrally or wide, often towards Onguene. Onguene would chase and, occasionally, get on the end of these long balls, and early on she caused some headaches with her pace and directness. However, too often she was unsupported – even if she got hold of the ball, she often had to go it alone against two centre-backs and a goalkeeper.

While Cameroon looked to counter with as few passes as possible, Canada controlled possession and generally built out from the back. They often went wide to the full-backs, who would then carry the ball forward and look to combine with the wingers, Prince and Beckie. The wingers would come inside while the full-backs attacked the flanks, and one-twos could then be played between them to release one of them in behind the Cameroonian wing-backs. Lawrence on the right was a more adventurous full-back than Chapman on the left, using her pace to overlap or coming inside before playing reverse balls for Prince or one of the forwards.

Canada always had good control of possession thanks to the coverage offered centrally by Scott and Schmidt. In transition they got good pressure on the ball and always seemed to be positioned well to recover it quickly.

Their primary attacking strategy was combination play in wider areas between the full-backs and wingers, which was perhaps used mostly because Cameroon congested the central channels with three centre-backs and a very deep defensive block. However, Canada could also use Sinclair to progress in different ways. She could come short to receive to feet before laying off to another player, or she could stay high and offer a target for long balls, making use of her height and strength to win headers or bring the ball down in more advanced areas.

Canada only won 1-0, but they had almost complete control of the match. They ended it with 74% possession and four shots on target to Cameroon’s none.