Canadian women beat Swiss in rematch

The Canadian women’s national team rallied from a one-goal deficit to beat the Swiss 2-1 in the second pre-World Cup friendly the two sides have played in less than a week. Swiss striker Caroline Abbe had an embarrassing own goal, and Christina Julien scored the winner in the second half. The Canadians had surrendered an early goal to Swiss Ana Maria Crnogorcevic, the teenager who plays for Hamburg of the German women’s Bundesliga. The announcers in the stadium — and the Canadian Soccer Association’s online match tracker — originally credited Abbe’s own goal to Diana Matheson, who was the closest player to her as Christine Sinclair delivered a low cross into the box. “Matheson was taken down, so maybe they were thinking a penalty was going to be called,” Sinclair said in a release issued by the Canadian Soccer Association. “I just crossed it and it went off (Abbe)”. But, Swiss coach Beatrice von Siebenthal admitted that Canada dominated the midfield. “We made too many bad passes,” she said on the Swiss federation’s website, translated from German. “In midfield we have to play solid in order to survive against such opponents.” The Canadians drew 1-1 with Switzerland on Sunday in a match played behind closed doors. Ironically, it was Abbe who scored for Switzerland in that game — into the correct goal, that is. On Wednesday, the teams met in Niederhasli, Switzerland. There were 350 fans in attendance for the second game in Switzerland Karina LeBlanc got the start in goal for Canada on Wednesday, after Erin McLeod played the full 90 on Sunday. Canada now has seven wins, one draw and two losses in 2011.