Before the first half of Sunday’s group-stage match between Canada and Japan at the U-20 Women’s World Cup was over, the FIFA international feed commentator had already resorted to coming up with consolatory terms for the team in red.

Two games in, and Canada has two losses and a goal differential of -7.

Spain had five goals. Canada had one shot on goal.

Really, it came down to Venezuela burying its chances, while the best Canadian attempts went off the woodwork.

We notice more interest from our readers when we try to tackle a big topic over the course of several stories — and issue 10 of Plastic Pitch fits that bill. The MLS standings are always clogged, and 12 of 20 teams (60 per cent) make the playoffs. The No. 1 seed rarely goes on to win MLS Cup. Does …

The fact that such impressive performances were turned in by youngsters — from fullback Ashley Lawrence to midfielder Jessie Fleming to Beckie to Rose — bodes well for a program that, just four years before, was starved for young talent.

But some perspective — while watching the Canadian women’s team lose the Olympic semifinal sucks,this wasn’t nearly as bad as it was four years ago. There was no controversy around this 2-0 loss to Germany as there was in that infamous extra-time semifinal loss to the United States. There’s no referee to blame.

Maybe now, it’s time to believe in the work coach John Herdman and the women have put into this push for the podium. A gritty 1-0 quarter-final win over France wasn’t always pretty, there were some scares, but we know this — Canada can be called not just a medal threat, but a gold-medal threat.

Now, in the world of Canadian soccer fatalism, there will be those who treat this win like a loss; they’ll point to the tough draw. They’ll say Canada would have done better with a second- or third-place finish in the group. But that’s an anti-football mentality. It’s against everything we should hold dear about sport — you shouldn’t try to win by gaming the system, you should try to get to the top by beating all comers.

It’s an illustration of just how ridiculous the rules on yellow-card accumulation are. Two yellows over the space of several games in a tournament — really, it’s not worthy of a suspension.