Late Matheson goal gives Canadian women a win in Hungary

Diana Matheson saved some blushes for the Canadian women’s national team, scoring an 87th minute winner as Canada beat Hungary 1-0 in Budapest Tuesday in a World Cup warmup match.

Karina LeBlanc played the full 90 and got the clean sheet in goal for Canada.

Christine Sinclair scored her fifth goal of the WPS season for the Western New York Flash this weekend and will soon return to the Canadian lineup as we are just three weeks from the kickoff the Women’s World Cup in Germany. But she didn’t feature in Budapest.

Brittany Timko, who wore the captain’s armband, made her 100th career appearance for Canada, just the seventh player in history to do so.

The Hungarian national team is not close to the level of European competition that Canada has faced previously in the run-up to the World Cup, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Only two players on the Hungarian roster, goalie Eszter Papp (97 Orlandia, Italy) and striker Zsanett Jakabfi (VfL Wolfsburg, Germany) play outside of the small domestic league. But Reka Szocs got the start for Hungary ahead of Papp.

Before the game, Hungarian coach Laszlo Kiss told the federation’s website that his team was honoured to be playing the No. 6 ranked team in the world. It represented a new high-water mark for the women’s program in Hungary. “We are excited for the meeting, as we’ve never played such a highly-ranked team,” Kiss was quoted in Hungarian. “First of all, I’m curious to know how well we play, compared to the previous matches our own national teams has played, to see where our team stands against the rest of the world. And, to see what the girls can do against such a strong opponent.”