The Aussie Stingers secured a tight 7-6 victory over Canada at the Kunshan Cup in China to remain unbeaten after two matches.
Unlike their opening game against Brazil at the pre FINA World League Super Final tournament, the Stingers weren’t able to skip away on the scoreboard and were instead forced to grind out the result against Canada, who matched Australia’s goal scoring efforts in all but the first quarter.
While Buckling made it six goals from two games, it was the physically demanding nature of the match that was the talking point, with Australian goalkeeper Lea Yanitsas saying that the Stingers had chances to extend their margin irrespective of the physicality of the game.
“I think Canada came out really hard and their press made it quite a physical game,” Yanitsas said.
“We had opportunities to convert more goals than we did, but we are also trying to mix up our play a little bit. Ahead of our game against Italy tomorrow we need to ensure that when we make changes to our play, our basics don’t suffer.”
The opening quarter set the tone for the game as Canada came out firing to score first, only to see the Australians retaliate with their defensive effort to recover to a 3-2 lead by the first break. It was a similar story in the second term, although both sides were evenly matched as they traded two goals each, the score 5-4 at half time.
With a fight on their hands the Stingers attempted to convert opportunities in front of the goal throughout the second half, however Canada proved a worthy opponent, holding the Aussies to just one goal each in the third and fourth periods.
Fortunately the Stingers were able to mirror Canada’s defensive effort throughout the second half of the game, protecting their lead to hold on for their second win of the tournament.
WAIS athlete Glencora McGhie was on the score-sheet for the Australians and was joined in action by fellow WAIS athlete Zoe Arancini.
With just one game of the group round remaining, the Stingers will next play Italy, with the game scheduled for 4.30pm Perth time start.
-WaterPoloAus
