{
    "title": "Lift off at London 2012 as all 12 teams open Women\u2019s Olympic Tournament",
    "modified_at": "2026-05-05 15:42:55",
    "published_at": "2012-07-25 18:04:00",
    "url": "https://news.canadasoccer.com/lift-off-at-london-2012-as-all-12-teams-open-womens-olympic-tournament",
    "short_url": "http://prez.ly/pkFd",
    "culture": "en",
    "language": "EN",
    "subtitle": "Canada finishes opening day in 3rd place in Group F.",
    "slug": "lift-off-at-london-2012-as-all-12-teams-open-womens-olympic-tournament",
    "body": "<p>The London 2012 Women&rsquo;s Olympic Football Tournament has kicked off across the United Kingdom, with the first of three group matches played on Wednesday 25 July. Canada was in third place in Group F after the opening day, with upcoming matches to be played on 28 July against South Africa and 31 July against Sweden.</p><p>Canada lost 1:2 to FIFA Women&rsquo;s World Cup champion Japan while Sweden won 3:0 over South Africa. From 12 international teams, the top two teams from all three groups plus the two best third-place teams will qualify for the quarter-final phase.</p><p>&ldquo;You look at every one of our players tonight, there wasn&rsquo;t one ounce of &lsquo;Canadian&rsquo; left out there,&rdquo; said head coach John Herdman. &ldquo;They matched the world champions for periods &ndash; both defensively and in moments of attack.&rdquo;</p><p>Japan scored twice before Canada replied in the second half on a Melissa Tancredi goal. Both Diana Matheson and Rhian Wilkinson were involved in the offensive push that led to the goal.</p><p>In Group E action, host Great Britain won the tournament opener 1:0 over New Zealand while Brazil defeated Cameroon 5:0. In Group G action, USA stormed back to win 4:2 over France while DPR Korea defeated Colombia 2:0 in the day&rsquo;s late match.</p>",
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    "author": {
        "first_name": "Integration",
        "last_name": "Integration"
    },
    "format_version": 5
}