Canadians in action: Smith stars in Liverpool win
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An Olivia Smith brace led Liverpool to a big victory over a hated rival. Plus, Charles-Andreas Brym scored again in the Eredivisie and Bianca St-Georges found the net on her Utah Royals debut. Here's a look at Canadians in action this past weekend.
Olivia Smith, Liverpool and Jayde Riviere, Manchester United
Olivia Smith scores goals. That's just what she does. The 20-year-old Toronto native signed for Liverpool last summer after a season with Sporting in which she scored 13 goals in 18 league appearances. While she hasn't been as prolific in the Women's Super League as she was in Portugal, the goals are starting to come and they came in a big way this past Friday against Markham, Ont.'s Jayde Riviere and a red-hot Manchester United team. The Red Devils headed into the match at Anfield as winners of seven straight, including a 4-0 shellacking of the Reds in the reverse fixture on Dec. 8. After a number of good chances for United were turned aside by Rachel Laws, Liverpool would open the scoring in the 42nd through Smith. Taking a pass on the touchline from Fuka Nagano, Smith darted forward down the right, getting past Grace Clinton. With Millie Turner content to allow Smith to shoot from a sharp angle, her effort nutmegged Phallon Tullis-Joyce and made it 1-0. While Tullis-Joyce, who leads the league with 10 clean sheets on the season, would undoubtedly like that one back, all goals count. Liverpool would add to their lead before the halftime whistle with Nagano notching a goal to go with an assist. Taking a smart delivery from Samantha Kerr (the Scotland midfielder and not the Australia forward), the Japan midfielder one-timed a volley near the penalty spot to make it 2-0 in first-half stoppage. The Reds would wrap up the three points just under 20 minutes into the second half, again thanks to Smith, with Riviere playing an ignominious role in the goal. In the 57th, Alejandra Bernabe broke into the box on the left with Riviere marking her. Bernabe went down under the weight of a robust challenge from Riviere with the ref pointing to the spot. Smith stepped up to take and hammered her effort as Tullis-Joyce went the wrong way to make it 3-0. Maya Le Tissier would add a late consolation goal for the visitors. With the brace, Smith moved to six goals on the season in 15 league appearances. The victory took Liverpool into sixth place on 21 points. The loss meant United fell into third on 36 points, level with Arsenal in second and eight behind leaders Chelsea.
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Charles-Andreas Brym, Almere City
Charles-Andreas Brym will not be a part of Canada's Nations League roster in Los Angeles this week, but the Montreal-raised forward is giving Jesse Marsch something to think about. In his third Eredivisie season and first with Almere City, Brym helped the Black Sheep ended a three-game skid on Friday against NAC. Having joined Almere City in January from Sparta Rotterdam, Brym has now found the scoresheet twice. It was the visitors who would open the scoring in the 18th through Sydney van Hooijdonk, the son of legendary Celtic, Feyenoord and Fenerbahce striker Pierre van Hooijdonk. Boyd Lucassen collected a fine through ball on the right side and then cut back for the trailing van Hooijdonk to slot home with Nordin Bakker helpless to make a save. NAC's joy would be short-lived, however, as the hosts would strike back almost immediately thanks to a tidy bit of skill from Brym. After the restart, Brym accepted a pass with his back to goal just inside the 18-yard box from Anas Tahiri. Noticing that Daniel Bielica had come over to hug the near post, Brym spun around two defenders and let loose an audacious chip that snuck into the far post to tie the match at 1-1 in the 19th. It was a demonstration of terrific situational awareness by Brym. The match would finish on a 1-1 scoreline. While the draw did stop an ugly three-game slide for the Black Sheep, it still stretched a winless run to five games and Jeroen Rijsdijk's team remains firmly stuck to the bottom of the table.
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Bianca St-Georges, Utah Royals
Bianca St-Georges quickly ingratiated herself to a new fan base in her Utah Royals debut on Saturday. Having joined the team from the North Carolina Courage last week, the 27-year-old Saint-Charles-Borromée, Que. ensured the Royals opened up their National Women's Super League season with a point in a visit from Bay FC. Only 90 seconds into the match, goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn was called into action to clean up her own mess. After poor distribution from her led to a point-blank chance for rookie Taylor Huff, McGlynn made a diving save on the former FSU midfielder's hard-struck effort. McGlynn would make up for her error only minutes later. Coming well off of her line for a goal kick, McGlynn sent in a perfectly weighted ball skipping past the Bay FC backline for St-Georges to latch onto and poke past the oncoming Jordan Silkowitz to make it 1-0 in the 12th. As nice as St-Georges's finish was, there was a crucial touch from her just after receiving the pass to get the ball under control and ensure she would have a shot on goal. The goal was St-Georges's first in a Royals shirt and 10th goal in her seventh NWSL season. The visitors would tie the game up just before halftime with an absolute peach of a goal from Kiki Pickett. From a Huff free kick, Joelle Anderson knocked the ball down with her back to goal just outside the area to tee up Pickett. The Stanford product hammered home from distance to make it 1-1 in the 44th. The two teams would go on to split the points with no scoring in the second half.