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New Breaker Leon scores first international goal

Meg Linehan January 12, 2013 10
Adriana Leon (above) scored her first international goal Saturday against China. (Photo: Canada Soccer)

Adriana Leon (above) scored her first international goal Saturday against China. (Photo: Canada Soccer)

Hours after being allocated to the Boston Breakers in the National Women’s Soccer League, Adriana Leon scored her first international goal for Canada, propelling her team to a 1-0 win over China PR in the opening match of the 2013 Yongchuan Cup.

Leon intercepted a pass in China’s half and made a run on goal without any direct challenge from the Chinese defense. Leon managed to get herself enough space at the top of the box to fire a low right-footed shot past China PR’s goalkeeper Zheng Yu.

The match was also Leon’s international debut.

As reported earlier, coach John Herdman selected a young crop of players to represent Canada in the Yongchuan Cup, including Leon and Jodi-Ann Robinson, who was allocated to the Western New York Flash. Herdman is beginning to introduce new young talent to the Canadian National Team in preparation of the next Women’s World Cup (to be held in Canada in 2015).

Leon started her college career at the University of Notre Dame, scoring the only goal of the 2010 NCAA College Cup championship match against Stanford. In 2012, Leon transferred to the University of Florida and finished the year with five goals total, four of them game-winners.

Leon was allocated to the Boston Breakers with teammate Rhian WIlkinson as well as U.S. Women’s National Team players Heather O’Reilly, Sydney Leroux, and Heather Mitts and Mexico Women’s National Team players Anisa Guajardo and Cecilia Santiago.

As for the Yongchuan Cup, Canada will play South Korea next on January 14 followed by a match against Norway on January 16.

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POSTED IN » Boston Breakers, International, NWSL
About the author: Meg Linehan View all posts by Meg Linehan
Meg Linehan is a contributor to The Equalizer. She also contributes photos and videos. She primarily covers the Boston Breakers and is based out of the Greater Boston Metro area.


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  • Steglitz49

    Bean-town got itself a top goalie also. Boston should do well.

  • Steve Bruno

    Thanks for highlighting this, Meg. Leon’s a great talent with silky ball control and a tremendously powerful shot; Boston fans are truly in for a spectacle. Hopefully someone will do some prying and find out why she skipped out on her senior season at Florida.

    • http://twitter.com/itsmeglinehan meg linehan

      I’ll have more on this in my full team preview, but Boston suddenly finds itself swimming in forwards for a team that favored a 4-4-2 formation. It’s definitely going to affect how they approach the draft and free agency. Leon really seems like she has a flair for the dramatic with all of those game-winners though, doesn’t she?

      • Steglitz49

        The answer may be to play Total Football.

  • Joshua

    Saw the goal on video on another site. I thought the Chinese Goalkeeper flubbed it. Hope Solo would have made the save.

    Looks like there was a big crowd at the stadium in Chongqing, China for the match between the PRC team and the Canadians. Nice to see that.

    It would appear that the PRC is the third country after the USA and Japan where an International Women’s Soccer Match involving the country’s national team can draw a big crowd. Any others?

    It was sad to see the Brazil Women’s National Soccer Team play in Sao Paulo, Brazil in an empty stadium in an international tournament last month. I hope people in Brazil realize that the Olympics is only three and a half years away and they have very little time now to get ready. Brazil’s performance at the 2012 London Olympics wasn’t particularly good for a nation that will be hosting the next Olympics. Usually in the preceding Olympics to the Games they will host, the National Olympics team of the host nation shows substantially improved performances. Greece at the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia won more Gold medals than Brazil did at the 2012 London Games. No need to mention Australia in 1996 or China in 2004 or Great Britain in 2008.

    • Steglitz49

      Attendance at ladies’ soccer matches is generally poor where men’s soccer is strong. Obvious club examples are Arsenal and Bayern Munich and there are many more. The same unfortunately generally applies at international level also. For example, the Volvo pre-olympic tournament between Sweden, USA and Japan — bronze, silver and champions in the WC the year before — drew poor attendances.

      Attendance at men’s club matches is driven by men aged 20-35 while women’s games are attended by a totally different public, most obviously few women 20-35. Women’s soccer must also get into media. Women’s soccer is regularly pushed out by trivial items of men’s minority sports.

  • LetsGetReal

    sees like Boston will have great wingers in Leon and O’Reilly. I don’t think Leon and Leroux up top compliment each other enough. Leon would be best served as outside mid in Boston that could only help with Canada’s width.

    • Steglitz49

      Boston looks like an all round balanced team. They ought to study those old Ajax videos of Total Football (I doubt there is much footage of the great Torino team, whom many considered played Total Football 25 years earlier).

      Given so many great univs/colleges in town, maybe it is possible to get some top-notch graduate student to whom NCAA does not matter to come and play for them. Maybe a top foreign player for whom a course at a college would be an investment for further on. Private sponsors would pay the fees etc, not the club. This would work for all the NWSL teams.

  • luke

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K35zpv8l49E
    Really impressive, girl can play.

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