Dunfield's Strike Helps Canada Draw With Ecuador

In only his third cap with the national team, Terry Dunfield scored his first international goal for Canada as the Vancouver Whitecap helped his country draw with Ecuador2-2 at BMO Field in Toronto.   The Canadians opened the scoring on Dunfield's goal before allowing the South Americans to take the lead in the second half.  The tying score came on a very unusual play as a quick free kick found Tosaint Rickets free in the box in injury time as Canada were able to pull out a result.

After a little time of getting settled in to the match the Canadians opened the score as Burnaby’s Josh Simpson slid the ball to Dunfield who after a touch fired a striker into the top corner and then ran to the Voyageur’s supporters section.  Later in the half, Real Salt Lake’s Will Johnson missed a sitter into an open net which would have put Canada up by two.  Canada’s newly minted goalkeeper Milan Borjan made a couple of impressive saves to preserve the lead going into the half.  As for Dunfield, he ended his day with a hard tackle which earned him a yellow card late in the first half as he was substituted for Julian de Guzman at halftime.

The Ecuadorians carried the play in the second half as the Canada continued to experiment with players as they made substitutions.  In a two minute period the ‘visitors’ were able to take the lead back off of a corner and a strike from outside the box.  Ecuador then shut it down as they were looking the preserve the score line as it was and walk away with the victory.  Then in injury time a foul near the Ecuador box caused the players to protest the call as they surrounded the referee.  TFC’s de Guzman took the free kick quickly and got the ball to second half sub Tosaint Ricketts who was able to beat the goalkeeper to capture the improbable draw.

It was a good result for a squad that has had limited time to train as the majority of players arrived over the weekend.  Dunfield played well in the holding midfield role and of course his world class strike will definitely help him make the team and get a bigger role in the upcoming Gold Cup matches.  The squad will now train for about a week before they head to Detroit to play in their first group match against the United States on June 4^th.