KEY TAKEAWAYS: Familiar offensive woes crop up for the CanWNT in 0-0 draw vs. Argentina in SheBelieves Cup finale
It wasn’t the ending that they’d hoped to have at the 2026 SheBelieves Cup, but the CanWNT were at least able to enjoy one last positive moment on Saturday, as they beat Argentina in a shootout after a frustrating 0-0 draw at Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey.
Leader. Hero. Goalkeeper. 🧤
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 7, 2026
Kailen Sheridan steps up for the CanWNT 🇨🇦
Check out her pre-shootout team talk & spot-kick save(s) from our BTS angle 🎥 pic.twitter.com/QJr8GtCxCz
Unfortunately, that draw officially ruled them out of contention to lift the SheBelieves Cup trophy, although they were always going to need a big win and some help from Colombia to make that happen, so it’s not as if this result changes all that much in the grand scheme of things.
What was more worrying, though, was how Canada struggled to break down a solid Argentine side, one that defended aggressively and resolutely throughout 90 minutes of action. Canada did finish the game strongly, putting in a good second-half performance after a timid first-half showing, but they were unable to build off good performances in their first two games against Colombia and the United States in a game many expected them to win.
At the same time, it’s not as if this Argentina match was devoid of important developments, shootout win aside. For the first time in 11 games, Canada finally kept a clean sheet, and they did so while starting six players 25 or younger in this match, including 18-year-old Kaylee Hunter and 19-year-old Annabelle Chukwu, as the promising teenagers made their first starts for Canada’s senior team.
For a Canadian team looking to re-establish their identity and wanting to inject more youthful energy into their squad, those are two achievements worth hanging their hat on, even despite a disappointing result.
Now, though, they must take the key lessons learned from this game and apply them going forward, which they’ll hope to do in April when they take on Zambia, South Korea and Brazil in the inaugural FIFA Women’s Series.
Before looking too far ahead, however, here are some KEY takeaways from this match.
Canada’s first half struggles:
After putting up a solid performance in a losing effort against the United States in Columbus on Wednesday, this game felt like a good opportunity to build on that against an Argentina side that lost their first two games of the tournament.
That’s not to say that it was supposed to be an easy game, per se - Argentina did only lose those two games by a combined score of 3-0, so it’s not as if they got blown out in either match - but it was expected that Canada should still cruise to victory, regardless.
Yet, despite starting a youthful and exciting lineup filled with dangerous attacking weapons, things just didn’t click for Canada early on, as they came out of the gates quite slowly. The statistics from the first half paint a picture of how things went, as Canada were outshot 3-2 despite holding 55% of possession, and having nearly double the final third entries as Argentina (23-12).
Every time they got on the ball, they struggled to break down Argentina’s disciplined 4-4-2, as they lacked the movement and creativity to open up the spaces they needed to attack into.
For example, one big area of struggle came in Canada’s build-up play, as they struggled to progress the ball past their full-backs, Marie Levasseur and Janine Sonis. A big reason for that, however, was due to their deployment, as they started the game on their opposite sides, with left back Levasseur starting on the right, and the right back Sonis starting on the left. 
Here are the first half passes attempted by Levasseur (left) and Sonis (right). As seen above, most of them were backwards and sideways, instead of progressive (SofaScore)
A move that made sense in theory, as inverted full-backs can offer good support to midfielders, especially when faced off against a low block, it just didn’t work out in practice, unfortunately. Due to Canada’s decision to also start the game without any natural wingers, as they played an extremely narrow 4-2-2-2, their use of inverted full-backs just ended up clogging an already congested field even more, which played right into Argentina’s hands.
Ideally, head coach Casey Stoney would’ve either started the game with natural wingers who could stretch the field along with inverted full backs, or used more traditional overlapping full backs while sticking with the 4-2-2-2, but the decision to both invert the full backs and play narrow didn’t quite mesh against an Argentina side that was content to clog the middle of the pitch in their 4-4-2.
To Canada’s credit, they recognized their error and adjusted at halftime. There, Stoney inserted left back Sydney Collins for Levasseur, and asked Collins to play on the left, pushing Sonis back to the right back position, one where she was so good against Colombia and the United States.
That move ended up providing Canada with more attacking thrust, as they then generated nine shots in the second half, with seven of them coming inside the box, while also holding 63% of possession and generating 33 final third entries. Due to the width that their full-backs provided them, they started to stretch Argentina’s 4-4-2 a bit more, and that opened up spaces that weren’t there in the first half. 
Here's Canada's attacking momentum map from this game, showing that they were a LOT more dangerous in the second half (SofaScore)
Unfortunately, that move proved to be too little, too late, however. Some of Canada’s best chances came at the end of the match, when they had started to wear down Argentina, but after the quiet first half, Argentina still had enough juice in their legs to see out the draw.
DELIVERY OF THE MATCH 🎁
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 7, 2026
Presented by @WalmartCanada
CanWNT 🇨🇦 captain Jessie Fleming's exceptional vision for this cross earned the nod in today's top passing moment 👀 pic.twitter.com/hCF28CbELY
Had Canada started with a bit more energy and attacking impetus, Argentina might’ve run out of gas a lot sooner, perhaps around the 60th to 75th minute, which could’ve allowed Canada to capitalize with a late winner at the end of the match.
For context, look at Canada’s opening game against Colombia as an example of what this match could’ve looked like. While they were aided by the fact that they scored a first-half goal in that game, they wore out Colombia with their performance throughout the rest of the match, and that allowed them to score their second, third and fourth goals of the game in the last 30 minutes of that encounter.
Given Canada’s commitment to play aggressive and front-footed football on both sides of the ball under Stoney, wearing down opponents like that is going to be something that they want to do a lot more of going forward, and a slow start denied them the opportunity to do that in this match.
Where will the goals come from?
While Canada opened this tournament with that emphatic 4-1 win vs. Colombia, one that allowed them to snap a five-game goalless drought, it’s safe to say that game didn’t quite solve Canada’s attacking woes, as they then finished the tournament with two more goalless efforts.
Given that they’ve now failed to score in seven of their last eight games, that’s a big worry, as this Canadian team hasn’t looked any closer to finding the solutions needed to fix their problems up front, either.
Yes, it’s unfair to go any further without talking about the absence of Olivia Smith, who has played a grand total of 37 minutes across these last eight games. No doubt, a healthy Smith is dearly missed on this Canadian team, as she’s more than proved with Arsenal, Liverpool and Sporting CP that she can be a reliable source of goals - and she doesn’t need a whole lot of support to generate those goals, too.
At the same time, it’s not as if Smith’s absence from this team should completely crater their ability to score goals. If that’s the case, that’s a huge worry, as there will be moments where Canada won’t be able to rely on Smith’s availability for multiple reasons - such is the nature of international football, especially in the modern game.
Because of that, it’ll be fascinating to see how Canada fixes these woes going forward, especially in open play, as they really struggled to generate opportunities in that phase of play in this game, in particular. To that point, just six of their 11 shots against Argentina came from such situations, which is less than ideal for a team that held 59% of possession.
Unfortunately, though, Canada is not getting the most out of their attackers, and there might be no more telling stat from this game than this - centre back, Vanessa Gilles, led the team in shots for this game with three. For context, she came into this game at halftime.
While that’s a credit to Gilles that she continues to be a menace on set-piece situations - she did score Canada’s first goal against Colombia on a corner - Canada would ideally like Gilles to be more of a secondary offensive contributor going forward.
Yet, if that’s going to be the case, Canada will need to figure out how to be more dangerous in the attack, which is easier said than done, as the issues there aren’t exactly clear, either.
On one hand, Canada doesn’t appear to be supplying their attackers enough (Canada had just five key passes in this game, with most of them coming from set-pieces), but it’s not as if their attackers are getting involved enough in some of these games, either.
Because of that, the challenge for Stoney going forward will be to figure out the best way to set up her team to supply these attacking players, while finding which of those attacking players fit her system best.
Smith, for sure, is one player who will fit, but who else could join her? Marie-Yasmine Alidou could be another one, as her absence from this game for a yellow card suspension was felt, especially after she did well to generate five shots and two key passes against Colombia and the US combined.
Otherwise, it remains to be seen how things will shake up for the other attacking options.
Nichelle Prince had a bounce-back tournament, even scoring against Colombia, but is still battling to find a fit in this team. Meanwhile, Jordyn Huitema had some improved performances, but can also be prone to going long stretches without getting involved in games - she had just 25 touches in 90 minutes of action against Argentina.
Otherwise, Cloé Lacasse looked back up to full speed in her return from injury, but she’s not quite at full fitness, and her decision-making was rusty. Evelyne Viens was lively and energetic in her minutes, as she usually is, but isn’t finding the same spaces she thrives in at the club level. Delaney Baie Pridham was a nice addition to the group, but is still adapting to the international game. Holly Ward was dangerous in 2025, but didn’t quite get as involved offensively as she would’ve hoped to in this tournament.
And that’s without mentioning someone like Adriana Leon, who wasn’t even here but can provide goalscoring thrust, even if she has struggled to find the consistent club minutes required to stay in top form.
All of that to say, that leaves Stoney with plenty to ponder, as she’ll not only need to figure out which of those attackers to choose, but also how to deploy them, too, to fix these woes.
How did the youngsters fare?
Attentive readers may have noticed the absence of two names at the end of that last section, however - Annabelle Chukwu and Kaylee Hunter. Don’t worry, that’s intentional.
Given that they’re still teenagers and extremely inexperienced at the international level, they might have some of the same question marks attached to them as the other attackers, yes. Still, they’ve also got qualities that this Canadian team lacks, and they showed that in this game.
Making their first starts for Canada, Chukwu slotted in up front, and Hunter on the right wing, as Stoney gave them the chance to show what they could do in an extended audition.
There, each showed why both are worth watching going forward.
Firstly, there was Chukwu, who, despite having just 21 touches in 78 minutes, was a lively threat throughout this game. She struggled in possession, completing just four out of 11 passes, but she still had some good moments with and without the ball, such as the through ball that nearly set up a goal for Janine Sonis early in the game, and the interception she made in the second half that nearly led to a goal if not for a heavy touch from her.
Then, there was Hunter, who certainly didn’t lack confidence, as shown by the fact that she attempted a whopping 10 dribbles. She completed just four of them, yes, but you can’t help but admire her desire to make things happen, which she tried to do every time she got on the ball. 
Here's a map of Hunter's attempted dribbles from this game (SofaScore)
Yet, that was the story of each of their performances - they both tried to make things happen. The execution might not have been there to the level they were hoping it would be, yes, but that desire to be protagonists makes their performances feel more positive than the numbers might’ve indicated.
For a Canadian team that sometimes can play things a bit safely in the attack, Chukwu and Hunter take risks, and that stood out.
Now, they’ll want to polish certain things in their play, as they’ll need to be tidier in certain moments if they’re to be trusted in bigger games going forward.
In a sense, though, Smith is a good model for them to follow. Just two years ago, she was in a similar situation for Canada, as she was an exciting teenager who made things happen whenever she played, but there were questions about her all-around game and her consistency as a player.
Since then, she’s continued to round out her game and is now a key part of this Canadian team. Now, it’ll be hoped that Chukwu and Hunter can make similar leaps forward, as one can only imagine what a Smith, Chukwu and Hunter front three could do together if all three were to play up to their potential.
Otherwise, on a smaller note, don’t discount a solid 90-minute appearance from Brooklyn Courtnall in this game at centre back, as the 23-year-old was also making her first start for Canada in this game. While she didn’t steal attention the way Chukwu and Hunter did, that’s not a bad thing for a centre back, as she was solid and reliable on the day. 
Here's a map of Courtnall's defensive actions from this game (SofaScore)
For a Canadian team armed with good centre-back depth, she faces a stiff battle to earn minutes in the short-term, but this shows that she’s another one to watch in the long-term.
