DUBAI // Humberto Grondona, the Argentina coach, hailed the talents of Mathias Sanchez, the tireless midfielder, after watching his side see off Canada 3-0 tonight and set up a knock-out tie with Tunisia.
The South Americans were not as dominant as the score suggests and were at times wasteful during their final Group E match. Sanchez, however, produced two rare sparks in a scrappy contest to help seal the points.
Joaquin Ibanez had opened the scoring on the stroke of half time and with Canada pushing for an equaliser early in the second half, Nicolas Tripichio broke down the right and hung a ball up at the back post. Sanchez, with it all to do, leapt highest and directed a brilliant, towering header into the top corner.
Fifteen minutes from time, Sanchez added a spectacular second. From 25 yards, the Chacarita midfielder took a single touch and curled a beautiful strike into the opposite corner of Marco Carducci’s goal.
“Mathias is a very important player for this team, especially as he has a double workload to do,” Grondona said. “He has to recover the ball and organise the attack, so he is very important. He is already quite a complete player and brings all the skills a perfect midfielder needs. He still can improve, but I have no doubts he will be a very big player in the future.”
Canada’s best chance fell to Jordan Hamilton midway through the second-half. The Toronto FC forward was played one-on-one with Augusto Batalla, but hit his shot tamely and straight at the goalkeeper.
“We’re obviously very disappointed to be out of the tournament,” said Sean Fleming, the Canada coach. “We definitely feel we could have moved on from what was a difficult group.”
In other matches, Ulises Jaimes, a half-time substitute, scored in the 86th minute to give Mexico a 1-0 victory over Sweden and a second-place finish in Group F. A Mexico defeat would have put Croatia into the last 16. Also at Al Ain, Yousef Sayyedi's 36th-minute goal gave Iran a 1-0 win over Austria and second place in Group E. Austria would have advanced with a win, at Iran's expense.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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