credit: Pro Soccer Wire
The SheBelieves Cup 2023 commenced on Thursday, February 16 with U.S. women's national team squaring off against Canada and Japan faced Brazil in the opening day of the competition. Ahead of their opener, USWNT joined rivals Canada and showed solidarity with the latter's protest against the Canadian federation over gender equality.
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Ahead of their opener against USWNT at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Canada players trained wearing purple shirts inside out to hide the Canadian logo and displayed the message "Enough is Enough." Prior to the match, Canadian players explained the reason to wear purple shirt in a statement that noted, "purple has historically been associated with efforts to achieve gender equality. "
Before the kickoff, USWNT joined Canada around the center circle to support their rivals ongoing fight with the Canadian football federation. Both the teams wore a purple armband in the name of gender equality and also a white tape with the words "Defend Trans Joy".
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The Canadian women's players claimed that they 'are experiencing the pervasive misogyny and unequal treatment' as compared to the men's team. Canada’s captain Christine Sinclair said, " The SheBelieves [Cup] is being played in protest."
The team initially declared to go on a strike during the SheBelieves Cup if their demands weren't fulfilled, however, Canada Soccer threatened them with a lawsuit that led the team to pull back from the objection.
Talking about the game, USWNT defeated Canada 2-0 as forward Mallory Swanson scored a first half brace while Brazil forward Debinha scored the only goal of the match against Japan to help her team claim the victory. In their next fixture, USWNT will face Japan while Brazil will go head-to-head against Canada on February 19.
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