Canada earned the region’s other Olympic berth with a 3-1 victory over Costa Rica in the semifinals.
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“We’re very excited”, she said of the prospect of going to Brazil. “I hope we can do Canada proud again”. It’s also something else.
In its semifinal Friday, the United States beat Trinidad and Tobago 5-0.
Four games against quality opponents between Sunday and March 9 are meant to challenge the U.S.in its preparation. It’s going to be tough, gritty.
What’s next for the U.S.?
The inevitable breakthrough arrived just past the half-hour mark, off a combination between right back Kelley O’Hara and Lloyd, who thumped a header downward into Morgan’s path for a simple tap-in at the right post: 2-0 Yanks.
The facts are stark enough: No reigning Women’s World Cup champion has ever gone on to win the Olympic gold medal the following year. They can counter with the best of them. “In this tournament, this is going to be our most contested match”.
US coach Jill Ellis tinkered with the lineup a bit for the match, sitting Dunn and Ali Krieger, who had both logged a lot of minutes in the tournament.
Having employed a side half-full of young, internationally inexperienced players this month to see out CONCACAF’s qualifying process, Herdman has decisions to make. “It’s a physical game, I get to be involved a little bit more”.
“It reminds me of that game against the US (four year ago when Canada lost an epic 4-3 Olympic semifinal after extra time despite a Sinclair hat-trick) when she just made a decision to take the game into her own hands”.
The U.S. team will meet Canada in Sunday’s final.
The U.S. women are tactical and opportunistic.
This U.S. roster features only 13 of the 20 players who were on the World Cup team.
“I think they have more of a rivalry with us than we do with them. We were the number two defensive team in the World Cup so I think it’s a good testament to how good our defence is”. She’s no longer the promising wunderkind who could one day realize her potential; at 27 she should be a seasoned midfielder who can more reliably help navigate the right side. On Friday, Sinclair scored her 160th and 161st worldwide goals against Costa Rica, bringing the Canadian star closer to Abby Wambach’s all-time scoring record of 184 goals.
“When you ask her to deliver, she delivers”, he said.
The result is a squad that has greater depth and firepower – 11 different players have scored at this tournament. Still the Soca Princesses did hold the U.S.to just a narrow 1-0 win when the countries met in qualifying for the 2015 World Cup. Raquel Rodriguez Cedeno answered for Costa Rica on a penalty kick in the 73rd minute before Deanne Rose added an insurance goal for Canada in the 86th minute. Some of the youth and reshuffling taking shape was forced on Ellis. That’s the point of playing Pugh now (as it would be had ascending talent Crystal Dunn started in what has become her normal place). It will be an interesting game to see if the new level of technical skill and speed of play by the US will continue to demonstrate the difference between the USA and Canada. T&T won two games in Group play, but they were shutout by Canada 6-0 and haven’t played anywhere near as dominant as the U.S. team has.
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Now healthy, Sesselmann will be back in Houston (she wasn’t one of the players allocated by the Canadian Soccer Association where they cover her playing salary) and is eager to get back onto the field and impress.
