The U.S. Women’s National Team will play Canada in the final of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament on Sunday at 2 p.m.at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, Texas.
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Canada were the first to book their place as they ran out comfortable 3-1 winners over Costa Rica on Friday, while the United States thrashed Trinidad and Tobago 5-0 thanks to an Alex Morgan hat-trick. Morgan scored in the 30th, 71st, and 73rd minutes to capture her third career hat trick.
The U.S. and Canada appear headed for a potentially explosive final in the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship this weekend.
The United States will learn their Olympic group opponents in April. While there are players on the current national team that won the World Cup last summer, there are new additions and veterans and rookies alike are hungry for Olympic gold, according to Fox Sports.
In CONCACAF Olympic qualifying play, Canada is 15-2-1 while Costa Rica fell to 6-10-1. So it’s obviously good to qualify to go out with a bang.
For their first World Xi in women’s soccer, FIFPro included an interesting mix of youth and experience from five different countries. The U.S. trounced Puerto Rico, 10-0, on Monday, outshooting it, 35-2.
The Americans have never lost a CONCACAF Olympic qualifier, going 17-0-1, and they’ve outscored opponents 96-4.
“We’re going to give them one hell of a fight as we always do and (we’re) looking forward to it”, Canada coach John Herdman said about Sunday’s match.
“I don’t think she’ll go back-to-back with younger players”, Herdman said in his pre-game press conference. To be fair, she did miss a number of solid goal-scoring chances but her raw ability is obvious and the USA looks to have a player who will be a major contributor for years to come.
Morgan scored in the 30′ when Kelley O’Hara served a good ball into the box and Lindsey Horan nodded it down in front of goal, something that Horan has proven adept at providing for her teammates.
Carli Lloyd, playing on the home field of her NWSL team, the Houston Dash, scored on a header in the 43rd minute for her 23rd goal in the team’s last 18 games.
It’s a rivalry based on geography, and for the last decade and a half the Canada-United States series in women’s soccer has been lopsided in favour of the team from south of the 49th parallel.
The lead remained that way until the 73rd minute when Costa Rica notched its first ever goal against Canada in five meetings. It wasn’t that she had played poorly, she had a handful of assists and a milestone goal in the group stage. Rose would deflect the ball off her head and into the back of the net to all but guarantee Canada a berth in Rio. Costa Rica’s all-time leading CWOQ scorer Raquel Rodriguez put away a penalty conversion following a questionable call by Melissa Borias of Honduras.
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Buchanan earned the latest in a line of accolades Thursday when the 20-year-old defender from Brampton, Ont., was named to the inaugural FIFPro Women’s World XI, as voted on by female players around the world.
