Having survived the elements and a stubborn Panama side to reach the semifinals of the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship in the Dominican Republic, Canada takes on Mexico on Thursday with a chance to secure a berth in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
A loss at the Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez in Santo Domingo and the Canadians can still make the U-20 World Cup with a win in the third-place game. But Canada coach Cindy Tye and her team look to book their ticket sooner than later to the U-20 World Cup this August in Costa Rica.
"We had three objectives coming in," Tye said on Wednesday. "To qualify (for the World Cup), obviously, is the biggest one. And then to make sure we cover our rest and recovery strategies, so we're fresh coming into this part of the tournament. And the last one was to get better every day.
"So the kids really have bought into that … So while there's a little bit of pressure, we've talked about welcoming that in and they're prepared for it."
Tye said the team has also talked about gratitude "a lot."
"Pressure's a privilege," she said. "I think they're in a good space. And the staff are too. We're ready to go."
Canada and Mexico have both won all five of their games at the tournament.
The U.S. (5-0-0) faces Puerto Rico (4-1-1) in the other semifinal Thursday. The Americans won 7-0 when the two met in the group stage.
The CONCACAF champion, runner-up and third-place finisher will join host Costa Rica as representatives of North and Central America and the Caribbean at the U-20 World Cup.
"We've used all 20 kids throughout the tournament and it's going to help us in the latter stages because we've had the ability to rest the kids," said Tye.
The Canadian women beat Panama on Tuesday in a game that started in a downpour. And while the rain finally stopped, the Estadio Panamericano field in San Cristobal was littered with pools of water that sometimes caused the ball to suddenly stop in mid-pass.
"That was an experience," said Tye, a former Canadian international who also coaches the Dalhousie women's soccer team.
Canada has yet to be scored on at the tournament, holding an 30-0 edge in goals, while Mexico has outscored its opposition 27-1.
Tye, an all-Canadian and national champion as a player at Acadia University, is a member of the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame, Truro Sports Hall of Fame and Acadia Athletics Hall of Fame
The 20-woman Canadian squad is drawn mostly from NCAA schools.
Captain/defender Jade Rose (Harvard University) and forward Olivia Smith (Florida State) each have won two caps with Canada's senior squad. Goalkeeper Anna Karpenko and midfielder Nikayla Small have also been called up by the senior team but have yet to play.
Smith leads the team with seven goals at the tournament.
Canada won all three group-stage matches, dispatching St. Kitts and Nevis 7-0, El Salvador 4-0 and Trinidad and Tobago 5-0 before hammering the Cayman Islands 13-0 in the round of 16. The 13 goals against the Cayman Islands set a scoring record for a Canadian women’s national youth team.
It marks the first CONCACAF youth tournament since the global pandemic began in March 2020.
Canada has qualified for seven editions of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, finishing runner-up in 2002 when a Canadian team featuring a young Christine Sinclair lost to the U.S. in sudden-death extra time before 47,784 at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.
That inaugural event was competed at the U-19 level with the event since switching to U-20. The Canadian women failed to qualify for the 2018 U-20 World Cup in France and did not get out of the group stage in 2016 in Papua New Guinea. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Canada hosted the event in 2014, losing to Germany in the quarterfinals.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2022
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: Replaces photo with correct Olivia Smith
