Canada earns spot in Rio with 3-1 victory over Costa Rica

On Friday, Pugh earned another start, this one a bit more surprising considering the game’s importance as a one-off Olympic qualifier and the fact that she replaced Crystal Dunn in the lineup-after Dunn tallied five times against Puerto Rico.

The United States kept its ideal streak alive in qualifying for its sixth consecutive Olympic women’s soccer tournament Friday night. Coach Jill Ellis brought it up with her team during its first camp of 2016 in Southern California. “It always tends to be a bloodbath”, the USA’s standout goalkeeper said. “We had lots of crosses into the box and I was lucky to get a couple in”. “But we are finally playing an incredible possession style of soccer, and it’s handsome”. It’s a testament to U.S. Soccer having the grassroots teams and putting the money into really building players at a younger age. Certainly our speed of play can be faster; I thought tonight it was very good.

“I knew she was ready”, said Ellis, who supervised the World Cup title campaign past year with a largely established group. The U.S. took the lead quickly in the second half, however. Retirement claimed Lauren Holiday, Abby Wambach and others. Pugh’s leg movements weren’t dance steps but part of the warm-up routine she and the rest of the US women’s national team do. She scored the 160th goal of her career in the 17th minute, controlling right back Josée Bélanger’s cross at the top of the 6-yard box and volleying the ball past goalkeeper Dinnia Diaz.

Tobin Heath, Alex Morgan, and Carli Lloyd all scored for the United States in the firsth alf. Morgan fired home a hat trick to continue her resurgence. Instead, Canada trotted out a spirited but young squad, which made things interesting in the first half with a clogged-up midfield and a host of fouls. Cutting in from the back side, Heath one-timed a 12-yarder into the near corner for her first goal since the World Cup final against Japan last summer.

Krieger and Dunn were not injured; Ellis felt the occasion required something different.

“I think they have more of a rivalry with us than we do with them”. We wanted to come out strong and show that.

As for Sinclair, Herdman insisted that some observers had prematurely written her off, as evidence by her dominant performance against the Costa icans. It’s a jolt to watch. Their tactic payed off as well as they turned out 6-0 winners in what was an emphatic display of attacking football and tactical understanding.

Despite the result, both of these teams had already punched their tickets to the Rio Games.

USA vs. Canada, Familiar Foes: The USA holds a 46-3-6 all-time record against Canada, a team it has faced more times than any country in the world. “It’s certainly the understanding that’s the target, thats the goal”.

Absolutely no illegal streams, they can get us in trouble and nobody wants that.

So the game Sunday is basically meaningless, right?

Canada, ranked No. 11 in the world, swept its group stage matches by outscoring its opponents 21-0, including a 10-0 rout of Guatemala on Tuesday night.

“Today it’s exciting”, said Morgan.

“We feel like it was taken away from us”, Canada’s Christine Sinclair said afterward. This was the most important game we were looking forward to, and we got the job done.