Canada women’s team book Rio Olympic berth

Sinclair is eager to try and deliver a few blows to Solo & Co.

“It’s what these girls were really looking forward to, coming here… we’re going to give them one hell of a fight as we always do and (we’re) looking forward to it”, he said.

Raquel Rodriguez scored in the 72nd minute on a penalty kick for Costa Rica, which has never been to an Olympics.

Deanne Rose made sure Canada would participate in the Olympic women’s tournament for the third consecutive Games, with a breakaway goal five minutes from the final whistle. This was the most important game we were looking forward to, and we got the job done.

With an automatic Olympic qualifying berth already in place, Canada will move on to the finals, where it will play the victor of the United States vs. Trinidad & Tobago semifinal. Herdman’s side will likely face the United States, which is heavily favoured against Trinidad and Tobago in the other semifinal on Friday.

Overall, Ellis is working with a younger roster than the one that won the World Cup last summer in Canada. They’re all in the primes of their careers and with France hosting the next women’s World Cup, they’re shaping up to be hosts that opposing teams won’t want to mess with. Runner-up to the Americans in Group A, they were well-organized and poised under a sunny late-afternoon sky.

Canada advanced to the final after it defeated Costa Rica 3-1 in tournament action on Friday night. “We left it all on the field”. “I was so proud for her to start”.

She did get the nod at right back as a reserve-heavy USA team took on Puerto Rico in the group stage finale, scoring a clever goal in the 10-0 thrashing. Hope Solo has played in 11 Olympic qualifying matches (2008, 2012 & 2016), and she earned her 94th shutout against T&T on February 19. “We had lots of crosses into the box and I was lucky to get a couple in”. What can the U.S.do to slow that down?

That included Sinclair and McLeod, who both have gone through modified training routines at the tournament to ensure they were ready when it counted. Sinclair’s second goal against Costa Rica was a thing of beauty.

The Americans used some head’s up play in trying to solve the Canadian defense as Lloyd powered a header wide right in the 22nd minute as did Horan did wide left two minutes later. She just seemed excited and happy.

Sinclair’s quality was on show at the start of the second half as with her back to goal, the Canadian flicked the ball into the air and volleyed into the net on the turn, from the edge of the Costa Rican box.

The biggest surprise, perhaps, is in the midfield and attack where Christine Sinclair, Sophie Schmidt and Diana Matheson are all not starting.

Costa Rica had skill but not enough of it. Part of it is in a tournament like this being able to utilize the depth, and we have depth in those positions. “There is no shame in that”. Captain and playmaker Shirley Cruz, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain, was well-marshalled.

Having watched Canada score 21 times ahead of Friday night’s semifinal match, the much-weaker Central Americans parked the proverbial bus in what amounted to a training fixture for the 11th-ranked team in the world.

The USWNT has qualified for the 2016 Olympics without too many tight matches or very tense moments on their road to Rio. The 12-team field will be completed by two teams from Asia and one of Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.