United States and Canada hoping to secure Olympic women’s soccer berths

The Americans, who won last year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada, improved to 17-0 with one draw in Olympic qualifying and 10-0 all-time against Trinidad and Tobago with their ninth consecutive Olympic qualifying shutout, their last surrendered goal coming in 2008.

Both games will take place at the BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston.

I felt like a year ago was a bit busy with the World Cup. 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.

Veteran names like Kaylyn Kyle, Lauren Sesselmann, Jonelle Filigno and Adriana Leon were excluded for a new crop of young players who weren’t tested in the first four games of the competition.

Sinclair said after the game that she has been playing with a nagging calf injury.

Canada scored four goals and conceded three in five games at the World Cup where it exited in a 2-1 quarter-final loss to England.

United States’ Carli Lloyd (10) celebrates with teammates Ali Krieger (11) and Morgan Brian after scoring on a penalty kick against Germany during the second half of a semifinal in the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, Tuesday, June 30, 2015, in Montreal, Canada.

“They’re a good transition team”. After a poor clearance from a Costa Rican defender, Sinclair would control the ball on one foot before turning and firing the ball off the crossbar with her other.

Maribel Dominguez scored for Mexico, which is missing out on the semifinals for the first time in the history of the tournament for the North and Central America and Caribbean region. “I’m proud of the girls this evening”. She is now 23 goals behind Abby Wambach for the all time lead in women’s global history.

“We said there was one group that was going to put us on the moon and there’s a group in two days time (that is) going to take us home safely”, Herdman said, referring to Sunday’s final.

That included Sinclair and McLeod, who both have gone through modified training routines at the tournament to ensure they were ready when it counted. Referee Melissa Borjas called a soft foul on the Canadian midfielder – a tackle that didn’t even earn Scott a yellow card – but striker Raquel Rodriguez made no mistake, cutting Canada’s lead in half.

“Today we lost to the bronze medalists in the Olympics, so there’s no shame in that”, Costa Rica coach Amelia Valverde said. Also a Hermann Trophy victor, Rodriguez was the second overall pick in the recent NWSL draft by Sky Blue.

Costa Rica’s star player is Shirley Cruz, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain in France.

The momentum stayed in Canada’s favour after Costa Rica’s penalty, but the Canadians were always looking for the security of a third.

All but three spots in the 12-team Olympic field have now been filled.