Women’s team starts Olympic quest
Qualifying tourney the final stop before Tokyo Summer Games
Considering the success of the Canadian women’s national soccer team at the past two Summer Olympics, it can be easy to overlook the actual qualifying process to get there.
At first glance, a spot in the women’s soccer tournament at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics seems assured, but Canada has vital games to play at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament starting Wednesday (5:30 p.m. ET; Onesoccer.ca) against Saint Kitts and Nevis in Edinburg, Texas.
Canada is in a group with Saint Kitts, Jamaica and Mexico. The top two teams from group play move on to the semifinal with the finalist earning a berth into the 12-team Olympic tournament. The United States, Costa Rica, Panama, and Haiti are in the other group based in Houston.
“I think we are very ready to start the tournament,” Canada head coach Kenneth Heinermoller said. “We have seen in the past two weeks that getting the crew back together and having a few (training) sessions on a high level has definitely given us some confidence. We are looking forward to kick off the tournament.”
Canada has not played a meaningful game since losing 1-0 to Sweden in the second round of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup this past June in Paris.
Canada played three exhibition games since, losing 4-0 to both Japan and Brazil, before blanking New Zealand 3-0 in Yongchuan, China, in November.
Saint Kitts is currently ranked 127th in the world and isn’t expected to provide too much resistance to the eighth-ranked Canadians. Jamaica (51) and Mexico (26), however, could be a different matter: Canada needs to win its group and avoid having to face the U.S. in the semifinal with an Olympic berth on the line.
“Jamaica will be good,” said Heiner-moller. “We played them last year (2-0 win at 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Championship), we saw them during the World Cup, and we got some (video) footage from there. We know most of their players.
“They have a top-three striker in the world in Khadija Shaw. Last year when we played them, she was playing at a university and now she is playing in France in a top three team (Girondins de Bordeaux). She’s definitely a handful and someone we have put attention on, but they have other players playing in Europe as well.”
Canada is favoured to win its group, get to the semifinal and then the final, both in Carson, Calif. Canada has participated in the past three Olympics, winning bronze in London 2012 and Rio in 2016. “We’re pretty familiar with Jamaica, but Saint Kitts is a different story,” Heiner-moller said. “We don’t know much about them. We have a couple of matches (on video) but there is not a lot of footage where you can see the entire pitch or the entire team.
“We can have opportunities against them and there will be things we need to take care of. But no matter who we are playing, it’s about us and our standards; it’s mainly about Canada and what we’re doing.”
Canada was on a good run heading into the World Cup and made it past the group stage for the first time at a tournament held in Europe. Canada dominated possession against Sweden, but gave up a goal on a counterattack and striker Janine Beckie was stopped on a late penalty, which would have tied the game.
Since then, Beckie and Christine Sinclair have been the only two players to score in Canada’s three official exhibition games. Canada played a closed-door training game against Haiti on Jan. 20, which finished in a 1-1 tie.
“We have the right players that can score when we set them up to play in the right positions,” said Heiner-moller.
Sinclair, 36, scored in France, becoming only the second player, along with Marta of Brazil, to have at least a goal in five World Cup tournaments.
Sinclair has 183 international goals and is one behind retired U.S. striker Abby Wambach for the all-time record.
Sinclair is expected to break the record at the qualifying tournament — but the main goal is to qualify for a fourth consecutive Olympics.
“It’s about whether we’re able to be clinical in set pieces and if our wide forwards don’t just pass, but score,” Heiner-moller said.