Canadian women to face host Japan in Olympic soccer opener

TORONTO — A high-profile opener against host Japan, a potential “banana skin” against Olympic debutante Chile and a firstround finale against Britain.

Canada got a bit of everything in Wednesday’s Olympic women’s soccer draw.

The eighth-ranked Canadians, bronze medallists at the last two Olympics, were drawn in Group E with No. 11 Japan, Britain (FIFA ranks No. 6 England, No. 23 Scotland, No. 32 Wales and No. 48 Northern Ireland separately) and No. 37 Chile in Wednesday’s draw.

Canada will open July 21 against Japan at the Sapporo Dome, home to baseball’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. The game comes two days before the July 23 official start of the Tokyo Olympics.

“What an opening game to play,” said Canada coach Bev Priestman. “it’s where we want to be, as coaches, as players.”

Canada will then face Chile on July 24 at the Sapporo Dome and Britain on July 27 at Kashima Stadium.

“A relatively tough group,” Priestman said. “A great test. When you want to go win a medal, you’ve got to play the best teams and I think we got two very good teams in our group. And then you look at a Chile — they’re a good side, they’re hard to beat.”

Canada has played at Kashima Stadium before. Goalkeeper Craig Forrest and the Canadian men held mighty Brazil to a 0-0 draw there at the 2001 Confederations Cup.

The draw, originally set for Japan, was held at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

The Olympic soccer tournament runs July 21 to Aug. 7 in Tokyo, Sapporo, Miyagi, Kashima, Saitama and Yokohama. The women’s final will take place Aug. 6 at Tokyo’s new Olympic Stadium, which will also host the opening and closing ceremonies.

Group F features the Netherlands (No. 3), Brazil (No. 7) China (No. 14), and Zambia (No. 104) while a tough Group G consists of the U.S. (No. 1), Sweden (No. 5), Australia (No. 9), New Zealand (No. 22).

There will be a new women’s champion this year with Germany failing to qualify.

Canada is 4-7-3 all-time against the Japanese, losing 4-0 last time out in October 2019.

“They’re definitely a technical team that can move that ball quickly so our job will be to disrupt that rhythm,” said Priestman.

The Canadian women have played Britain just once, winning 2-0 in the quarter-finals of the 2012 Games in London.

Canada lost 1-0 in its only previous meeting with Chile, in 2013. The Chilean women are making their Olympic debut, having qualified by defeating Cameroon in a South AmericaAfrica playoff this month.

Chile went 1-2-0 in a tough group in its World Cup debut in 2019 in France, losing 2-0 to Sweden and 3-0 to the U.S. before beating Thailand 2-0.

“You look at their results against top-10 teams, it’s not been massive scorelines. It’s been relatively close,” said Priestman.