Canada Faces Mexico For Olympic Berth

Canada’s women’s national team will face Mexico in a one-match contest for Olympic berth to the 2008 Beijing Games. The two sides will meet in one of two semi-finals at the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament on Wednesday 9 April 2008. The match will kick off at 19.30 (local time) at the Estadio Oly­mpico Benito Juarez in Ciudad Juarez, México.

All of Canada’s matches at the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament are webcast on CBCSports.ca. The two semi-finals will be broadcast on GolTV. Tournament matches are also televised by host broadcaster PCTV in Mexico. Before the Canada-México match, the United States faces Costa Rica at 17.00.

Canada finished first in its group ahead of Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago. Canada won 6:0 over Trinidad & Tobago on 2 April and 1:0 over Costa Rica on 6 April. The United States, meanwhile, finished first in its group after winning 3:1 over hosts Mexico in the last match of the opening round.

The Canada-Mexico semi-final will be a rematch of the 2004 Olympic Qualification semi-final in Costa Rica. Canada lost that match 1:2 and missed the Olympics in Athens. In 14 contests between the two senior sides, the 3 March 2004 match is the only time Mexico has defeated Canada. Canada has a record of 12 wins, one draw and one loss against Mexico.

In the last two years, Canada has faced Mexico three times. Canada won 3:1 and drew 1:1 in a two-game series in February 2006 and then won 2:1 in July 2007 at the XV Pan American Games Rio 2007. Teresa Worbis, who also scored yesterday in the 1:3 loss to the United States, was the Mexican goal scorer in the last two encounters with Canada.

After two matches at the 2008 CONCACAF Olympic Qualification Tournament, Canada has seven goals from six players. Melissa Tancredi has two goals (one in each match). Christine Sinclair, Jonelle Filigno, Randee Hermus, Kara Lang and Jodi-Ann Robinson have the other Canadian goals.

Captain Sinclair is not only Canada’s all-time leader with 87 goals, she is also Canada’s goal-scoring leader against Mexico with eight goals in 10 games. Silvana Burtini, who in the first-ever encounter between the two senior sides scored five goals (a 6:0 win on 15 August 1994), has six career goals against México. Along with Burtini, Lang is the one other Canadian player to have scored a hat trick against Mexico (a 6:0 win on 4 September 2003).