U20 Women Set To Defend CONCACAF Championship

Canada’s women’s U-20 team officially announced its roster today for the upcoming 2010 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship in Guatemala. National head coach Carolina Morace selected 20 players for the 11-day tournament which kicks off this January 20 in Ciudad, Guatemala. Canada is the tournament’s current defending champion from two years ago in Mexico.

“We have an excellent group of skilled athletes, but also players that can fill multiple roles in a tournament such as this,” said Morace. “The high quality of players in this final camp made it very difficult to select only 20 players.”

Canada’s women’s U-20 team has been training this past week in Tampa, FL at the University of South Florida campus. The team spent seven days in Tampa before departing this Monday morning for Guatemala. Canada opens the confederation championship on January 20 against Costa Rica. Additional group matches are January 22 against Cuba and January 24 against host Guatemala.

The top two teams from each four-team group will advance to the semi-final stage on 28 January. Three of those four teams will qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Germany 2010 which runs July 13 through August 1. The CONCACAF final will be played on 30 January.

Canada’s 20-player roster features players born 1990 or later. There are three returning members from the last FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Chile 2008: defenders Lexi Marton, Shannon Woeller and defender/midfielder and 2009 Canadian Player of the Year Chelsea Stewart. There are also four players from the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup team that reached the quarter-final stage at New Zealand 2008: goalkeeper Cynthia Leblanc, defenders Bryanna McCarthy and Shelina Zadorsky, and forward Rachel Lamarre.

There are several new faces to the program who have performed well at Canada ‘s National Training Centres (NTC), the BMO National Championships, and last year’s Canada Games Women’s Soccer Tournament. Of note, Canada Games bronze medalist and Top Scorer Adriana Leon, silver medalist captain Laura Chénard, and gold medalist and MVP Jenna Richardson are all part of this team.

Along with the official 20-player roster, Canada will travel with three additional players in case of injury. These players are: Helena Brooke McCurdy (ON), Catherine Charron-Delage (QC) and Hannah Rivkin (NL). From the entire group of 23 players, there are 10 players who were born in 1992 that will still be eligible for the next CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship in 2012.

To date, Canada has qualified for every FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, starting with a silver medal performance at the inaugural championship held in Canada in 2002. At the confederation level, Canada has won the 2004 and 2008 CONCACAF championships.