Canada will get the chance to defend its Olympic women’s soccer gold medal after clinching a spot at next year’s Paris Summer Games on Tuesday after a 2-1 playoff win over Jamaica.
Canada came into the second leg in control of its own destiny after a 2-0 away win in Kingston on Friday and after an early scare delivered the result the home crowd had come see, convincingly punching its Paris ticket with a 4-1 win on aggregate.
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The Canadians join the United States in the 12-team Olympic tournament with the Americans having earlier clinched one of the two CONCACAF region spots.
“I’ve thought about this game from the minute that World Cup ended so everybody has put a real shift in to do whatever we could to turn this around,” Canada coach Bev Priestman said.
“This team is better when they’re going after something and ultimately we are going after putting the wrong right of that World Cup.”
Qualifying for the Olympics provided a small measure of redemption after a bitterly disappointing performance at the Women’s World Cup, where Canada failed to advance out of the group stage.
Canada has won a gold and two bronzes medals from women’s soccer at the last three Summer Games but Priestman conceded there is plenty of work ahead for her squad if they are to return to the podium in Paris.
“It’s exciting but I am not getting carried away by any means because we’ve got some real hard work to do,” Priestman said.
“To go and get on the podium again, and you’ve just seen at the World Cup, it is going to be harder than it has ever been.”
Backed by a raucous home crowd, Canada applied all the early pressure but against the run of play it was the ‘Reggae Girlz’ grabbing a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute on Drew Spence‘s brilliantly taken free kick from outside the penalty area that found the top corner past a diving Kailen Sheridan.
The goal sent a jolt through the Canada team as it began to attack with more venom. Ashley Lawrence was robbed of an equaliser when her long range effort was sensationally tipped away by Rebecca Spencer.
But Canadian enterprise would be rewarded in the 39th minute when Cloe Lacasse got her head on Adriana Leon‘s corner to send the teams into the break at 1-1.
A Jordyn Huitema header five minutes into the second half put Canada ahead, sparking celebrations that continued until the final whistle.