“Our goal has always been to qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Germany 2010,” said national coach Carolina Morace. “We may have taken the harder route, but the goal remains the same.”
Canada will face Costa Rica in the match for third place while USA will face Mexico in the CONCACAF final. Canada hopes to join USA and Mexico on the Germany 2010 fixture card with a victory over Costa Rica on Saturday.
On Thursday, Costa Rica lost 1:2 to USA and Canada lost 0:1 after extra time to Mexico in the CONCACAF semi-final stage. Canada and Costa Rica have already faced each other once before in this championship, with Canada winning 1:0 in the tournament opener on 20 January.
Coach Morace says that Canada needs to play its game to ensure qualification. Morace says the team has grown significantly over the past 10 days and that she feels their play should have earned them the opportunity to play in the final and not the third place match.
“Costa Rica has some good individual players, but we have a very good team,” said Morace. “It will be very important how we mentally approach this game. I feel that as a team, we have truly improved our mental game.”
Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners, has an all-time record of 17 wins and two losses at the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship.
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