U.S. and Canada to Beijing in women's soccer

by patgarcia | April 10, 2008 at 06:08 am | 705 views | 3 comments

Canada's players celebrate after their victory against Mexico

Mexico is totaly out of Beijing OLympics in men's and women's soccer. As soccer is considered our national sport these failures confirm the need of making changes in our nation concerning sports. It's not just firing Hugo Sanchez, there is a need of investing resources in the training of our athletes and youth in general. Our Olympic medal winner Ana Guevara retired showing her disagreement to many Olympic sport related issues. There is an urgent need of change in attitute and mentality regarding sports.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The United States qualified for this year's Olympic women's soccer tournament by beating Costa Rica 3-0 on Wednesday.

Natasha Kai scored twice for the Olympic champions in the CONCACAF qualifying semi-final in Ciudad Juarez. Heather O'Reilly claimed the other goal.

Canada also qualified for Beijing, beating Mexico 1-0.

Tancredi scored the only goal as Canada qualified for this summer's Olympic Games with a 1-0 semifinal win over Mexico at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament on Wednesday.

It's the third goal in as many games for the Hamilton native. She had goals in Canada's round-robin wins over Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica.

The tournament has been a confidence-builder for Tancredi, who has had to battle her share of injuries.

"I'm very happy for her and very happy with her performance in this tournament," said Canadian coach Even Pellerud. "She has suffered from a lot of injuries and her fitness has always been hurt by that, but she has really become a very smart power striker and she's getting stronger and fitter and smarter."

The top two teams in the tournament qualify for Beijing, which meant Canada needed to win against a Mexico side that showed pace and some creative passing.

Wednesday's game was a rematch of the 2004 Olympic qualification semifinal, which Mexico won 2-1 to deny Canada a spot at the Athens Games. But after a hard-fought win, payback wasn't on Pellerud's mind.

"I'm not much of a revenge guy," Pellerud said. "I think the biggest challenge was to prove who was the best team. I think we've played 12 or 13 games against Mexico and never lost except that one game four years ago."

While Tancredi has provided timely offence, Canada has had solid performances from its defence and goaltending. Canadian goaltender Erin McLeod recorded her third shutout of the tournament against Mexico.

"The whole back four was excellent, and Erin was very, very focused in net," Pellerud said. "She played easily her best game in this tournament today. That was a good day to peak."

Canada will face the United States in Saturday's final.