The Canadian women’s national soccer team is in an odd situation heading into Saturday’s CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals.
Canada wrapped up Group C with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica on Wednesday in Houston.
As the No. 1 seed, Canada faces the No. 8 seed, which just happens to be Costa Rica as the teams will meet in the first quarterfinal at 4 p.m. at BMO Stadium.
“Very unique situation in terms of playing the same team twice,” Canadian coach Bev Priestman said Friday. “I think it poses a totally different challenge.
“We recently with Jamaica to qualify for the Olympics, had the home-and-away legs, that’s a little bit of familiarity there. I think it is going to make it for more of an interesting match. In many ways, we’ve learned some things from each other and it’s who can dissect that game and apply going into the next game.
“For me, as coach, I think it’s really important that we stay with the game we have and not getting too far ahead, but also knowing that Costa Rica for sure will bring a better version of themselves. I think it’s going to be interesting to go again.”
Canada emerged from group play, having scored 13 goals scored and none allowed. Adriana Leon leads the attack with five goals scored.
“It was an exciting group stage for us,” Canadian midfielder Quinn said. “We look at the tournaments in the past, we’ve had some difficulties putting the ball in the back of the net, so I think it’s exciting to see us really capitalizing on our chances and creating a lot of good quality chances that we can score off. I think that’s going to give us good momentum going into these other matches.”
As the No. 1 seed, if Canada prevails, it would meet the winner of Sunday’s quarterfinal, between No. 4 United States and No. 5 Colombia, in the semifinals in San Diego.
“Our mindset throughout the group has been that we will improve on every game and I think we’ve done that,” Priestman said. “We have to be prepared…
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