Canada qualifies for the Women’s U-17 World Cup with win over host Jamaicans

Canada will join Mexico and Costa Rica as CONCACAF representatives at the U17 Women’s World Cup. As winners of the CONCACAF semifinals, held Thursday in Jamaica, Canada and Mexico earned their World Cup invites. Costa Rica qualifies automatically as the host nation. The Jamaican supporters packed the stadium in Montego Bay for the semifinal against Canada. To rally the home nation, there was no charge to watch the game. But the Canadian scored within three minutes to give the hosts a sober reality check, and went on to a comfortable 5-0 win. And, in the irony of ironies, the Americans, who beat Canada in their final-group stage game to earn the right to play lower-ranked Mexico in the other semifinal, suffered a major upset. Instead of taking advantage of Mexico, the Americans lost in penalties after a 1-1 draw. So, both teams that finished second in the group stages got World Cup berths. The first-place teams got… a set of steak knives? Marie Mychele Metivier’s turnaround shot just three minutes in found its way through a group of Jamaican yellow jerseys and into the back of the goal. Canada was on its way. For Metivier, it was her sixth goal of the tournament. Marie Levasseur had an early chance to make it two goals to the good for Canada, but she was stopped on a clear break by Jamaican goalie Shanay Ricketts. But, in the 27th minute, Canada got that second goal. Both Metivier and Emily Borgmann found themselves unmarked right off the Jamaican goal line. Ricketts made an outstanding point-blank save on Metivier, but could only watch as Borgmann bundled in the rebound. Canada made it 3-0 at the half-hour mark, as Jessie Fleming’s 25-yard strike bounced off the underside of the bar, then off the fists of Ricketts, and into the goal. Sarah Kinzner and Levasseur rounded out the scoring for Canada, which moves into the final against the Mexicans, but already knows it’s mission accomplished.