The formality of World Cup qualifying is done and dusted for the Canadian women's team.

Canada will play Panama Sunday, with the winner getting one of CONCACAF’s qualification spots at the Women’s World Cup.

So, after Nichelle Prince’s brace gave Canada a 2-0 win over Jamaica in their group-stage opener at the CONCACAF Women’s Championship, all is sweetness and light. Right? Right? A Friday night match in a Texas USL stadium in front of, well, hundreds didn’t provide a lot of fireworks, but three points is three points, uh huh?

But, as Canada preps for the CONCACAF championships — this region’s qualifiers for the 2019 Women’s World Cup — maybe this scrappy 1-0 win was exactly the kind of game that was needed. The Brazilians hacked. They whacked.  The game had very little in terms of flow.

Canada's opening match of the Algarve Cup deserved a little more scrutiny than a non-televised national-team match would normally generate; that's because the error-filled 3-1 loss to Sweden Wednesday marked the beginning of the Kenneth Heiner-Moller era. 

If you didn't live through the 90 minutes, Canada Soccer has provided a fine highlights package that can help us all sleep well tonight. If you watch it, you'll see that Canada didn't lose 3-1 to the Americans Sunday night in San Jose; no, in fact we won, 1-0!

On a day when Canada Soccer honoured five retiring veterans — Kaylyn Kyle, Lauren Sesselmann, Robyn Gayle, Josee Belanger and Jonelle Filigno — it was the kids who made themselves count.  Janine Beckie, age 22, had a hat trick, 16-year-old Jordyn Huitema had two and 18-year-old Deanne Rose opened the scoring.

The number of players in NWSL who have their contracts subsidized by the Canadian Soccer Association continues to shrink.

This country’s greatest ever goal scorer added two more beauties to her resume, as Canada beat Costa Rica 3-1 Friday in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying semifinal. The two finalists in Houston earn Rio berths, so it’s mission accomplished for Canada.

But, if there’s a positive to come out of the first two games of the Natal Tournament in Brazil, it’s that we may, finally, have other scoring options to talk about.