Canadian women’s soccer team looks to deliver Jamaica knockout punch and book Olympic ticket

September 26, 2023

Bev Priestman is still feeling the effects on her voice of a loud and boisterous crowd during Canada’s 2-0 victory in Jamaica on Friday.

She’s hoping her throat will be even more sore after Canada hosts Jamaica on Tuesday in the second leg of their playoff to determine the final CONCACAF entry for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Priestman, Canada’s head coach, said her voice was still gravelly from shouting over the din of the home crowd as the 10th-ranked Canadians beat No. 37 Jamaica.

“I think from a mindset perspective, we have to go into it positively,” said Priestman softly about Tuesday’s match. “Because I think the worst thing you could do is just drop off and invite pressure.

“We have a few things up our sleeve but ultimately, we’ve got to build on the first performance. I think the group, we were happy but there’s areas we wanna improve and I think our focus has been on taking another step forward.”

Striker Adriana Leon, who scored in Friday’s win, said she was happy to play at home in front of a sold-out crowd.

“It’s definitely exciting that we’re playing at home,” Leon said. “We don’t get a chance to do it too often.

“Hopefully we can start to play at home a little more often, that’s something that we’ve talked about as a team, that’s something that we’d like to see. I don’t think I’ve ever played in front of a Toronto crowd of that size, so exciting.”

The Canadian women have taken part in the last four Olympics, winning gold, bronze and bronze after finishing eighth at the 2008 Beijing Games.

The U.S. qualified directly for the Olympics by defeating Canada 1-0 in the CONCACAF W Championship final in 2022. Jamaica, which lost 3-0 to Canada in the semifinal, defeated Costa Rica 1-0 after extra time in the third-place playoff to set up the two-legged playoff with Canada.

Canada has won all nine of its previous meetings with Jamaica, outscoring the Reggae Girlz 60-1. Now with a two-goal edge heading into Tuesday, Canada could qualify for Paris 2024 even with a 1-0 loss on aggregate.

‘The job isn’t done yet’

That’s not how the team is thinking though.

“I think that throughout the team, we understand that this is only halftime of the two games,” centre back Jade Rose said. “The job isn’t yet done, we can’t step off the brake, we’ve got to step back on and keep pushing until the job is done.”

Priestman fielded a 3-4-3 formation, that at times flowed into a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 based on the situation in the first match against Jamaica.

While the team had to learn the fluid formation in camp quickly, it received good reviews from players.

“If we learned something from the World Cup, it’s that we needed to change something,” Leon said. “I think that’s what the formation allowed, was just a bit of change, a bit of excitement in the players.

“We knew we individually needed to be the best out there and that’s what we brought. We focused on ourselves and it all came together and hopefully it just continues to get better the more we train it.”