Canada's women aim for Olympic spot after lucky qualification draw

By David Gold

October 25 – Canada’s national women’s football team have been drawn alongside Costa Rica, Cuba and Haiti as they look to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

They will be competing in January for a place at London 2012 at the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament, which takes place at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.

The favourable draw means that the Canadians have a great chance to making it to London, and they could be joined by the United States, who will be favourites to qualify from a group involving Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

The winner of each group will face the runner up from the other group in the semi-finals, with the winner of those two games booking a place in London next year.

Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) general secretary Peter Montopoli was delighted with the draw.

“We do like what happened today,” he said.

“I think our team will be pleased with it, CONCACAF is a difficult confederation, you have to be on your game and ready for every match day.”

Coach John Herdman sounded a slightly more cautious note, and said that he was expecting Costa Rica (pictured) to prove their toughest challenge.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he said.

“I don’t think any game in the qualifying tournament is easy.

“The challenge is you have to be smart, you can’t put your best team out every single game

“You have to use the whole squad and be clever with which games you peak for.

“[Costa Rica] were a tough team, they have some good individual players.”

Canada and the USA were the top seeds for the tournament, which takes place between January 19 and 29, and both will be looking to overcome the disappointment of this summer’s World Cup.

Canada went out in the first round with three defeats, whilst the US were pegged back twice in the final by Japan before losing on penalties.

At the last Olympic Games, the two North American sides played each other in the quarterfinals of the football tournament, with the USA coming out on top.

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