Canada Olympic Women’s Soccer Wants Fourth Consecutive Medal in Paris

Summary:

• Canada women’s soccer team is looking forward to grabbing its fourth consecutive medal at this summer’s Olympics.
• The team will face New Zealand, France, and Colombia during the Group A stage. 
• This is Canada’s fifth consecutive participation in the women’s football tournament.

Canada women’s soccer team is known for its incredible track record at the Olympics during the last three editions. 

The team has taken home three consecutive medals in the last 12 years, including the historical gold medal at Tokyo 2021, and the two back-to-back silver-medal victories at London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.

Now, with the women’s soccer tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics just around the corner, the girls are expected and determined to climb the podium again once again and scoop up their fourth consecutive medal.

Quick Rundown 

Running from July 25 to August 10 across seven different cities across France, the soccer tournament will see 12 teams divided into three round-robin groups compete during the first round. 

The two best teams in each of the three groups will move on to the quarter-finals, together with the best third-place teams. The final will take place at Parc des Princes in Paris.

As opposed to the men’s soccer tournament, which is predominantly a competition for players under-23, the women’s competition does not impose any age restrictions on players.

Canada qualified for this year’s edition after it finished second at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship in Mexico. Jamaica finished third and the two teams faced one other during a qualifying playoff for the Olympic which was won by Canada. Canada faced Mexico in their last home game before the the games begin which ended 1-1 with Kadeisha Buchanan scoring the goal for the Canadians.   

Who Will Canada Meet at the Olympics?

The Canadians have been drawn in Group A, which means they will be facing New Zealand on July 25 in Saint-Étienne, France on July 28 in Saint-Étienne, and Colombia on July 31 in Décines-Charpieu.  

At the moment, the Canadians are ranked in the eighth position in the FIFA world rankings, while France is ranked second.   

Canada’s all-time record against France is 5-8-3. The French have won five of the last six games, including a 2-1 victory last April in Le Mans. But Canada defeated France 1-0 in the 2012 Olympic bronze-medal game and 1-0 in the 2016 quarter-finals.  

Colombia, which the Canadians have only met played against two times in the past (and won) is No. 22 while New Zealand is No. 28. Canada has recorded a 10-1-4 all-time record against the New Zealanders, fought them to a 0-0 draw in the 2015 World Cup and also defeated them 2-0 at the 2019 World Cup.   

Group B features Australia, Germany, the United States, and Zambia. Group C is made up of Brazil, Japan, Nigeria, and Spain.

If the girls win Group A, they will face off the third-place team from Group B or C during the quarter-finals. If Canada finishes second, it will face the runner-up of Group B. 

Finishing in third place would possibly set up a quarter-final match with the winner of Group C.  

“New Zealand will be hard to break down”, said Canadian coach Bev Priestman during an interview for Sportsnet, while speaking about France’s numerous “top players” and Colombia’s  “unorthodox counter-attacking team” with “world-class players”.