Canada to face Haiti for last spot at the under 17 women’s World Cup

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada _ Canada will have one final chance for CONCACAF’s third and last spot in the 2016 FIFA under-17 women’s World Cup when it faces Haiti on Sunday.

The Canadian squad dropped a 5-0 decision to the United States on Friday in the CONCACAF semifinals, setting up the third-place match between Canada and Haiti in Jordan.

Canada posted group-stage victories over Guatemala and host Grenada before dropping a 2-1 decision to group-winner Haiti.

“The Haiti game should be a different game,” said Bev Priestman, Canada’s under-17 coach. “Their strategy last time was ‘defend for your life,’ but Sunday will be a different game. Their tactics could be different, they could open the game more and we are really excited to play Haiti in that state.

“We learned from the last one, but we go into this game knowing that they will have at some point to attack.”

Alexa Spaanstra (32′), Jordan Canniff (45’+1), Civana Kuhlmann (54′), Sophia Smith (90’+1), and Frankie Tagliaferri (90’+3) scored for the Americans.

Canada is a four-time CONCACAF women’s youth champion, twice at the under-20 level and once each at the under-17 and under-15 levels. The Canadians have participated in all four FIFA under-17 women’s World Cups since the biennial tournament was initiated in 2008, including three trips to the quarter-final phase.

The Canadian Press