The bronze medal victory by Canada’s women’s soccer team was the story of the 2012 London Olympic Games from a Canadian perspective.

Taking their inspiration from Christine Sinclair and her teammates, the next generation of Canadian soccer stars will try to make a name for themselves at the FIFA U-20 Womens World Cup in Japan.

The 16-team, three-week competition kicked off on Sunday, but Canada opens play on Monday against Argentina in Kobe. The Canadian women then meet Norway (Aug. 23) and North Korea (Aug. 27). Only the top two nations in the round-robin group advance to the quarter-finals.

History is not on Canada’s side. It failed to qualify the last time around in 2010, and bowed out in the group stage in 2008, after reaching the quarter-finals in 2004 and the final of the inaugural tournament in 2002 in Edmonton.

But the current Canadian side is coming off some impressive results, narrowly losing to the United States in the final of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament in March.

Canadian coach Andrew Olivieri is setting the bar high for his team in Japan.

“Our goal is absolutely to progress from the group and to meet a big team, like Germany, or the U.S or even China, in the quarter-finals,” Oliveri said. “That’s our ultimate goal right now — to play a top world class team and then hopefully progress beyond that.”

Getting out of the first round won’t be easy, as Canada faces three difficult opponents who present a different challenge. Olivieri explained the key will be for his Canadian team to take a different focus and tactical approach for each game.

“What we’ve seen from Argentina, is they’re a very physical, very athletic team. Not very traditional (in that) they still play with a sweeper, and we haven’t seen that very much so that gives us one problem,” Olivieri admitted.

“The Norwegian team is very disciplined and organized; very big. Most of them are twice the size of some of our players. (North Korea is) a very dynamic, a very athletic team. Thirteen of their players were playing in their Olympic squad.”

See the article here:
Cdn. women set bar high at U-20 World Cup

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