Olympic champion Canada secures spot at Paris 2024 with win over Jamaica
CBC
Canada's women's soccer team finished the job Tuesday. The reigning Olympic champions can sleep well knowing they're going to the 2024 Paris Games.
The 10th-ranked Canadians beat No. 37 Jamaica 4-1 on aggregate to earn the last CONCACAF entry in the 12-country field for the Games.
Canada won 2-1 on Tuesday at BMO Field in the second game of the two-legged Olympic qualifier after earning a 2-0 victory at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica on Friday.
"It means everything," forward Adriana Leon said. "To be able to go back to the Olympics and defend our gold medal, it's everything we wanted and hopefully [we can] just go to the Olympics firing, ready to bring home another gold medal."
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The team celebrated post-game to the tunes of DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win" and Beyonce's "Run The World [Girls]," among other songs with the Canadian faithful.
Clinching the Olympic berth served as a high point after what's been a tough 2023 for the squad, between its labour dispute with Canada Soccer and failing to advance from the group stage of the FIFA Women's World Cup in July.
"There's few words that can describe [it]," defender Shelina Zadorsky said. "Just everything the team has been through, the ups and downs of results of the World Cup.
"But I think the resilience everyone showed and just the team spirit, to come back in a tough game tonight. And credit to Jamaica, they fought well. I'm just really proud of everyone."
Canada head coach Bev Priestman spoke glowingly of her team's disposition.
"I think I've been on a journey now with a group of players who've had the ultimate high, probably had the ultimate low," Priestman said. "And then I've seen them come out swinging.
"The bit that inspires me about the group is character, fight, hard work, working for the person next to you, probably that was what was lacking at times in that World Cup. Everybody's put a real shift in, players and staff, to do whatever we could to turn this around."
Cloe Lacasse and Jordyn Huitema scored for Canada in front of a sold-out crowd of 29,212 which set a new record for a men's or women's national team game in Ontario.
"We knew that Jamaica was going to come out with absolutely everything so we didn't just have to match that, we had to top it," Lacasse said.
