Monterrey, Mexico – The first match of the last round of Group B in the 2022 Concacaf W Championship will bring together the teams that are sure to attend the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia/New Zealand. The first and second place, Canada and Costa Rica, will face each other at the Estadio BBVA in Monterrey on Monday evening.
Canada arrived in Monterrey as one of the favorites to qualify to the next stages of the CWC and they didn’t fail to deliver. With wins against Trinidad & Tobago and Panama, this team showed how they improved their game after becoming Olympic champions last year.
Now, they will face their last test with big names that will help finish the job. Julia Grosso, who leads the tournament in scoring with three goals, Jessie Fleming, Ashley Lawrence and the legend herself, Captain Christine Sinclair, will be ready to answer for their team and try to complete a perfect group stage campaign.
Las Ticas arrived at this CWC edition to show what revolution means. Having worked their game plan under the care of Head Coach Amelia Valverde, Costa Rica proved they wanted to go back to the biggest stage in women’s football. With wins against Panama and Trinidad & Tobago, they secured the second spot in Group B but, they will not stop there.
With all of the region’s eyes on them, Costa Rica’s squad led by captain Katherine Alvarado, Priscila Chinchilla, Raquel Rodriguez and the historic Shirley Cruz (100 caps), will try to have a powerful finish in this group stage in Monterrey before heading to the CWC semifinals.
These teams have faced each other before, being Canada who have the upper hand with an overall record of 5W-0D-0L. The last time they faced each other was back in 2018 in the group stage, in which Canada came out victorious 3-1.
With these two teams having booked their tickets to Australia/New Zealand, a game where there is nothing to lose and all to gain will be played, with all eyes already set on the semifinals later this week in Monterrey.
