Canada has qualified for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup after shutting out Panama in the CONCACAF Women’s Championship semi-final.
The game, which ended at a score of 7 – 0 for Canada, was lead by team captain Christine Sinclair, who scored two goals during the game.
“It’s massive for us,” Sinclair told CBC sports. “It was obviously our goal coming into this tournament. It’s getting more and more difficult qualifying out of CONCACAF, you see different teams making it the semifinals, with Panama and Jamaica making it.”
51' #ICYMI Sinclair just got her 177th international goal for #CanWNT and now sits only 8 back from the world record!!!
🇨🇦 3-0 🇵🇦#CanWNT #CWC #Semifinal
Watch: https://t.co/gyEApzExcD pic.twitter.com/kQbGU1Bu0y— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) October 14, 2018
This year’s qualification marks Canada’s 27th consecutive year of qualifying for the FIFA world cup. The only year Canada didn’t qualify was the year it didn’t participate, which was the tournament’s inaugural year in 1991.
Now, seventeen countries have qualified for the world soccer tournament, with seven more to be determined to reach a total of twenty-four.
On Wednesday, Canada, ranked fifth in the world, will play against the U.S., who currently sit at number one in the world.
The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will begin in France on June 7th, and will last about a month.