Canada Defeats Mexico in Semi-final to Qualify for U-17 Women’s World Cup

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Canada has qualified for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup for a third-straight cycle. Canada qualified on Thursday 10 May with a 1-0 victory over Mexico in the semi-final phase of the 2012 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship. Canada’s Valérie Sanderson scored the lone goal midway through the first half. 

Also on Thursday night, USA qualified for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Azerbaijan 2012 with a victory over Panama in the other semi-final match.

On Saturday 12 May, Canada will face USA in the CONCACAF final while Mexico will face Panama in the match for third place. The winner of the Mexico-Panama match will also qualify for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Azerbaijan 2012. 

Since 2002, Canada has qualified for eight of nine FIFA women’s youth tournaments, a feat matched by only four other countries in the world (Brazil, Germany, Nigeria and USA). That record puts Canada inside the top 2.5% amongst all 208 FIFA member associations. Also in the last two years, Canada has qualified for five of seven FIFA tournaments (matched by only six other countries in the world). 

Three teams from CONCACAF will qualify for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Azerbaijan 2012, which runs 22 September to 13 October. Along with the three CONCACAF teams, the 16-team tournament will qualify three teams from Asia (China PR, Japan and Korea DPR), three teams from Africa (Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria), one team from Oceania (New Zealand), three teams from South America (Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay), host Azerbaijan and two more teams from Europe (to be determined in late June). 

Canada has participated in both previous editions of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup (New Zealand 2008 and Trinidad and Tobago 2010). Canada has also won three CONCACAF women’s youth titles, with two won at the Under-20 level (2004 and 2008) and one won at the Under-17 level (2010).