Canada women win Under-19 title

OTTAWA: Home team Canada won the CONCACAF Under-19 Women’s Championship after defeating visiting USA 2-1 in extra-time in the 2004 final at the Frank Clair Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Both teams had already qualified to the 2004 FIFA Under-19 World Championship in Thailand in November, after posting victories in the semi-finals on Friday in Montreal. After a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation in the final that had Guyana’s Dianne Ferreira-James as referee and Jamaican Pauline Riley as an assistant, forward Josee Belanger scored the winning goal for the Canadians with two minutes remaining in the second period of extra-time for the 2-1 final score.

“It’s great to win against the Americans at the U-19 level,” said Head Coach Ian Bridge. “Long term, it’s important that we will be one of the seeded teams in our group in Thailand and can avoid some of the top teams (in the group). It was a great effort by the entire team and staff,” Bridge added. Canada, who had beaten Jamaica 4-0 in group play last week, got on the board first in the opening three minutes of the match with a goal by forward Aysha Jamani, but the USA got the equaliser in the 42nd minute-mark with a tally from the tournament’s leading scorer forward Kerri Hanks.

The result snapped the Americans’ 13-match unbeaten streak in Under-19 CONCACAF qualifying. In the third-place match, Costa Rica posted a 4-3 victory over Mexico on Sunday. Caribbean teams Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic were all eliminated in first round play — Jamaica and Dominican Republic (DR) losing all three of their matches, while TT beat the DR 2-1 to finish with a 2-1 record and third in Group “B.”