Photo by Stephen Brashear/ISIphotos.com
The CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament has been a breeze so far for the U.S. women's national team, which has outscored two overmatched opponents by a combined 27-0 margin. Things should be a bit more competitive in Tuesday's final group match.
The U.S. women face Mexico Tuesday night at BC Place with first place in Group B on the line (10:30 p.m., CONCACAF.com stream, Universal Sports Network). Because of its unreachable advantage in goal differential, the United States needs just a draw to win the group, which would make for an easier path to qualification.
After Canada's 5-1 thrashing of Costa Rica Monday night, the tournament hosts captured Group A, meaning that the winner of USA-Mexico will avoid the Canadians and draw the Central Americans in the all-important semifinal round. The two winners that advance to the qualifying tournament final claim CONCACAF's two spots for the Olympics in London.
The U.S. women have had mixed results against Mexico over the last couple of years. Although the United States has won three of the four meetings in that time, all of those games were friendlies on U.S. soil. Mexico, meanwhile, defeated the United States 2-1 in Cancun in World Cup qualifying on Nov. 5, 2010, forcing the region favorites into a tense playoff with Italy just to qualify for last summer's main event in Germany.
While the United States has been on a roll in Olympic qualifying, the same can be said for Mexico. Facing the same Guatemala and Dominican Republic sides that the U.S. women thrashed, Mexico won both games by a combined, and somewhat tamer, 12-0 margin.
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