Although a pair of friendlies against the United States officially kicked-off the John Herdman’s era of the Canadian women’s national team, the first competitive games start within a week in Guadalajara. The Pan Am games start tomorrow in Mexico with the women’s football tournament starting Tuesday.
The Americans aren’t in the event, but Canada will be challenged by two-time defending champions Brazil and up and coming Mexico. The Canucks share a group with Brazil, along with Costa Rica and Argentina. They open against Costa Rico on Tuesday, play Argentina Thursday and end the group stage against Brazil Oct 20.
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In addition to Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Chile and Colombia make up the other group. The top two teams advance to the semi-finals.
Even with its struggles at the World Cup, and with a NCAA/CIS heavy roster, Canada should be favoured to advance from the group, albeit as the second place team. That should set-up a semi-final match-up with Mexico — the team Canada will likely need to advance past at the Olympic qualifiers in Vancouver in January.