Despite the advances made by teams such as Mexico and Costa Rica in recent years, the long-held reality of the women's game in CONCACAF still holds true: The USA and Canada are the region's two undisputed powerhouses.
So the almost-painful-to-watch thrashings that Canada doled out to Guatemala (8-0) and Trinidad & Tobago (11-0) in their first two group stage games at the CONCACAF U-17 Women's Championship were never going to give anyone a realistic picture of where this team sits as it attempts to qualify for next spring's U17 Women's World Cup.
No, as usual, we're left relying on the Americans as the measuring stick of our place in the grand scheme of things.
So what did Monday night's final group-stage game -- a 2-0 victory for the Americans -- tell us about what the future may hold for this next generation of hopeful young Canadians?
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Well, sorry to be anticlimactic, but the answer is nothing. It tells us nothing.
These are kids. There were 14-year-olds out on the field, for both sides. So there are no grand proclamations to be made about how the game reflects upon the women's program going forward. After all, two years ago we had a completely different crop of U17s, and two years from now, the cycle will repeat itself.
There are a few basic realities of the U17 game, in both the men's and women's game: It's nearly impossible to predict with any reasonable degree of certainty, and the best outcome for any youth team is that it produces a few regular contributors for the senior team in the years ahead.
Not earth-shattering superstars. Just regular contributors. If two or three players who took the field on Monday night are a part of the women's national team in the run-up to the 2019 Women's World Cup, then this cycle will have been a success.
By that time, Christine Sinclair will (presumably) have moved on -- and with her will go one of Canada's main advantages over the past decade. In the intervening years, Canadian followers will be desperate to anoint the "next" Christine Sinclair, someone who can singlehandedly change the course of a game by sheer willpower.
That search will likely be futile and will be terribly unfair to whichever players step into the spotlight after her, as Sinclair is undoubtedly a once-in-a-generation (maybe once-in-a-lifetime Canadian talent).
Still, somebody's going to be playing up front for Canada in the latter part of this decade. Might we have seen one or two of those players on display this past week?
Canada's starting strike trio of Marie-Mychele Metivier, Emily Borgmann and Marie Levasseur looked lethal against Guatemala and T&T, scoring 13 goals between them, while super-sub Nadya Gill added four goals of her own. That strike force was complemented by the good work of midfield engine Jessie Fleming and fullback Rachel Jones, whose attacking qualities will almost surely catch the eye of women's national team head coach John Herdman.
The Canadian attack, though, was largely neutralized by an American team that controlled the lion's share of possession and could easily have padded the two-goal victory, if not for some wasteful finishing and a well-saved second-half penalty kick by Canadian 'keeper Rylee Foster.
What does the result immediately mean for this team?
An all-or-nothing showdown against Jamaica on Thursday night in the tournament semifinal. The winner goes to the U17 Women's World Cup; the loser doesn't. The Americans will meet Mexico to determine the other World Cup participant. Then, presuming everything goes as expected, Canada and the USA will meet once more, in Saturday night's final, with bragging rights -- and World Cup seeding -- on the line.
Canada will be heading into that semifinal as heavy favourites -- but remember, nothing is ever guaranteed, especially at the U17 level.
So for the time being, there's no need to think too much about the Canada-USA rivalry, or which of these players might catch on with the women's national team, or what it all means in the grand scheme of things.
For now, there is one singular focus: Beat Jamaica and book a ticket to the World Cup.
.