Canada beats Mexico to qualify for 1st FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup
The two finalists at the eight-team CONCACAF tournament will represent the region at the 16-team FIFA Futsal World Cup, slated for Nov. 21 to Dec. 7 in the Philippines.
Futsal is a five-a-side indoor game played in two 20-minute halves. Like hockey, teams can make changes on the fly.
The semifinal at the Domo Polideportivo in Guatemala City, Guatemala went to a shootout after finishing tied 4-4 following two five-minute periods of extra time.
Mexico scored three unanswered goals in the first half before Canada answered with four of its own in the first four minutes of the second half. Trailing 4-3, Mexico tied the game with 1.8 seconds remaining on a goal by Rubi Gomez with its net empty.
Joelle Gosselin, Esther Brossard, Jade Houmphanh and Cynthia Gaspar-Freire scored for Canada in the shootout. Stephie-Ann Dadaille had her shot saved.
Goalkeeper Lea Palacio-Tellier stopped shots by Evelyn Gonzalez and Gomez before Gaspar-Freire roofed her penalty for a 4-3 Canada win.
Sunday's final will see Canada face Panama, which downed Costa Rica 3-1 in the other semifinal.
The Canadians moved into the semifinals after beating the U.S. 3-1 to finish runner-up to Costa Rica at 2-1-0 in Group B.
Stingy defence
Mexico won Group A with three straight wins and a tournament-high 13 goals. Canada, meanwhile, tied for the tournament's stingiest defence with just four goals allowed in pool play.
The Canadians are coached by Alexandre Da Rocha, a former coach of the Quebec's women's futsal team and assistant coach with the Canadian men's futsal side.
Female futsal players have long campaigned for a FIFA championship. In 2022, the International Women's Futsal Players Association condemned FIFAs "public neglect towards women futsal players."
FIFA held the first Futsal Men's World Cup in 1989 with the 2028 edition featuring 24 teams. Defending champion Brazil has won six of the 10 tournaments to date, finishing runner-up once and third twice.
Canada has not participated since being one of the 16 invited countries for the inaugural men's tournament, failing to advance out of the first round after losing to Argentina and Belgium before downing Japan.
That 1989 futsal team included Paul Dolan, Pat Harrington, Nick De Santis, Eddy Berdusco, Lyndon Hooper and Alex Bunbury. Dolan was also a member of Canada's 1986 FIFA World Cup squad in Mexico.
There have been eight editions of the CONCACAF Men's Futsal Championship with Canada participating in four of them. The Canadians' best showing was making the quarterfinals, in both 2021 and 2024.
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