Olympic soccer sees Canada in Japan, Sweden group
Canadian women in Group F for 12-team Summer Olympics tourney
The Canadian women's soccer team found out Tuesday that advancing past the first round of the Olympic tournament this summer will be a challenge.
Canada has been drawn with last year's World Cup champion, Japan, as well as Sweden, ranked fifth in the world by FIFA for the 12-team tournament in Great Britain.
Sweden last month beat the ninth-ranked Canadians 3-1 in a friendly, and also won a group stage meeting between the teams at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Canada did beat Sweden in a November exhibition.
The Canadian women haven't faced Japan since 2008.
Rounding out Group F is South Africa, ranked 65th in the world.
"There is a bit of clarity now and that is exciting," head coach John Herdman said in a Canadian Soccer Association release. "We can now start to focus on the technical blueprints and draw the route back from the gold-medal game."
Canada opens against Japan on July 25 at Coventry Stadium, followed by a match against the South Africans three days later at the same venue. The Swedish assignment is July 31 at St. James' Park in Newcastle.
While the group is formidable, Canada could still conceivably move on from third place. The group winners and runners-up are joined in the quarter-finals by the two best third-ranked teams.
Great Britain was grouped with traditional power Brazil, as well as New Zealand and Cameroon.
The top-ranked and Olympic defending champion Americans are in a four-team division with North Korea, Colombia and France, which defeated Canada 4-0 earlier this year in the Cyprus Cup final.
The U.S. squad ended Canada's Olympic dreams four years ago in the quarter-finals en route to winning the gold.
The Olympic semifinals will be played at Manchester United's Old Trafford Stadium and Wembley Stadium in London on Aug. 6. The gold-medal final takes place three days later in Coventry.
Olympic men's draw
The Canadian men's team failed to qualify for the Olympics, which will feature the following groups:
- Group A: Great Britain, Senegal, UAE, Uruguay.
- Group B: Mexico, Korea Republic, Gabon, Switzerland.
- Group C: Brazil, Egypt, Belarus, New Zealand.
- Group D: Spain, Japan, Honduras, Morocco.