Canadian women's field hockey team keeps Olympic dream alive with win at qualifying tourney
17th-ranked squad blanks Malaysia ahead of must-win match Tuesday vs. No. 8 Spain
The Canadian women's field hockey team blanked Malaysia 3-0 on Sunday, bouncing back from an opening 2-0 loss to Britain at an FIH Olympic Qualifier in Valencia, Spain.
Sara McManus scored twice and Thora Rae had the other goal for the 17th-ranked Canadians, who are looking to get to the Summer Games for the first time since 1992.
The eight-team Valencia competition is one of two last-chance women's qualifiers, with another event running simultaneously in India. The top three finishers from each book their ticket to the Paris Games this summer.
Canada is in a pool with Great Britain (7th), Spain (8th) and Malaysia (18th). Like their male counterparts, the Canadian women have to beat two of the three teams in their pool to advance to the semifinals.
The Canadian women have a day off before facing Spain in a must-win game Tuesday with Britain taking on Malaysia.
Spain upset Britain 1-0 to improve to 2-0-0 atop Pool B. Canada (1-1-0) is second, ahead of Britain (1-1-0) on a tiebreaker. No. 18 Malaysia (0-2-0) is at the bottom.
While Britain is unranked by the International Hockey Federation (FIH), it draws on No. 6 England, No. 16 Scotland and No. 26 Wales.
Absolute scenes from Valencia as Canada takes down Malaysia at the FIH Olympic Qualifiers. Canada looks ahead to Tuesday's do-or-die match vs Spain.<br><br>Action shots from today's game:<a href="https://t.co/9vRwNnLI7q">https://t.co/9vRwNnLI7q</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIHOlympicQualifiers?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIHOlympicQualifiers</a> <a href="https://t.co/SdVO1bfmqf">pic.twitter.com/SdVO1bfmqf</a>
—@FieldHockeyCanConverting opponent's mistakes
McManus, of Tsawwassen, B.C., gave Canada the lead on its first penalty corner in the third minute, scoring on a low shot. In the second quarter, a pair of teammates from North Vancouver, B.C., took advantage of a Malaysian turnover to create a scoring chance -– Chloe Walton found Audrey Sawers, whose shot was deflected in by Vancouver's Rae.
McManus's second goal came in the third quarter off a penalty corner.
"We knew this was going to be a tight game in the first half especially. But it was really nice to get an early goal to give us some confidence in the match," said veteran defender McManus. "There's still room for improvement on finishing and execution. We're excited going into the next game. We know we're going to have to bring our best game."
The Canadian women have sat out the last seven Olympics, narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Tokyo Games last time out when they lost a penalty shootout to Ireland after a two-legged series ended knotted at 0-0 in November 2019.
They finished seventh in 1992 in Barcelona and were fifth in 1984 and sixth in 1988 before that.
Spain, which has outscored its opposition 8-0 at the qualifier, has missed only one edition of Olympics since 1992.
The 17th-ranked Canadian men open play at their Olympic qualifier in Oman on Monday.
With files from CBC Sports
