5 Things To Watch In The CONCACAF Final Between The U.S. And Canada
— -- HOUSTON -- In all honesty, Sunday is the equivalent of the final exam after graduation.
The objective of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament, its sole reason for being, is to determine which two teams represent the federation in this summer's Olympics. Canada and the United States settled that with semifinal wins against Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively.
And yet to call anything a tournament, there kind of needs to be a winner. So the two semifinal winners will play for a trophy Sunday at BBVA Compass Stadium that means, unless you are invested in the minutia of Olympic seeding, next to nothing.
Good sales pitch, right?
Negativity aside, the particular pairing does make the final worth watching. For fans of either national team or fans of general competition, there are compelling reasons to pay attention.
1. It's a rivalry
Call it a derby, call it a rivalry, call it a "bloodbath," as United States goalkeeper Hope Solo did after the semifinals, but Canada and the U.S. have a good deal more history than love lost in women's soccer. These two teams have never really liked each other, even though there are plenty of individual friendships between players who may have played with each other in the NWSL, college or other professional settings.
They never liked each other less than after one of the most entertaining and controversial major tournament games ever played, a 4-3 win for the United States at Manchester United's Old Trafford in a 2012 Olympic semifinal. That was when a rarely-awarded indirect free kick for time wasting led to a handball, and Abby Wambach's penalty kick helped the Americans overcome Christine Sinclair's hat trick in a back-and-forth thriller that ended on Alex Morgan's 122nd-minute header.
Canada didn't have to compete in the most recent World Cup qualifying, entered automatically as host, and the two teams didn't cross paths during that tournament. That means Sunday is the first competitive meeting between the two sides since that day in Manchester.
Even as Canadian midfielder Desiree Scott tried to play the one-game-at-a-time approach before facing Costa Rica, she conceded of the potential final pairing, "I think that's in the back of our minds."
And that may be just where the U.S., which is 46-3-6 all-time against Canada, wants to be: In their heads.
"I think they have more of a rivalry with us than we do with them," Solo said.
The old template is Canada using a rugged, physical style to disrupt the United States. Canada coach John Herdman stressed this week he is looking for technical, skilled players, even if that comes at the expense of size, in reshaping the national program's soccer identity. But this team isn't France; to completely abandon raw strength and resolve would be to abandon its soul.
"I don't necessarily think it's the most prettiest of games when we play Canada," Solo said. "But hopefully with this new group of players we'll find a way around that, we'll find a way around their kind of American-football style of play and we'll try and move the ball more around them."
2. The ageless excellence of Carli Lloyd and Christine Sinclair
If the goal of the tournament isn't the overhead kick Mexico's Maribel Dominguez scored against Costa Rica, it is only because of the goal that provided decisive for Canada against the same Costa Rican side in the semifinals.
Arriving near the penalty spot when a Costa Rican player didn't get solid contact on a clearance, Sinclair turned her back toward goal to shield a defender and wait for a high bounce to settle, took one touch with her right foot to pop the ball back into the air, spun to her right and drilled a left-footed volley off the underside of the crossbar. It was three seconds of brilliance, which is a word that has been oft used to describe Sinclair.
It can be debated if, at 32 years old, the Canadian captain is still at her best, but she is still as good as just about anyone asked to score goals in women's soccer. And there isn't any debate that Lloyd is playing the best soccer of her life and producing as prolifically as anyone in the sport. Her goal in the semifinal win against Trinidad and Tobago was her 23rd in the past 18 games.
Yet Sinclair is older than Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo; older by a good bit than Sergio Augero, Lionel Messi and Thomas Muller. And Lloyd, 33, is a year older than Sinclair. Soccer fans have had the luxury of watching Sinclair do things like the goal against Costa Rica for well over a decade. They had the luxury of watching Lloyd's awakening -- or perhaps being awoken to what they were missing, from her perspective -- after she had been on the scene for years.
That both are still in their primes is reason enough to enjoy Sunday's final.
3. Kadeisha Buchanan vs. Becky Sauerbrunn
Even in what amounted to the first all-world team ever released by FIFPro, the group representing various players' associations, there was a familiar sight -- and a familiar absence. Canada's Kadeisha Buchanan was one of the four defenders in the lineup for the global-best 11. American co-captain Becky Sauerbrunn was not part of that back line quartet.
Just as was the case when the best 11 players were announced for the World Cup this past summer.
If anything about this rivalry gets under the skin of the Americans, who haven't lost to Canada on the field since 2001, it may be that.
This is one of those instances, especially given the rivalry between the teams, when it is too easy to retreat to hyper-partisanship (the debate could just as easily involve Julie Johnston, Sauerbrunn's teammate who made both lists). Whichever center back someone prefers, there is no reason to make her case by denigrating the other. Both Buchanan and Sauerbrunn are exceptional, the former's skills all the more impressive at just 20 years old. And yet it remains true that many believe Sauerbrunn is the best defender in the world at the moment, which makes it strange that she keeps getting left off these lists.
"I think what people don't realize is just how easy she makes things," Lloyd said this week. "I think that might make people not recognize her as much out there. She doesn't have to go to the ground very often, but if she needs to she will. She just is very smooth and very silky, very smart in what she does. But I voted for her. And I know that we as players, and Becky does not play the game of soccer for these awards, but I think at some point she should get the recognition she deserves."
Focusing on center backs during a game isn't the easiest thing to do, especially when limited by television cameras. And eyes trained solely on Buchanan and Sauerbrunn in Sunday's game won't find conclusive evidence one way or the other. But they will see two players who paths appear linked at the moment by their shared excellence and unshared accolades.
4. Canada's even younger one
Mallory Pugh, the 17-year-old high schooler who started for the U.S. with Olympic qualification on the line in the semifinals, fit right in as she ventured up and down the flank for the world champions. Precocious doesn't even begin to appropriately describe what she's doing at the moment.
But had Pugh scored a goal against Trinidad and Tobago, she wouldn't even have been the youngest goal scorer among the winning sides Friday night. That distinction went to Canada's Deanne Rose, 16, who put an end to any hopes of a Costa Rican rally by getting on the end of an Ashley Lawrence pass to score the final goal in their team's 3-1 win. Nor was it her first goal of the tournament; it took her all of 25 minutes to score in Canada's opener.
Prior to the semifinal, coach Herdman said, "We shouldn't really be using 16-, 17-year-olds in our team, our national system." His point was that players like Rose, part of what the Canadian program believes is a rich pipeline for the next generation, forced their way in. Plenty of CONCACAF teams use teenage players as a last resort; those are all that remain after a lack of institutional support drains away older players. But Rose, like Pugh on the other side Sunday, is simply too good too soon for one of the region's powers to hold her back.
5. More a beginning than an end for United States
The final will bring to a close a 12-day stretch in which the United States played Costa Rica, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. It begins an 18-day stretch in which it will also play England, France and Germany.
One of those stretches is decidedly more challenging than the other, and what begins Sunday will help answer questions remaining ahead of Rio.
Will Kelley O'Hara remain the valuable Swiss Army Knife in reserve, or after back-to-back starts in the past two games and an influential performance getting forward as the right back against Trinidad and Tobago, is there a larger role for her on the field?
Will Crystal Dunn turn loose against opponents less likely to bunker with eight or nine players behind the ball? It has been an odd tournament for Dunn, who matched a national team record with five goals against Puerto Rico, playing centrally, but was replaced at halftime of the lone close game against Mexico and didn't start against Trinidad and Tobago, two teams unwilling to come out and play the U.S. on their terms.
Are Morgan Brian and Lindsey Horan, consistently and quietly effective throughout qualifying, ready to control the midfield against the best the world has to offer? At 22, for at least a few more days, and with four starts in major tournaments, Brian is nonetheless the senior partner.
Will young national team newcomers like Jaelene Hinkle, Stephanie McCaffrey, Samantha Mewis and Emily Sonnett get opportunities to burnish their resumes in competition, or with a new NWSL season nearing, are there still a good many Olympic roster spots up for grabs?
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