The Canadian women’s soccer team will play two friendlies against CONCACAF rivals Mexico in June before they travel to Paris to defend their Olympic gold medal.
The two matches, called Canada’s special ‘Summer Send-Off Series’, will be part of the team’s preparations for the Olympics, which will be played in Paris from July 26 to August 11.
The matches against Mexico will be held on June 1 (14.00 ET) in Montreal, Quebec and three days later in Toronto (19.30 ET).
“We are excited to reconnect with our fans after some fantastic home games at the back of 2023 which really kicked off our 2024 Olympic Campaign,” said head coach Bev Priestman in a news release.
“The tremendous love and support for this team was felt coast to coast and this window will be a great opportunity to send this team off in style to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
Priestman described Mexico as a “difficult” opponent and said facing them would be the ideal preparation for Canada.
“Mexico has shown recently they are a difficult team to face, which is exactly what we need before finalizing our Olympic roster and continuing to evolve and cement our tactical identity before the 25th of July,” she added.
Canada won gold at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 after beating Sweden on penalties in the final.
At the 2023 Women’s World Cup, they failed to make it beyond the group stage, finishing third in their group behind co-hosts Australia and African giants Nigeria.
For the Paris Olympics, Canada are in Group A with France, Colombia and New Zealand. The group stage of the 12-team women’s tournament starts July 25.
Canada’s women’s team will be playing in the Olympics for a fifth consecutive time. They have reached the knockout stage in all four of their previous appearances at the Olympic Games, securing two bronze medals in 2012 and 2016, and a gold medal in 2021.
Canada remain the only nation to have reached the podium three consecutive times at the women’s Olympic football tournament in the last decade.
The team has played in two tournaments this year, having reached the final in the SheBelieves Cup, where they lost to four-time world champions USA on penalties. In the CONCACAF W Gold Cup, Canada reached the semifinals, again losing there to the USWNT.
