The FIFA U17 Women's World Cup is taking place right now and if you have not taken in any of the action you should make sure you tune in on Tuesday, October 18th at 11:30am AST as Canada takes on Tanzania in their final match of the group stage with a chance to advance to the quarter finals!
If that isn't reason enough for you to tune in then hear this... there is a Bluenoser on the squad! That's right, Fall River's Mya Archibald plays fullback for Canada! Born in 2005 she played youth soccer for Scotia SC and is now part of the Nova Scotia Rex program and the Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Super Academy.
The Whitecaps FC have official partnerships with the provincial associations of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. The program is an official Canada Soccer National Development Centre.
Entrance into the Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Super Academy in partnership with BC Soccer is by invitation only and done in conjunction with Canada Soccer National EXCEL staff.
In their first match of the tournament, Canada tied France 1-1 but fell 4-0 to Japan in their second match. Canada is tied with France with 1 point, Tanzania has 3 points and Japan sits atop the group with 6 points. The top two teams in each group advance to the quarter finals. Canada can advance with a win over Tanzania. If France should beat Japan, Canada and France would be tied with 4 points each and the second spot will be determined by the tiebreaker which given that they include the goal differential in the standings, I assume is the tiebreaker. France has a 3 goal advantage on Canada as it stands right now.
The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022 provides an important development step towards future Concacaf and FIFA youth competitions at the U-17 and U-20 levels and more ultimately a step towards competing at the international level for Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team at Concacaf, FIFA and Olympic tournaments. We certainly hope to see Mya achieve her goal of competing for Canada on the National Team!
Here is the full roster of your U17 Canada Women's World Cup squad:
GK – 21 Faith Fenwick | CAN / NDC-CDN Ontario
GK – 18 Noelle Henning | CAN / NDC-CDN Ontario
GK – 1 Coralie Lallier | CAN / NDC-CDN Québec
CB – 6 Clare Logan | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC / NDC-CDN British Columbia
CB – 17 Iba Oching | CAN / Whitecaps Elite REX
CB – 5 Zoe Markesini | CAN / NDC-CDN Ontario
FB – 12 Janet Okeke | CAN / NDC-CDN Québec
FB – 2 Mya Archibald | CAN / Nova Scotia REX
FB – 3 Ella Ottey | CAN / NDC-CDN Ontario
FB – 19 Renee Watson | CAN / NDC-CDN Ontario
M – 13 Anna Hauer | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC
M – 16 Ashley Roberts | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC / NDC-CDN British Columbia
M – 8 Felicia Roy | CAN / NDC-CDN Québec
M – 4 Isabel Monck | CAN / Memphis University
M – 10 Jeneva Hernandez Gray | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC / NDC-CDN British Columbia M- 15 Emily Wong | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC / NDC-CDN British Columbia
F – 7 Amanda Allen | CAN / NDC-CDN Ontario
F – 11 Annabelle Chukwu | CAN / NDC-CDN Ontario
F – 20 Jaime Perrault | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC / NDC-CDN British Columbia
F – 9 Kayla Briggs | CAN / NDC-CDN Ontario
F – 14 Jade Bordeleau | CAN / NDC-CDN Québec