Canada to face Mexico in Olympic qualifier

KANSAS CITY, Kansas – The Canadian men’s under-23 soccer team will play Mexico in Kansas City on Saturday with an Olympic berth in the balance.

The Mexicans clinched top spot in Group B in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament on Tuesday. Canada went undefeated in Group A with a win and two ties and finished second to El Salvador.

El Salvador ousted the United States from Olympic qualifying Monday night with a 3-3 tie.

Mexico and Canada will play in one of the semifinals, but since the federation gets two Olympic berths, the semi takes on more importance than the tournament final. El Salvador and Honduras will play in the other semi.

The Canadian men have participated in three previous Olympics – in 1904, 1976 and 1984. Canada won the gold medal in 1904 but two separate American entries provided the only opposition at the St. Louis Games.

Canada got into the 1976 Montreal Games as the host country and qualified for the 1984 Los Angeles Games, but CONCACAF was afforded an extra spot that year as the Americans were the hosts.

Canada lost to the United States in the semifinals in the qualification tournament leading up to the 2008 Olympics, missing out on a berth.

Canada had the chance to do itself a favour on Monday night with a win over Cuba in its final round-robin game, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw. A victory would have given the Canadians first in their pool and avoided a semifinal date with the powerhouse Mexicans

Mexico missed out on the 2008 Olympics after failing to qualify and has never won a medal in eight previous appearances at the Games.

Canadian head coach Tony Fonseca said his team played a price for its youth by letting a late 1-0 slip away when it allowed Cuba to score the equalizer in the 90th minute.

The Americans had to win to reach Saturday’s semifinals in Kansas City, Kan., and they led 3-2 on Joe Corona’s goal in the 68th minute.

But Alas scored his goal off the hands off keeper Sean Johnson to stun the Americans, who missed the Olympics for the second time since 1976.

Several Americans to drop to the field in exhaustion and disbelief after the score.

El Salvador reached the semifinals, putting it a win away from its first Olympic berth since 1968. Canada, which tied Cuba 1-1 earlier, finished second. Lester Blanco and Andres Flores also scored for El Salvador.

Terrence Boyd scored twice for the U.S., and Johnson replaced keeper Bill Hamid in the 39th minute.

After a 2-0 loss to Canada in the second of this three-game, round-robin tournament, the Americans needed to win to advance.

So did El Salvador, and the crowd of 7,889 was about evenly split between the countries keeping the U.S. from a true home-field advantage at LP Field, home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. El Salvador survived a physical game with plenty of yellow cards on each side.

The U.S. had a little bit of time left to try and go ahead but couldn’t get anything going before the game ended. The result leaves the Americans adding 2012 to 2004 and 1976 as years they failed to qualify for the Olympics, missing out on a 15th appearance overall.

Boyd got his first start in this round-robin tournament with Juan Agudelo recovering from surgery in New York to fix torn cartilage in his left knee, and Boyd gave the Americans the scoring boost they missed against Canada on Saturday night. The Americans attacked from the start, Boyd scored 61 seconds into the game. Brek Shea dribbled out of three defenders and sent a cross over to Boyd who scored off a left-footed volley.

And Boyd nearly scored twice more. His header went over the crossbar in the 10th minute, and he had a breakaway chance in the 11th only to see keeper Yimy Cuellar come out to break up the play.

Hamid rolled covering up a ball and appeared to hurt his ankle midway through the first half.

El Salvador took advantage by scoring two goals in two minutes to grab the lead and the momentum. Blanco scored on a header off a corner kick over Hamid’s hands in the 35th minute, and Flores beat Hamid in the 37th minute off what had been a weak shot by Alas that turned into a cross. U.S. coach Caleb Porter pulled Hamid in the 39th minute, putting in 6-foot-4 Johnson for his first appearance in this round-robin tournament.

Boyd tied it up with his second goal off a pass from captain Freddy Adu in the 65th minute. Joe Corona, whose mother is a native of El Salvador, scored off a header just inside the left post off a pass from Adu.

Johnson smothered one strong kick from Isidro Gutierrez but couldn’t stop the ball when it mattered at the end.