ALAJUELA — Canada will play for third place at the CONCACAF Girl's U-15 Championship after losing a semifinal penalty shootout Friday to the defending champion U.S.
The young Americans won the shootout 4-2 after the game finished knotted at 1-1. Isabella Lanzillotta, from LFC IA Mississauga, and Lacey Kindel, from the Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Academy, scored for Canada in the shootout.
Mckenna (Mak) Whitham opened the scoring for the U.S. in the 35th minute with Christ-Mayron Brou, a member of CF Montreal women's academy, replying for Canada three minutes later.
In July, Whitham agreed to a contract with the NWSL's NJ/NY Gotham FC via the league's U-18 Entry Mechanism. The contract takes effect Jan. 1, 2025, and runs through 2028.
Whitham became the youngest-ever contracted player in the NWSL at 13 years old. She turned 14 on July 27.
Canada will play host Costa Rica on Sunday in the third-place game. The U.S. faces Mexico for the title.
The Canadians downed Puerto Rico and El Salvador by identical 1-0 scores before falling 3-1 to Mexico in Group B play.
The U.S. beat Haiti, Costa Rica and Jamaica by a combined 27-0 in Group A play.
The Canadians lost 4-1 to the U.S. in the League A final at the last CONCACAF U-15 Championship in 2022 in Tampa, Fla. The Americans also won in 2016 and 2018.
The fifth edition of the tournament features a record 34 CONCACAF teams. The competition is split between three host countries with Costa Rica staging League A and Trinidad and Tobago and Aruba hosting League B and C, respectively.
Canada won the tournament in 2014, beating Haiti on penalties in the final, and also finished runner-up in 2016. It failed to reach the semifinals in 2018.
Canadians who have played in the U-15 tournament include Olympic champions Julia Grosso (2014), Jordyn Huitema (2014 and 2016) and Jayde Riviere (2016).
The current Canadian team is coached by Tina Cook.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2024
The Canadian Press
