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The CONCACAF W Championship gets underway on Monday, July 4 as eight women’s national teams will compete for a spot in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Canada’s campaign gets started on Tuesday, July 5 with a match against Trinidad & Tobago, kicking off at 10:00 p.m. ET. While there won’t be a live network broadcast in the United States, every match in this year’s W Championship will be available via live stream on Paramount+.
The eight teams are split into two groups of four, with the top two finishers of each group automatically securing a berth into next year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The two third-place finishers will advance to an inter-confederation playoff for one last chance to grab a spot in next year’s tournament.
The W Championship also continues on into knockout rounds, with the overall winner of the tournament being awarded a spot in the 2024 Olympics and the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup.
Canada v. Trinidad & Tobago
Date: Tuesday, July 5
Time: 10:00 p.m. ET
Channel: N/A
Livestream: Paramount+
The No. 6 ranked Canada Women’s National Team is expected to defeat the No. 76 ranked Trinidad & Tobago women without too much trouble. Canada has never lost to the Trinidad & Tobago WNT, with their most recent meeting coming in February of 2016 during Olympic qualifying play. Canada steamrolled T&T in that match with a final score of 6-0. That followed their previous meeting just a couple of months earlier, where the Canadians logged a relatively easy 4-0 win.
Canada, one of the favorites to win the W Championship title along with the No. 1 ranked USWNT, is coming off a scoreless draw against the Korea Republic in a friendly match on June 26. 38-year-old Christine Sinclair is the women’s national team, all-time leading scorer, with a staggering 189 goals through 310 caps and remains active on the roster. 27-year-old forward Janine Beckie is the closest to Sinclair as far as active players go, with 34 goals through 88 caps for the Canadian women.
The Canadians will be seeking their eighth consecutive appearance at the Women’s World Cup if they should qualify after the W Championship comes to a close. They’ve only missed out on one World Cup since its inception in 1991, with the very first edition being the only one without the Canadians involved. Their best result came in 2003 when they finished in fourth place after losing to Sweden in the semifinals, followed by a 3-1 loss to the United States in the third-place match.