SAN CRISTÓBAL, Dominican Republic — Captain Florianne Jourde and substitute Kayla Briggs each scored twice to lead Canada to a 4-0 win over Cuba on Thursday at the CONCACAF Women's Under-20 Championship Qualifying tournament.
The victory moved Canada (3-0-0) above El Salvador (3-0-0) atop the Group A standings on goal difference (plus-31 compared to plus-13). The two teams meet Saturday to decide the group winner — and who moves on to the CONCACAF Women's Under-20 Championship.
A draw on the weekend will be enough for Canada to advance. The Canadians have yet to concede a goal at the qualifier.
The 32 teams at the qualifying event have been split into six groups for round-robin play. The group winners move on to the CONCACAF U-20 Championship May 24 to June 3 in the Dominican Republic, joining the pre-qualified U.S. and Mexico.
The Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Panama and Puerto Rico have already qualified.
The top three teams at the CONCACAF U-20 Championship will represent North and Central America and the Caribbean at next year's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
Canada opened Group A play at the qualifying event with a 15-0 win over Martinique before downing St. Vincent and the Grenadines 12-0.
Jourde opened the scoring against Cuba (1-2-0) in the 12th minute Thursday, taking a pass from Ella McBride before turning a defender around and slotting a low shot home. Jourde, an 18-year-old from Montreal, made it 2-0 in the 44th minute and appeared to have her hat trick a minute later only to see the offside flag go up.
Briggs made it 3-0 in the 67th minute, outmuscling a defender to get to a long ball before sending a low shot into the corner of the goal. She collected her second goal in the 81st, getting a foot to a Jeneva Hernandez Gray shot to redirect into the goal.
Faith Fenwick got the shutout.
Canada has qualified for eight of the 10 previous FIFA U-20 Women's World Cups, finishing runner-up to the U.S. in 2002 when Canada hosted the event.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023
The Canadian Press