The Canadian women’s soccer team will play Argentina and Morocco in international friendlies in Spain during the October FIFA international window.
The seventh-ranked Canadians will face No. 31 Argentina on Oct. 6 and No. 76 Morocco on Oct. 10, with both matches at Estadio Municipal de Chapin in Jerez.
“This window gives us the opportunity to experience different styles of opposition that will come with the expanded 32-nation FIFA Women’s World Cup,” Canada coach Bev Priestman said in a statement. “I’m glad we secured two nations that have qualified and who we could very much face next summer.
“There are still some players missing with injuries and so I hope we can continue to assess players in the wider pool and see them take their opportunity to step up as we saw many do in Australia. This is the last window before the FIFA Women’s World Cup draw and so from this window we are excited to learn our path and finalize 2022-2023 planning.”
The draw for the 2023 World Cup, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, is scheduled for Oct. 22 in Auckland.
The Olympic champion Canadian women have won all five of their previous matches with Argentina, outscoring the South Americans 12-1. Canada prevailed 1-0 when they met last time out, in February 2021 at the SheBelieves Cup in Orlando. The last three meetings, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2011 Pan American Games, were all decided by one goal.
Canada has played Morocco twice before, with both games in February 2001 while in camp in Rabat. Canada won the opener 4-0 and lost the rematch 1-0 two days later.
Canada is coming off a pair of wins over Australia, 1-0 on Sept. 3 in Brisbane and 2-1 on Oct. 6 in Sydney. They were Canada’s first two international matches since the securing World Cup qualification at the CONCACAF W Championship in July.
The Canadian women are 8-2-3 this year with the losses to the U.S., 1-0 in the CONCACAF W Championship final, and Spain, 1-0 in the Arnold Clark Cup in February,
The 2023 World Cup runs July 20 to Aug. 20 across nine host cities in Australia and New Zealand.
The Canadian Press
