Prabhjot Singh

TORONTO (TIP): The hosts and debutants India and Canada have made their exit from the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. Columbia, Spain (defending champions), Japan and African debutants Tanzania have qualified for the last eight rounds. In the last round of the pool matches, Spain edged out China by a solitary goal while Columbia got the better of Mexico 2-1 in an all-American encounter. Canada played a 1-1 draw with Tanzania to bow out of the competition while Japan, the only Asian team left in the contest recorded an impressive 2-0 win over  France. Led by Ruiqi Qiao, China pushed Spain back in the early stages, though the reigning FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup champions created better chances as the first half wore on. First, Chen Liu parried Lucia Corrales’s cross-shot, with the rebound falling to Carla Camacho, who fired the ball against the bar. Vicky Lopez then engineered an opportunity from the edge of the box, the keeper again doing well to keep her fierce drive out. The second half began how the first ended, as Spain retained the initiative. The only goal of the game came just after the hour mark, when Marina Artero headed home a corner from the left. China later celebrated an equalizer, only for Video umpire (VAR) to rule it out.

The win kept Spain’s hopes of defending its title alive, while China fell once again in the group phase, beyond which it has never advanced. With all four sides in the section tied on three points at the start of the day, it was no surprise to see a cagey start to the game between the two American teams. Mexico had more of the ball but failed to create any clear-cut chances. It paid the price when Juana Ortegon’s fine strike from outside the box put the Colombians ahead four minutes from half-time.

Linda Caicedo made it 2-0 with another long-range effort after the break, and though Mexico pulled one back when the Colombian star put through her own goal, Mexico could not find an equalizer, despite applying some late pressure.

The three points took Colombia into the quarterfinals for the first time in its history, while the 2018 runners-up Mexico went out.

“I’m so happy,” said Caicedo. “Luck didn’t come into it. It was a process and a job really well done. We hope to keep going and do more than make history. We want to fulfil this big dream that we have.”

Japan wasted no time showing why it had won their first two matches, creating two excellent chances in the opening minute. The pressure eventually told on the French, as Momoko Tanikawa fired home from outside the box to give the Japanese the lead in the 29th minutes. Fiona Liaigre did her best to unsettle the Asians down the left flank and haul her team level, but the half ended with the French trailing to that Tanikawa strike. After missing a succession of chances, Japan was eventually rewarded for its second-half pressure when Sayami Kusunoki scored in injury time to seal top spot for her side and ensure France’s elimination. “I think we did well against Japan, but we have a lot of regrets after the games against Canada and Tanzania,” said France midfielder Lucie Calba. “Like our coach said, we should have been playing for first place in the group today, not for qualification. “We’ve experienced other cultures here, other styles of football, and we’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned that when it comes to World Cups you need to play every match with intensity.” Having already broken new ground by becoming the first side from their country to contest a FIFA competition in any age category, Tanzania began the game intent on achieving even greater things and struck the bar from a corner. It was the Canadians who opened the scoring with Amanda Allen converting a penalty after 14 minutes. Tanzania pulled level thanks to another corner, with Veronica Mapunda popping up inside the box to force home an opportunistic equalizer.

Canada did all it could after the restart to score the goal that would have taken it into the next round. The pioneering Africans had other ideas and held on to check into the quarterfinals against all odds.