Dominican Republic – Alice Soto scored in second half stoppage time to complete a dramatic 2-1 comeback win for Mexico against Canada on Friday in the semifinals of the 2023 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship in the Dominican Republic.
The win secures a place in the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup for El Tricolor, their 10th overall.
The two teams took the field at the Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez in Santo Domingo and played to a very tight scoreless first half.
Things opened up in the second half and it was Canada getting on the scoresheet first in the 65’ through Kayla Briggs, who caught Mexico GK Itzel Velasco Loza off her line and floated a shot into an empty net for a 1-0 lead.
Mexico went right to work on finding an equalizer and it came in the 77’ when Mailin Orozco Beltran’s right-footed shot took a slight deflection and skidded into net to make it 1-1.
Just when it looked like things would be level at the full-time whistle, Mexico struck for the winning goal in dramatic style in the 90+2’, with Soto hammering home a right-footed effort to seal their World Cup passage and a place in Sunday’s Final.
Canada will look to regroup in Sunday’s Third Place Match where they will have a chance to earn the third and final World Cup ticket.
