American women footballers latest to qualify for Paris

The world champion American women's footballers have qualified for the Paris 2024 football tournament while Canada and Jamaica will face off in a two-legged "Olympic play-in" for the second and final North American spot in September 2023.

On finals day in the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship, the third-placed play-off was held before the final at Estadio BBVA in Guadelupe, home of Monterrey CF, one of the continent's biggest men's football clubs. In the third-placed match, Jamaica took on Haiti with the winner keeping their Olympic dream alive in the play-in. And perhaps nerves were shown in a tetchy game that was goalless after ninety minutes. But in extra time a lovely through ball found Kalyssa Vanzanten who made no mistake to give Jamaica the win.

In the final, it was another close affair that was decided by one goal. Alyssa Chapman put a hand on Rose Lavelle in the box who went down to give the Americans a rather soft penalty, and Alex Morgan sent the admittedly dominant side the wrong way to give them the win. What that means is the US qualify for the Olympics and the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup, as well as win the trophy, while defending Olympic champions Canada have to face Jamaica in the Olympic play-in. The US now have both sets of quotas in football and the women's team have qualified for every football event in Olympic history.

Patrick Green

Writer, Totallympics News