The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team’s quest to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics starts tomorrow at the FIBA AmeriCup Tournament which is being held in Puerto Rico. This tournament is one of two qualifying tournaments that take place to qualify countries for the Olympics.
This tournament lasts for one week and a top 8 finish qualifies Canada for the next Olympic qualifying tournament which will take place in November. Canada is the defending champion in this tournament and will look to defend their title against fellow powerhouse United States. The US rarely plays in these qualifying tournaments but they are sending a team to compete. This tournament focuses on countries located in the Americas.
Canada is sending 12 players who have a variety of international experience, WNBA experience and several new players who are playing for Canada for the first time. They will need to integrate quickly in order for Canada to succeed. Canada’s first game is tomorrow against Mexico at 12:30 pm EST/9:30 pm PST. They then play Cuba on Monday, Puerto Rico on Tuesday and the Dominican Republic on Thursday. The semi finals and final take place on Sept 28th and Sept 29th.
Alot of the players that are currently playing in this tournament for Team Canada will have an opportunity to prove themselves and to make an impression so that they can be in consideration for other international tournaments as well as the FIBA World Cup/Olympics.
Canada is currently ranked 5th in the world and should do well in this tournament. Winning the title will be more difficult this time around but they should still finish among the top. The games will be available to watch on DAZN in Canada and ESPN+ in the US.
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