Congratulations to our Women's national team as they defeated Brazil in PK's to win the Pan-Am Gold Medal. http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/10/27/canada-wins-soccer-gold/ Ya, OK, Brazil didn't have Marta and the USA didn't even enter a team but I'm not complaining. Congratulations also go to new coach John Herdman.
Re: Pan-Am Games Soccer Gold Medal Match - Canada v Brazil (R) Marta or no Marta, Yanks or no Yanks, it's a great achievement. We are proud of you!
I'm pretty sure the reason why there was no USA was not that they didn't enter, but that they didn't qualify. Only the top two teams from last year's Gold Cup did, so us and Mexico.
Hmmmmm, I don't think so. Costa Rica and TnT were both in the tournament as well. I would suspect that Mexico was an automatic qualifier being the host nation. Canada being Gold Cup champions, as you say, would also have been automatic. The USA was the bronze medalist in last year's Gold Cup defeating Costa Rica. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_CONCACAF_Women's_Gold_Cup TnT came in 5th edging out Haiti (both had three points) on goal difference. So, if the USA didn't enter a team, that would move Costa Rica up to "defacto" first CONCACAF qualifier with TnT being moved up to the second qualifier position. Seems logical anyway. That all being said, perhaps TnT and Costa Rica got in the same way they got into the Gold Cup, via a Caribbean and Central American allocation process.
No, I'm probably wrong. I had read that somewhere else. If someone says something on the internet, it's gotta be true right? (Now I feel silly.)