Chilliwack’s Jordyn Huitema is back in action with the Canadian national women’s soccer team as they play their final Algarve Cup match Wednesday morning.
Huitema’s team is playing for bronze, facing Sweden in a match that kicks off at 9 a.m. PST at Estádio Algarve in São João da Venda, Portugal.
This is the third time in the last four years that Canada is playing for a medal in this tournament.
Canada is 1-0-1 so far with a 1-0 win over Scotland and a scoreless draw with Iceland.
Sweden is an opponent the Canadians should be very familiar with. The two countries have met 21 times since 1987. In six head-to-head matchups since 2012 the foes have split down the middle with two wins, two losses and two ties.
Sweden bested Canada 3-1 in last year’s Algarve Cup, and that’s on Kenneth Heiner-Møller’s mind heading into the game.
“We really want to finish out this tournament strong,” Canada’s head coach said. “We have put on a good performance here, but we haven’t scored as many goals as we would have liked. The players are looking ahead to this match and they want to look sharp in front of the net, but more importantly we want to finish strongly so we stay on the proper trajectory heading into our next fixture in England in April.”
Canada faces England April 5 in Manchester, another tuneup for the FIFA Women’s World Cup that takes place in France this July.