Canada's women's soccer team push to qualify for World Cup

Canada's national women's soccer team, playing back on home turf for the first time in more than a year. The team, currently ranked 9th in the world, defeated 12th-ranked Denmark in penalties on Friday in Montreal and faced off against the Danes again on Monday in Toronto. The pair of international friendlies, serving as a key test. We're happy to have two games against them to try out different things, different tactics, because we're going to be playing against teams like this in the World Cup, hopefully. Canada is preparing for a championship in late November on the path to qualifying for both the 2027 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. This is not a friendly. This is about performance. Canada's head coach says her players will need to take more risks to create opportunities to score goals. The historically defence-first team is trying to generate more consistent offence. offense. This is about how do we build a team that knows that they can beat anyone on their day you know no fear. The team is in a building and transition phase after the retirement of star player Christine Sinclair and others. It's now a mix of veterans from the Olympic gold medal squad in 2020 and dynamic young talent. I think that there is a lot of pressure on this team. For fans in Toronto and in Montreal. There's excitement around the team's return. I find it really inspiring that we're able to see this. And their prospects at the World Cup next year. I think they're a really good team, probably going through a bit of a transition. What I'm excited to see with this team is the young players develop and the vets lead them to get ready for next year in Brazil. There's hope the team will secure a top seed for the tournament. At a time when interest in soccer in Canada is taking off. Alexander Silverman, CBC News, Montreal.