EDINBURG, Texas – Nichelle Prince scored twice to lead Canada’s women’s national soccer team to a 2-0 win over Jamaica in its World Cup qualifying opener at the CONCACAF Women’s Championship Friday night. 

Prince, a native of Ajax, Ont., now has nine career international goals.

“Obviously we’re very happy about opening this tournament with three points,” said head coach Kenneth Heiner-Møller. “I’m really happy about the result. I’m happy we kept a clean sheet. That was important for us.”

Canada, ranked fifth in the world, now sits second in Group B. Costa Rica also has three points, but is ahead of Canada on goal differential after a dominant 8-0 win over Cuba. Canada will next play Cuba on Monday. The top two teams in each group advance to the semi-finals, with the top three teams in the tournament earning an automatic berth in next year’s Women’s World Cup in France.​

“It’s really great to finally get to start the tournament,” said the 23-year-old Prince. “This was not an easy game. Jamaica put a good team out there, and they worked really hard, and they defended us well.  So it was really great to end the game with two goals and with the win.”

This was Canada’s first meeting with Jamaica since the 2007 Pan American Games. In fact, only two players on the current roster have ever faced Jamaica before: Christine Sinclair and Diana Matheson. Canada is now 7-0-0 all-time against the Reggae Girlz, winning by a combined score of 48-1.

The Jamaican team has recently catapulted the FIFA rankings to 64th after starting the year unranked due to being inactive for more than 18 months. They cruised through the Caribbean zone qualifiers, never losing a game and outscoring opponents by a 41-4 margin. 

“We knew that Jamaica was a hard team to beat,” said Heiner-Møller. “They’re very organized. They’ve got these very skillful players up front.”

SWEET PRINCE

Prince has been a standout for Canada in the past month. After scoring the lone goal in the team’s 1-0 win over Brazil in September, on Friday she recorded her first multi-goal game since netting a hat trick against Guatemala on Feb. 16, 2016, which was also in a CONCACAF qualifying tournament.

Her first goal came in the 33rd minute. After a scramble in the box and some poor clearing attempts by Jamaica, Prince found the loose ball and buried it in the corner.

Then in the 79th minute, substitute Adriana Leon connected with Prince on a beautiful through ball. Prince beat the defender and slotted it home. 

LACK OF FINISH

Canada dominated the game for almost the entire 90 minutes, owning 71 per cent of possession and outshooting Jamaica by a 20-2 margin. Despite the one-sided affair, the Canadian players struggled to connect on their crosses and final passes. 

“We need to look a little better on the conversion, (from) possession to actually creating chances,” said Heiner-Møller.

Sinclair remains with 173 international goals, but had several chances to inch closer to Abby Wambach’s all-time record of 184. She sent a free kick in the 30th minute soaring over the bar. Near the end of the first half, on a loose ball in the box, her sliding attempt also just missed the net. 

Then in the 59th minute, she looked to have an open look at goal, but her shot was blocked at the last moment by Dominique Bond-Flasza. The Jamaican defender looked to handle the ball inside the box while sliding to make the play, but Sinclair’s appeals for a penalty kick were to no avail.

CLEAN SHEET

Stephanie Labbé recorded her 23rd career clean sheet, although it wasn’t her busiest performance with only two shots aimed in her direction.

Her best save came soon after Prince’s second goal. A giveaway by Allysha Chapman went right to Khadija Shaw, but Labbé came charging out to make the stop.

Canada’s backline, particularly centrebacks Kadeisha Buchanan and Shelina Zadorsky, largely shut down Shaw, easily Jamaica’s biggest offensive threat. The 21-year-old had 16 goals in seven games during the Caribbean qualifiers. 

“Khadija Shaw is a player for now, but she’s definitely a player for the future as well. It takes some skill to actually make sure she didn’t get a goal,” said Heiner-Møller.

Shaw had another great chance in the 67th minute, when she got between the two centrebacks and looked to break in on Labbé, but Buchanan came up with a last-minute tackle. It was a close call, with Shaw going down inside the box, but the referee determined that Buchanan didn’t commit a foul.

“Obviously they have one of the best defenders in the world with Buchanan,” said Jamaican head coach Hue Menzies.  ​