The group stages of the 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualification Championship is over, now four nations move on to the semifinals. 

United States, Canada, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago are now just 90 minutes away from qualifying to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games. However first let's look back at how the groups finished. 

USWNT And Costa Rica Into the Semifinals

Group A
Nations GP PTS W D L GF GA GD
1. USA 3 9 3 0 0 16 0 16
2. Costa Rica 3 6 2 0 1 11 6 5
3. Mexico 3 3 1 0 2 7 3 4
4. Puerto Rico 3 0 0 0 3 0 25 -25


All matches were played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

The United States simply dominated this group. They went a perfect (W-D-L) 3-0-0. The Yanks defense did not concede a single goal in the round. Their offense was on fire as they dropped 16 goals in three games. Their biggest margin of victory was their finale against Puerto Rico on Monday. 

Crystal Dunn (Right) scoring one of her five goals against Puerto Rico on Monday at Toyota Stadium. Photo provided by Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports.
Crystal Dunn (Right) scoring one of her five goals against Puerto Rico on Monday at Toyota Stadium. Photo provided by Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports.

The USWNT demolished the Caribbean nation by a score 10-0. It was 23-year-old striker Crystal Dunn who stole the show with her five-goal performance. She became the seventh player in USWNT history to score five goals in a game. 

However, it was not all smooth sailing for the Yanks. In their second match against Mexico on Saturday, it took a late controversial penalty call to win the match 1-0. 

When the Mexican keeper blocked captain Carli Lloyd's shot, it seemed that justice had prevailed. However, Lloyd followed the rebound and hammered in the game winner.

However, their opener against Costa Rica was walk in the park. The Americans dominated the Central Americans last Wednesday, and won by a comfortable 5-0 score line.

The Costa Ricans rebounded from their opening game disaster to thrash Puerto Rico 9-0 in their second match on Saturday. The Central Americans with that win, improved their chances of advancing with their positive four goal differential.

Costa Rican midfielder Raquel Rodriguez (Center) celebrating one of her two goals against Mexico on Monday at Toyota Stadium. Photo provided by Osvaldo Aguilar- MexSport.
Costa Rican midfielder Raquel Rodriguez (Center) celebrating one of her two goals against Mexico on Monday at Toyota Stadium. Photo provided by Osvaldo Aguilar- MexSport.

However, they still had to win their final game against Mexico on Monday. Costa Rican midfielder Raquel Rodriguez sent the Central Americans to the next round with her brace in their 2-1 victory.

El Tri on the other handl started hot with a 6-0 victory against Puerto Rico on Wednesday. Their collapse began in their second match with a 1-0 heart breaking defeat to the United States. However, they still had a chance to qualify to the next round, but they were sent packing by Costa Rica.

As for the Puerto Ricans, they never had a chance of advancing to the next round. They finished with a negative 25 goal differential and never scored a goal themselves. The Caribbean nation lost every game in the process.

Canada Runs Away With The Group

Group B
Nation GP PTS W D L GF GA GD
1. Canada 3 9 3 0 0 21 0 21
2. Trinidad and Tobago 3 6 2 0 1 7 8 -1
3. Guyana 3 3 1 0 2 3 11 -8
4. Guatemala 3 0 0 0 3 2 14 -12

All matches were played at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, Texas.

Similar to the Yanks, the Canadians ran away with the group. The Canucks went 3-0-0 and scored 21 goals and kept a clean sheet in every match. Their smallest margin of victory was by 5-0 against Guyana on Thursday. After that they went on to defeat Trinidad & Tobago 6-0 on Sunday and then they shattered Guatemala 10-0 on Tuesday.

The Canadians cruised through the group stages by wining every match and scoring 21 goals and never conceding a goal in the process. Photo provided by David J. Phillip- Associated Press.
The Canadians cruised through the group stages by wining every match and scoring 21 goals and never conceding a goal in the process. Photo provided by David J. Phillip- Associated Press.

Trinidad and Tobago started the tournament by completing a 2-1 comeback victory on Thursday. However, they were brought back down to earth with a 6-0 defeat against Les Rouges. The Caribbean nation went on to take care of business against Guyana on Tuesday to clinch their place in semis.

The South American nation started off on the wrong foot by losing to Canada. However, they rebounded with a 2-1 comeback victory against Guatemala on Sunday. Guyana dreams of qualifying for the Olympics came to an end with a 5-1 defeat to T&T in the finale.

Guatemala will leave this tournament a bit disappointed. In their last game of the group stages, they were ravaged by Canada with a 10-0 score line. However, in their first two matches against T&T and Guyana they failed to build on 1-0 leads.

In both of those matches, the Chapines allowed the other nation to score both of their goals from the 70th minute to the 79th minute mark. Trinidad and Tobago score in the 74th and 78th. Against Guyana, they allowed the South Americans to score in the 71st and 76th minute. It seems that the Chapines ran out of gas in both games.

Now that the group stages are over, the semifinal matches are set. Both games will be played at BBVA Compass Stadium on Friday. The opener will be Canada versus Costa Rica. Then the finale is the United States facing Trinidad and Tobago. The winners of these games will secure their ticket to Rio in August.    

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Jorge Belon
My name is Jorge Belon. I’m a writer for VAVEL USA and VAVEL UK. My focus is on soccer. Throughout the years I have created different blogs all revolving around soccer. My first was Mr. JB Soccer in 2012. Now I currently operate Belon Soccer News (BSN), where I cover soccer mostly from North America and international tournaments. I am a college at Los Angeles Valley College. I was a part of the college newspaper, The Valley Star for two years. At the Star I held the position of Sports Editor, News Editor, Managing Editor and Editor in Chief. I have been writing about soccer for the past three years. I have covered: Major League Soccer, Gold Cup, Under-20 Men’s World Cup, Women’s World Cup, Men’s World Cup and many more.