SANDY, Utah -- The Canadian men's under-23 soccer team will have to wait a little longer to clinch a possible berth in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Canada fell 2-0 to Mexico on Saturday in the semifinal of a CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. The top two teams from the tournament -- Mexico and Honduras -- automatically guarantee themselves a spot in next summer's Games.
Canada and the United States, which fell 2-0 to Honduras in the other semi earlier Saturday, have one more shot at securing an Olympic berth. They'll meet in the third-place match on Tuesday, with the winner moving on to face Colombia in a home-and-away series in March. The winner of the Colombia series qualifies for the Olympics.
"We're disappointed we lost, it was a big opportunity for us to beat a big rival, but we have another opportunity against the United States and we'll try and prepare for that," said Canadian captain Samuel Piette.
"Our spirit remains positive," said Canada's coach Benito Floro. "Our team has gained experience, both collectively and individually, in every match. They understand the positives and that we are close to achieving our goal."
Canada opened up the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament with a 3-1 loss to the Americans, despite controlling 56 per cent of ball possession and winning the shots-on-target department 6-3. Jordan Morris stunned the Canadian side with a goal in the opening minute and Canada had to play catch up the rest of the match.
Piette is confident that his squad can redeem themselves and continue their journey to Rio when they meet the United States for a second time in two weeks.
"I thought the United States was our best game so far in the tournament," said Piette. "Early goal was tough but we kept to the game plan and it worked well.
"The score wasn't relevant."
Erick Torres, who left the game in the 68th minute with an apparent leg injury, and Hirving Lozano had goals for Mexico.
Torres scored in the sixth minute to give the Mexican squad an early 1-0 lead by heading in a cross from Lozano.
Lozano doubled the lead in the 56th minute, taking a bad clearing attempt from Piette and finding the top left-hand corner of the net.
Mexico had plenty of opportunities to add to the scoresheet.
Lozano fired a shot at Canada's net from close range in the 11th minute, but goaltender Maxime Crepeau was there to snag the ball. In the 51st minute, Torres took a nice pass from Victor Guzman and worked around two defenders before shooting the ball just over the crossbar. Three minutes later, Marco Bueno corralled a pass from Lozano but fired wide of the Canadian net once again.
"They have a good group of players, we had a game plan to let them come to us so they had a lot of possession but I think we defended pretty well," said Piette.
"Mexico is always like that, a lot of possession."
Mexico controlled much of the second half before Canada caught a break in the 78th minute when a Mexican defender was called for a hand ball in the penalty area. Michael Petrasso failed to convert the ensuing penalty kick past goalkeeper Manuel Lajud Bojalil.
Skylar Thomas had another chance for Canada in the 87th minute when he headed a free kick off the crossbar over the outstretched hands of Bojalil.
"We had our chances at the end of the game," said Piette.
Mexico outshot Canada 9-1 in the first half and 19-6 overall while keeping possession of the ball 66 per cent of the time.
The game was delayed half an hour because Canada's team bus was late in arriving at the hotel.
Canada's men's soccer team has only appeared twice in the Olympics -- 1976 when Montreal hosted the Games and in 1984 in Los Angeles.
