Canada to face World Cup champ Spain in friendly
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada's drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women's coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman's absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the
Algarve Cup in Portugal.
Spain won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas have combined to win the last three Women's Ballon d'Or awards.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team's helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena. The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs' helmet sponsor last season.