Just a few months after helping Canada qualify for field hockey’s Junior World Cup, Duncan’ Sarah Goodman has helped Canada to a spot in the senior World Cup as well.
Goodman was the captain of the Canadian junior team that won the Junior Pan American Championships in Chile last August, qualifying for the Junior World Cup for the first time since 2013. Last week, she helped the national senior team earn a spot in the 2022 Women’s FIH Hockey World Cup, something that hasn’t been achieved since 1994.
Goodman was part of the national team that finished third overall in the Pan American Cup in Santiago, Chile, securing one of three berths for teams from North and South America at the World Cup.
Canada finished second in their pool, beating Peru and Trinidad and Tobago, and losing to the U.S., while scoring 28 goals and allowing only three. They defeated Uruguay on penalties in the crossover game, then lost 3-0 to Argentina in the semifinals before beating the U.S. 1-0 in the third-place game.
Canada will now join Pan Am gold and silver medallists Argentina and Chile at the 16-team World Cup, which is scheduled to be played in Spain and the Netherlands this July.
North Cowichan/Duncan Sports Wall of Fame member Laurelee (Jumbo) Kopeck played on the last Canadian team to participate in the Women’s World Cup, 28 years ago.
Although Sara Goodman was unable to participate in the Junior World Cup, originally scheduled for December 2021, because of age limits, her younger sister, Jenna, was named to the team.
The Canadian junior squad travelled to South Africa for the tournament just in time for the emergence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. The tournament was postponed, and the Canadian players spent a couple of weeks sequestered in South Africa due to travel bans before they were able to return to Canada.
The Junior World Cup has now been rescheduled for this April, again in South Africa.
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