Richmond United U15 forward Jordan Canniff has been named to the U.S. U17 Women’s National Team 20-player roster for the 2016 CONCACAF U17 Women’s Championship to be held in St. George’s, Grenada, from March 3-13. The tournament will send the top three finishers to the 2016 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in Jordan from September 30-October 21.
Canniff is one of three 14-year olds born in 2001 on the roster and will compete in Group B matches against Jamaica, Mexico and Costa Rica.
“We are extremely excited about the team that will be representing the United States at World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Grenada,” said Head Coach B.J. Snow. “It was a tremendously challenging process to narrow down the final roster and that’s a credit to all of the players we’ve been able to evaluate in camps over the last year.”
The eight nation competition will feature two groups of four teams each and will send three countries to the 2016 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup to be held from in Jordan. After round-robin play within the groups, the top two finishers in each group will cross-over for the semifinals with the winners of those games, along with the winner of the third-place match, earning berths to the World Cup.
Just four teams have qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup so far: host Jordan plus Japan and Korea DPR, which earned their berths by reaching the Final AFC U-16 Women’s Championship during November of 2015 in China PR, and New Zealand out of Oceania. The remaining 12 nations will qualify over the course of this year.
Snow will bring this roster to the four-team 2016 U-17 Women’s NTC Invitational that will run from Feb 11-15 as the USA hosts Japan, Korea Republic and England. The NTC Invitational will serve as final preparation for the CONCACAF U-17 Women’s Championship. All the Invitational matches will be held at Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Field at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Carson, California.
