While both teams already qualified for the London 2012 Olympiad there is a certain amount of pride at play. For Canada's women this is an opportunity to declare that they deserve to be in that top tier of teams challenging for Gold or Women's World Cups. With the Great White North hosting the 2015 Women's World Cup it is matches like this and their second straight 20k+ crowd that demonstrate that they are a top nation in the women's game.
The United States women and Coach Pia Sundhage made it quite clear in this tournament that they are out to prove not just that they are the world's number one, but that no one else in CONCACAF is even close. In the group stage they had a +31 goal differential with 3 shutouts. In the semifinal they notched another shutout and another three goals. Canada was a clear #2 with a total goal differential of +14 and two shutouts.
Tonight's lineup for the USA is Solo; Mitts, Rampone (c), Sauerbrunn, O'Hara; Rodriguez, Lloyd, Lindsey, Rapinoe; Morgan, Wambach
For the Canadians; McLeod; Sesselmann, Woeller, Chapman, Gayle; Scott; Kyle, Schmidt, Parker; Sinclair, Julien
This is your gamethread for tonight's "meaningless" game in front of 25,000 raging in Red & White on NBC Sports Network (Comcast 34/626 or check listings) at 5PM Pacific.