The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
No. 23 Soccer’s Julia Grosso called up to Canadian National Team vs. Brazil
08.29.2018 | Soccer
The friendly is slated for Sun., Sept. 2, at TD Place in Ottawa, Ontario
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas soccer freshman midfielder Julia Grosso has been called up to the Canadian Women's Senior National Team for a friendly against Brazil scheduled for Sun., Sept. 2, at TD Place in Ottawa, Ontario.
The Vancouver, British Columbia, native will return to the Longhorns following Sunday's contest to resume normal training on the Forty Acres.
For Grosso, this call-up follows a previous one in June for a friendly against Germany as well as a February slot for Team Canada in the Algarve Cup in Portugal. During the Algarve Cup, she received playing time in three matches and now boasts five career caps for the Canadian Senior National squad. She reaped her first senior cap by appearing in a friendly against the United States in San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 12, 2017. A fixture with the Canada Under-20 Women's National Team, Grosso earned five caps (playing all 450 possible minutes) for the team during its run to the third-place match at the 2018 CONCACAF Under-20 Women's Championship in Trinidad & Tobago. In a match during the group stage against the host country T&T, she registered a pair of assists as Team Canada prevailed 4-1. She also traveled to Jordan in 2016 and earned three caps for the Canada Under-17 team at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup (was chosen as Canada's best player by FIFA TSG Report) and was named to the Best Starting XI while helping Canada U-17's to a bronze medal at the 2016 CONCACAF Under-17 Championship in Grenada.
So far during her brief career with the Longhorns, Grosso has earned time in three matches, with two starts, while playing 181 of 293 possible minutes with three shots on goal.
Ahead of Canada's FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019™ qualification campaign, set for October at the 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championships, Canada will be using the opportunity to play the 2016 Rio Olympic hosts to assess the squad make-up and to see how individuals perform under the unique pressures of playing such a high-caliber team. Both Canada and Brazil have recently been ranked among the top-10 nations in the world, with Canada ranked fifth and Brazil ranked seventh.
Canada defeated Brazil at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to take the Olympic Bronze Medal. Canada's back-to-back podium finishes at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games earned them the distinction of becoming the first Canadian team to win back-to-back Summer Olympic medals since 1908. They were also the first-ever women's Canadian team to repeat on the podium. Canada also faced Brazil in Toronto and Ottawa ahead of the Rio Olympics, splitting the series, including Canada's send-off final match in Ottawa, which saw the home team defeat Brazil, 1-0.
