Chilliwack’s Jordyn Huitema is taking another step in her soccer career, travelling to Portugal for a 12 team international tournament.
The Chilliwack FC grad will play alongside Canadian women’s soccer legend Christine Sinclair at the Algarve Cup, which runs Mar. 1-8.
Fifteen year old Huitema is one of seven teenagers on the roster, with 10 other players 23 years old or younger.
On the flip-side, veterans Sinclair, Stephanie Labbe (30), Desiree Scott (29), Allysha Chapman (28) and Sophie Schmidt (28) boast a combined 604 international appearances.
Huitema’s team plays in a group that includes Denmark, Russia and Portugal.
Their first game is against Denmark Mar. 1.
The other countries involved are Japan, Norway, Spain, Iceland, Australia, Sweden, China and the Netherlands.
Canada is ranked fourth coming in, and downed Brazil 2-1 in the final of this tournament last year.
Huitema, who was with Team Canada as a spectator for a Feb. 4 friendly vs Mexico, may see her first game action with the national team.
“We have six new additions to our squad, players who showed well on our (January) assessment camp and who will add depth to key positions and challenge the Olympic core players for places,” Herdman said. “This is a fast-paced tournament where we will face one day-turnarounds between games, so we will need to hit the ground running and maintain a high pace if we want to win back-to-back Algarve titles.”
