June 29, 2000 SportsLine.com wire reports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Canadian women's soccer team doesn't talk like a team that has lost 21 of 22 meetings with the United States and the last two by a combined score of 13-1.

Canada earned its third shot at the Americans in three months with a 12-0 victory over Guatemala on Wednesday night in the Gold Cup.

"If we play the way we know we can play, our team has the potential to play with them and beat them," said forward Christine Latham, who scored three goals against Guatemala.

The U.S team beat Canada 4-0 in the Nike Cup in May and 9-1 last month in the Pacific Cup in Australia. The Americans have beaten the Canadians the last 20 times they've played since Canada's 2-1 victory in 1986.

But the team is at least talking like it's confident enough to pull the upset on Saturday night.

"Our team has improved tremendously (since the game in Australia)," Latham said. "For some reason, we didn't come out strong, and the U.S. team, being as experienced as they are, jumped on us. But we feel like we can give them a good game."

Christine Sinclair had three goals and three assists to pace Canada on Wednesday night. The Canadians did not secure a berth in the semifinals until Mexico lost 3-0 to China in the second game of the doubleheader and was eliminated from the eight-nation tournament.

The semifinals will be played in Louisville. China will play Brazil in the first game, while Canada will play the United States in the later match.

The final is Monday night in Foxboro, Mass.

"I look forward to all games," Canadian coach Even Pellerud said. "We have a lot of young, but promising players and young, promising players need as much impressive competition as possible.

"Every game against the U.S. or China helps us, whether we lose, or tie or even win."

The Canadians were hardly challenged Wednesday night by their undersized opponent, building a 4-0 lead by halftime.

Sinclair started the scoring in the ninth minute, taking a long feed from Mary Beth Bowie and cutting through the defense for a breakaway goal. Sinclair also assisted on goals by Latham and Tanya Franck later in the half.

Andrea Neil had Canada's other first-half goal, beating Guatemala goalkeeper Susana De Leon low on a penalty kick in the 28th minute.

Canada continued to dominate in the second half with Sinclair, Latham and Charmaine Hooper each scoring two goals and Kristina Kiss and Amy Walsh adding one each.

Canada outshot Guatemala 35-0 and had 15 corner kicks to Guatemala's one.

Guatemala was outscored 33-0 in its three tournament games.

In Wednesday's second game, China struggled early but got two goals over the final five minutes to seal the shutout win.

China outshot Mexico 11-4 in the opening half but led only 1-0.

The lone first-half tally came in the 26th minute, when Zhao Lihong sent a high cross into the goal crease and Jin Yan headed it past Mexico goaltender Linnia Quinones.

The Chinese kept the ball in Mexico's end for much of the second half and Pan Lina scored on a rebound in the 86th minute for a 2-0 lead. Mexico allowed an own goal less than two minutes later.

China coach Mu Yuanan said the Brazilians will present a challenge for his team, which has lost just three games since falling to the United States in last summer's World Cup final.

"This is a team with good skill," he said of Brazil. "They're an outstanding team, so we'll see what will happen."

The doubleheader at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium drew 3,084 fans.

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