BATON ROUGE — LSU junior Caroline Vanderpool and incoming freshman Taryne Boudreau helped lead the Canadian Olympic Development Team to the team title at this year’s 2007 Futbol Internacional Tournament in Alabama this past weekend.
Canada took home the championship after defeating the Under-21 U.S. National Team in penalty kicks at Baker Stadium in Mobile on Saturday after the sides battled to a 0-0 draw in regulation.
After teammates Amy Vermuellen and Kaylyn Kyle converted on Canada’s first two penalty kicks, Boudreau buried a shot into the back of the net to give Canada a commanding 3-1 lead in the tiebreaker. The sides then traded penalty kicks with Canada coming out on top 5-3.
Vanderpool helped lead a talented Canadian back line that held the United States scoreless while limiting the squad to a total of 13 shots for the match. In fact, the Quebec native cracked the starting lineup as an outside defender in all three of Canada’s matches at this year’s tournament.
Boudreau also earned starts in the midfield in both of Canada’s group play matches as the side advanced to the title game after defeating Mexico by the score of 1-0 in Birmingham on April 22 followed by a 1-1 draw against Argentina in Montgomery on April 24.
Canada competed at this year’s festival with a mixture of national team veterans and youth team prospects as Boudreau and Vanderpool have earned extensive experience competing with the U-20 national team for much of this past year. The duo made the trip to Moscow, Russia, this past summer to participate in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championships in August.
The Canadian National Team is currently preparing for the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in July followed by the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China in September. The squad will then compete in the Olympic qualification tournament in March 2008.