BATON ROUGE – LSU Soccer’s Class of 2012 recruit Jade Kovacevic was selected Friday among 24 players invited to participate in a six-day camp with the Under-20 Canadian Women’s National Team that will be held July 3-8 in Montreal, Quebec, under the direction of head coach Andrew Olivieri.
From this camp, 20 players will be selected to take part in a two-week training camp in Europe as Canada will play two U-20 international friendlies as it prepares for the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Canada will first face Italy on July 14 in a match played in Verbania, Italy, before battling Switzerland on July 20 in a friendly held in Buochs, Switzerland, to wrap up its European tour.
Canada qualified for the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup with a silver-medal winning second-place finish at the CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship held in Panama. The 2012 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held in Japan from Aug. 19-Sept. 8 featuring 16 of the world’s leading teams.
Canada is scheduled to face Argentina, Norway and North Korea in group play during the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The Canadians will go up against Argentina on Aug. 20 in Kobe, Japan, followed by matches against Norway on Aug. 23 in Kobe and North Korea on Aug. 27 in Saitama.
As a veteran of the Canadian Women’s National Team system, Kovacevic joins the program as one of the most highly-recruited players in North America for the Class of 2012.
Kovacevic earned three international caps while representing her country during the 2010 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup while competing in group play against the likes of Brazil, Ghana and Ireland. While preparing for her appearance at the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, Kovacevic opened the scoring with the first goal of the match in Canada’s 2-1 win over Japan in friendly competition.
A product of Acton High School in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada, Kovacevic honed her skills with the U-17 Canadian Women’s National Team in 2010 and U-20 Canadian Women’s National Team in 2011. She is expected to play in the midfield with the Tigers during her freshman campaign this fall.