BATON ROUGE — LSU junior Caroline Vanderpool and incoming freshman Taryne Boudreau are set to join the Canadian National Team in Alabama this weekend as they will compete in this year’s Futbol Internacional 2007 from April 22-28.
This year’s event, which will feature matches in stadiums across the state, is one of only four worldwide soccer events of its kind outside of the Olympics and the FIFA Women’s World Cup that features the very best that women’s soccer has to offer on an international stage.
Canada joins Argentina and Mexico as members of Bracket B, while the U-21 U.S. National Team will compete in Bracket A along with China and Trinidad and Tobago. All first-round matches are scheduled for Sunday at Legion Field in Birmingham, which was the home of all matches during the 1996 Olympic Games.
Canada opens the competition with a match against Mexico on Sunday, while the squad will face Argentina in Huntsville on Tuesday to conclude round-robin play. The winner of Bracket A faces the winner of Bracket B in a championship game scheduled for April 28 in Mobile.
Vanderpool has earned extensive experience on the international stage during the past year as a member of the U-20 Canadian National Team. The Quebec native represented her country at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championships in Moscow, Russia, this past summer, as well as a total of 12 international friendly matches since January 2006.
Vanderpool was recently honored by the Soccer Federation of Quebec in December with this year’s Senior Excellence Award as she was recognized as the premier female soccer player in the province for 2006. She was the only representative from Quebec to compete on her country’s U-20 team.
Boudreau, who will join the Tigers in the fall as one of the top international recruits for the Class of 2007, has also enjoyed much success in worldwide competition as she joined Vanderpool on Canada’s roster at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championships this past summer.
The Sherwood Park, Alberta, native also competed in seven international friendly matches in preparation for the World Championships, while she has also been involved with Canada’s national developmental program while competing for the U-18, U-16 and U-15 national teams.