Ecuador beat Trinidad and Tobago, 10 on aggregate to advance to the Women’s World Cup. (Getty Images)
After 180 minutes across two legs without a goal between the teams, Monica Quinteros scored off a free kick in second-half stoppage time to complete the World Cup field of 24 teams for next year’s tournament in Canada.
The World Cup draw will take place on Saturday in Ottawa. FIFA will announce the six seeded teams at Friday’s press conference.
Trinidad & Tobago had hopes of becoming the first Caribbean nation to qualify for a Women’s World Cup, which expanded from 16 teams to 24 teams for the first time. This was Trinidad & Tobago’s third chance to qualify for the tournament, after losing the CONCACAF Championship semifinal to Costa Rica in penalty kicks and falling to Mexico in the third-place match in October.
[MORE: Complete coverage of Women’s World Cup qualifying]
After a 0-0 draw on Nov. 8 in Quito, the Soca Warriors dominated Ecuador throughout most of Leg 2 on Tuesday. Forward Kennya Cordner sent a spectacular bicycle kick effort off the crossbar in the 48tyh minute, and her 1-v-1 effort with Ecuador goalkeeper Sandra Baron was saved in the 76th minute. Baron also made a huge save 10 minutes from time on T&T captain Maylee Attin-Johnson’s shot.
But it is Ecuador going through to the World Cup after finishing third in CONMEBOL qualifying behind Brazil and Colombia. The 24 teams to participate in the 2015 Women’s World Cup are:
AFRICA: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria
ASIA: Australia, China PR, Japan, Korea Republic, Thailand
EUROPE: England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
North, Central American and Caribbean: Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, USA
OCEANIA: New Zealand
SOUTH AMERICA: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador
The #Canada2015 picture is complete! Now, time for the #WWCDraw2015 http://t.co/9BJUd067b4 pic.twitter.com/UZtO5KnruO
— FIFA Women'sWorldCup (@FIFAWWC) December 3, 2014
