Exactly one week before her 17th birthday, Jessie Fleming scored her first goal for Canada’s senior national team in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Scotland in the Cyprus Cup.
Fleming has played only eight games with the senior team, but she continues to look more and more like a natural at this level despite her age. Last year she played for Canada in the U-17 World Cup, the U-20 World Cup and at the senior level.
Fleming @_jessiefleming scores 1st goal in #canWNT 2:0 win over @ScottishFA @CyprusCup2015 http://t.co/Ou93ONAZbP pic.twitter.com/FqoWND5zpG
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) March 4, 2015
“It’s such an honor (to play with this team) and I’m so grateful every time I get invited back in to camp and get to step on the field with these guys it’s pretty incredible,” Fleming said. “I always wanted to play for Canada; I think every little girl growing up in Canada does… It’s going to pretty exciting leading up to the World Cup.”
Needless to say, Canada coach John Herdman is happy with his star of the future.
“Jessie put everything in to get that goal and the vision from Sinclair was phenomenal. Not many women can see that pass,” Herdman said. “What a great start for that 16 year old and we wanted that for her. She’s been working really hard on trying to break the box for us and to get in to those goal scoring positions. So to see her sliding in with every sinew to get a toe on it was fantastic.”
This was the goal that Fleming scored:
Expect a lot more of this to come in the future for Canada (and at UCLA).
