Watch Canada vs. Colombia in Olympic women’s soccer | CBC Sports

Click on the video player above beginning at 3 p.m. ET to watch live action from the Olympic women’s soccer match between Canada and Colombia.

Canada’s women’s soccer team can do the once-unthinkable this afternoon — advance to the Olympic women’s soccer knockout round with a win over Colombia at Stade de Nice in Nice, France.

Docked six points by FIFA for the team’s spying scandal as the Summer Games kicked off, Canada has rallied with a pair of 2-1 come-from-behind wins over New Zealand and France, to put itself in position to finish no worse than second in Group A with a win, which is all the team needs to have a shot at defending its Olympic gold from Tokyo.

Canada is also aiming to reach the medal podium for a fourth straight time after winning two bronzes (2012, 2016) and gold (2021).

Canada, ranked No. 8 in FIFA world rankings, has defeated 22nd-ranked Colombia in two previous meetings, but those matches happened over a decade ago.

Acting head coach Andy Spence said “must-win” games are nothing new for his squad, and pointed at big-moment players such as Vanessa Gilles and netminder Kailen Sheridan who have stepped up to accept the challenge. Gilles provided the dramatics on Sunday by scoring in the 12th minute of injury time against second-ranked France to keep the goal of advancing alive.

Canadian defender Ashley Lawrence said her team is focusing on today’s match and ignoring all over noise.

“We can’t control [other factors], we can only control getting the win,” said Lawrence. “That is our motivating factor. We want to go into the game 100 per cent to blow it out of the water and win.”

The quarterfinals begin Saturday. Knockout play will continue through the final on Aug. 10 in Paris.