There is still that technicality on Sunday to get out of the way: the tournament championship, a grudge match -- aren’t they all? -- against the all-powerful United States.

And maybe Team Canada’s women can get themselves back up from the high of Friday night, and take a small measure of revenge for many beatings they’ve taken at the hands of the Americans.

But that’s gravy. The job they came to do, is done.

Led by the great Christine Sinclair and, on this night, the almost equally great Melissa Tancredi, Canada’s national women’s soccer team has qualified for the 2012 London Olympics with a highly satisfactory, if hardly airtight, 3-1 victory over Mexico.

“The job’s not done yet, we want to get out there Sunday and do what we can against the U.S.,” said coach John Herdman, “But mission accomplished. It’s been an amazing journey.

“They’re a wonderful bunch of players. They’re an inspiration to their country.”

With a boisterous crowd of 22,954 adding greatly to the mix at B.C. Place, it was the blood-and-guts forward duo of the powerful Tancredi and the artful Sinclair who handled the offence and allowed Canada to survive a nervous second half for the only result that mattered to them in the entire CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tourney.

“I think Canada is a very good side overall, except for Sinclair -- she is another world,” said Mexican coach Leonardo Cuellar, the old national team star and a stalwart of the NASL’s San Diego Sockers and San Jose Earthquakes in the early 80s.

“She was the difference. For me, what she means to her team and the things that she does -- her composure, her guidance, the way she smells the play, her savvy ... no question that’s one of the best players in the world.”

With only a few nervous early steps, mostly of their own over-cautious doing while stroking the ball around in the back, Canada played an admirably north-south game in the opening half, with plenty of well-placed through-balls to Sinclair and Tancredi, each of whom scored in the opening 25 minutes, and each of whom could have had more.

The Canadians might have been up 4-0 at the half, but no one was complaining about the two chances they did finish.

Left fullback Lauren Sesselman, something of a surprise starter playing with a braced left knee, wrong-footed her defender with a neat piece of footwork on the wing to free herself for a perfect cross to Tancredi, who side-footed a one-touch pass onto the left foot of Sinclair for the opening goal in the 15th minute.

Eight minutes later, Sinclair had her ankle stomped inside the box as she played a ball ahead, but the Guyanian referee made no signal and midfielder Kelly Parker kept playing. She chased the ball down and pulled it back to Tancredi, who had the whole net from six yards out.

The game ought to have been over in the first minute after the interval, if Christina Julien, unmarked 10 yards out, had been able to finish the soccer equivalent of a four-foot putt into a gaping net after Tancredi -- lying on her back, after a collision -- managed to reach out with a toe and knock the ball over to her. But Julien’s shot sailed wide, and Mexico was nominally still in it.
More than nominally, in fact.

A combination of the Canadians’ shrinking into a defensive posture, trying to sit on the lead, and desperation on the Mexicans’ part made for a series of near-misses that had Canada’s keeper, Karina LeBlanc, scrambling and parrying and, finally, unable to keep the ball out of the net.

Two terrific strikes, one by Monica Ocampo, which LeBlanc fisted away, and the rebound a seeing-eye blast through a maze of bodies by Veronica Perez, put Mexico on the board in the 67th minute and when another couple of chances quickly ensued, the atmosphere turned swiftly from celebratory to panicky.

Naturally, it was Sinclair who restored order.

Tancredi sprang her behind the Mexican defence with a pinpoint, 30-yard pass and Sinclair got to the ball just ahead of the charging Cecilia Santiago, lofting it delicately over the goalkeeper’s head where it took one, high bounce into the roof of the net.

The Mexicans kept coming, and there was more drama before the final whistle ended the suspense, but Canada hung on to their passage to London.

Sunday, they’ll face the world’s best cast of females, who got past a surprisingly stubborn Costa Rican squad to get their Olympic berth.

The Americans, whose toughest test had come in the final preliminary-round game against Mexico -- and even that one ended 4-0 -- couldn’t have been anticipating much of a problem getting past Costa Rica.

But a problem is what they had, in a first half that featured three distinct scoring chances by the Costa Ricans: two requiring Hope Solo to come up with her first two athletic saves in at least a couple of games, and the third a 30-yard strike in the 26th minute by defender Carol Sanchez that beat Solo but not the left post and crossbar.

The half’s only goal had come in the 16th minute off one of many dangerous U.S. set pieces, another superb long corner by Lauren Cheney that was eventually finished by Tobin Heath.

But the Costa Ricans eventually ran out of gas, tired from being physically overmatched by the bigger, stronger Americans, and the U.S. started to systematically break down the smaller team’s defence, scoring twice more -- a rocket by Carli Lloyd and a nice bit of persistence and finish by substitute Alex Morgan -- to get their heavily-favoured squad through to the Olympics.

“I’ve always said I respect the game and the opponents, and this is the proof. You can’t take anything for granted,” said U.S. coach Pia Sundhage.

“When you play a game that matters ... this was a semi-final, and everybody was a little bit nervous, which actually is a good thing, because if you deal with that -- which we did eventually -- you have a bigger chance to win the next game.

“I give credit to the players. We are going to the Olympics.”

The possibility of a letdown in Sunday’s final, having achieved their primary goal, is a reality both teams will have to face.

“It’s funny, we talked about [as a team] that after the game,” said Sundhage, “and we looked at each other and we just ... we don’t know. We need to enjoy this big win against Costa Rica. Tomorrow, we’ll look at [the final].

“I’ll tell you this .... we will compete, as usual.”

ccole@vancouversun.com