"Everything was leading to this. She was born for this," her former Penn State University head coach Erica Dambach told BBC Sport. "Yes, it's happened young, but it hasn't happened without years of preparation to get into this environment. "Sometimes when it happens to young players, it comes on quickly and maybe they've got six months to deal with the emotions and the media training. Liv has been experiencing this stuff since she was 15 years old."
Despite both Canada and Puerto Rico having already clinched a 2025 AmeriCup quarterfinals berth, there was still plenty of incentive for the SMNT to win their final Group B contest. With the way the rest of the tournament was shaking out (including the USA suffering an upset loss to Uruguay), Canada had a chance to clinch the top seed heading to the knockout stages, and all but guarantee a quarterfinals matchup against the lowest seeded, Colombia.