Canada kicked off the Olympics Games onWednesday, when the Canadian women’s soccer team beat Australia 2-0.

The victory was a step in the right direction for Team Canada, which earlier in the day had announced it hopes to crack the list of the top12 countries for most medals won in the Rio Olympics.

It’s a tough goal, and the team needs every win it can get. Canada tied with Hungary in 13th place with 18 medals overall in the 2012 London Olympics. The United States placed first, with 103 medals.

The Canadian women’s soccer team scored a bronze medal in 2012, and hopes are high this time around that the team will place.

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“Our goal heading into this tournament is to prove London wasn’t a fluke and that we’re a power,” captain Christine Sinclair told CBC News on Tuesday.

Sinclair scored the team’s second goal Wednesday. Janine Beckie broke an Olympic record when she scored the team’s first goal within 20 seconds of the start of the game.

The Games don’t officially begin until Friday’s opening ceremony in Rio, but the football tournament in Sao Paolo — and the arrival of the Olympic torch in Rio — got the festivities rolling early.

“Team Canada is in good hands. The athletes are sure to have inspiring leaders with tremendous devotion,” said Tricia Smith, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, during the news conference where Team Canada’s overall medal goal was announced.

“I am so pumped for our athletes,” said Chef de Mission Curt Harnett, a four-time Olympic cyclist and member of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Harnett sported the same shaggy blonde hair that helped earn him his own shampoo commercial back in the 1990s at the height of his fame.

“They are here with fire in their hearts and ice in their veins,” he said.

Canada has 314 athletes competing in Rio, 186 women and 128 men.

Canada also qualified in five team sports: women’s soccer, rugby sevens and basketball, and men’s field hockey and volleyball.

Canada had just two teams four years ago in London: women’s soccer and women’s basketball.

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Canadian athletes are riding a wave of success into these Games; 36 of them having earned top-five placements at their respective world championships.

Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith, a former Olympic rower, said the Games are a “truly magic” moment for the hundreds of Canadian athletes chosen to compete for their country.

“This is when the world pauses to celebrate those who dare to push the limits of human potential,” Smith said.

With files from The Canadian Press