EDMONTON — Canada emerged unscathed from its opening Women’s World Cup win over China other than an ankle contusion to defender Kadeisha Buchanan.
"That’s just being assessed over these next few days," coach John Herdman told a conference call Sunday. "A few little bumps and scrapes but that’s about it. The girls should be all in good shape ready to go again, those that are called on."
Canada’s next match is Thursday at Commonwealth Stadium against New Zealand, the team Herdman used to coach.
"I promised my players that my ego won’t come into this," he said. "It’s not about getting a result over your old team or trying to pull one over your old assistant coach. I think we’re way beyond that.
"We played them in Switzerland prior to the (2012) Olympics and you could feel the tension then. Canada came through and won 2-0 convincingly. So I’m pretty confident that our players will step up. This New Zealand team, as you saw (Saturday), they never give up. … We know that this team’s a good team and Canada will really have to be on their game to get three points."
New Zealand lost 1-0 to the Netherlands on Saturday in the second game of a doubleheader that saw Canada defeat China 1-0.
The Canadians and New Zealanders are based out of the same Edmonton hotel and Herdman said seeing the Kiwi players around "sort of takes the edge off things."