As part of its preparation for next summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup to be staged on Canadian soil, Canada will face off against Japan on Oct. 25 in Edmonton and Oct. 28 in Vancouver.
The pair of international friendlies will give Canada an idea of how it stacks up against the reigning Women’s World Cup champions, who are also currently ranked no. 3 in the world by FIFA.
Sportsnet chatted with Canadian coach John Herdman ahead of the games against Japan.
How has this training camp gone so far? What kind of condition are the women in?
They’re in good condition. We’ve started our eight-month Centralized Development Program to get them ready for the start of the World Cup next June. At this stage, the players are getting physically hammered—they’re in the weight room every day. The goal over this “foundation period” is for them to complete 40 to 50 sessions that are totally focused on their individual performance to mature physically—so that they can maintain that physical form for seven games over 30 days next summer. They’ve been working very, very hard. The technical team has taken a step back at this camp; we haven’t had a great amount of time with them on the pitch.
Programming alert: Watch Canada vs Japan from Edmonton on Oct. 25 live on all four main Sportsnet channels at 4:00 pm ET. On Oct. 28, watch Canada vs Japan from Vancouver live on Sportsnet ONE and Sportsnet World at 10:00 pm ET. || Sportsnet World NOW || TV schedule
Japan is the reigning World Cup champion and it won the silver medal at the 2012 Olympics. What kind of challenge does Japan pose over these two games?
We’ve been targeting tier-one teams as we draw closer to the World Cup. We’ve been purposely focused on bringing the top three teams in the world to Canada, to play them in Canada, in order to gain that experience of playing the best. It gives you that focus, that even though we’re still in a developmental stage and the real competition doesn’t start until next year, these are real games and meaningful games played before big Canadian crowds.
Last year, we played South Korea and Mexico on home soil during our foundational stage on the technical side. Now we’re in a phase where you’re always looking to see where the gaps are. We hope to learn about the Japanese tactical blueprint and how they approach us. It’s about tournament focus, and games such as these help that.
How much was the scheduling of two games so close together against a quality opponent about trying to replicate the World Cup experience next summer when you’ll have a short turnaround after matches?
Well, that’s it exactly. That’s absolutely key. We know that when the tournament gets tighter and you’re getting down to the podium run that you get fewer days off in between games. You’re travelling from one city to another and internally there are a lot of processes that you have to practise and get it right. And what makes it even more of an effort to get it right is when you’re playing against a top-class team.
So we know we have to get it right in Edmonton, we have to get it right in Vancouver, and there’s an opportunity to practise our analysis process where we have to turnaround information quickly, and adjust to tactical blueprints of our opponents quickly, right down to the recovery and regeneration process. We can learn a lot from out physical and medical teams over these two games.
To say nothing of the fact you get to test yourself against team in Japan that you might have to go through next summer.
Absolutely. One of our goals in the build-up to the World Cup has been to play against all the teams that will be podium threats. Teams like Germany, Sweden, France, Brazil, USA and Japan—they’re the six teams that you know will be in that podium mix. They’re might be a dark horse like England coming through, but those are the six teams you have to play in order to understand how they approach you, and get a deeper understanding of how you should approach them.
Since taking over as Canadian coach you’ve made it a point to call in a number of youngsters into the squad in order to widen the player pool for the future. Will you try to use the youngsters over these two games, or stick with your strongest starting 11? Or is it a mixture of both?
It’s a bit of both. It’s hard to know who your best 11 is because when you put that young back four out against the USA [Canada drew the Americans 1-1 in a friendly in Winnipeg back in May] they did admirably. They had a wonderful performance, but they had seven days preparation prior to that game. If you put the youngsters out there with only two days preparation against a team that moves the ball like Japan and is so fluid with their tactics, it becomes a huge experience gap.
If you’re on the pitch and the Japanese are moving into areas that you’re not used to seeing as a fullback, you’re really not setting up your players to have the best performance. When you do that to young players they amass a lot of psychological scars and those scars don’t really go away so easily, and they can hurt your confidence. Part of my job as a coach is to make sure the youngsters are ready to play, and when they’re ready to play that they’re able to give their best.
If we had 10 days of prep, the youngsters might receive more playing time. But for these two games we’ll be protecting them a little bit and give them an opportunity at the right moment.
When you look at Japan’s team, is there anything bout them in terms of style of play, player development or training methodology that you’d like to borrow or duplicate?
I went to Japan in 2009 to look at their system. They’ve progressed rapidly on the women’s stage and the big thing I learned was that when they hosted the men’s World Cup in 2002 the were able to generate revenue that provided them with a foundation to literally build a structure. That infusion of [money] and the vision of their organization allowed them to build a long-term developmental program.
It was clear that they realized what their weaknesses were so they could work on them. Back in the day, teams could bully the Japanese. You could bully them off the ball even though they were technically very good. You could outmuscle them and beat them to the ball on set pieces. If you look at the DNA of Japanese players now, it’s all changed. There is still a height difference between some of the top teams in the world and Japan, but they’ve developed techniques on how to jump earlier and how to shield the ball and use their bodies better.
What I love about the Japanese is they had a very clear philosophy, so that when I spoke to their technical director, he said ‘we will move more than any other team in the world.’ Movement became their core focus. When you learn about their commitment to constant movement, both on and off the ball, you actually see it come alive on the pitch and it’s something quite stunning to watch.
So I think what you can learn from that is you have to be very clear with your vision and what you want to see happening in your country with your players, and the style of play you want to use. They had real clarity in terms of what they wanted to improve, it was a simplistic approach, and they go after it piece by piece.
Is there a disadvantage of not being forced to go through the CONCACAF qualifying process for the World Cup?
My experience from the qualification process for the 2012 Olympics was that it came down to two games—against Mexico and the USA. You’ll never replace the stress, tension and the processes you have to put in place to get the team ready—you only get that in tournaments where your life is on the line, and it was in those games.
That’s a challenge we face. Canada hasn’t had a game in three years where our lives have been on the line. You might say every time you put that Canadian shirt on in a friendly that your life is on the line. That’s the culture we’re trying to build here, that every single game is about producing a performance you and the country can be proud of.
But when you know that everything you’ve worked for and the whole country’s hopes are hanging on your shoulders you can’t replace that. So there is an advantage to not being in the qualifiers, which is that we can have these home games and we can choose the types of teams we want to play—so we don’t have to play third- and fourth-tier teams like we would in the qualifiers to get to this point.
Defender Lauren Sesselmann has been sidelined with a knee injury since late February. What’s her status? When will she be back to full action for Canada?
She’s on the road to recovery. She’s been with the Canadian team full time since September. Knee injuries are never straightforward. We’d love to see her back for the Cyprus Cup next March. She has a natural left foot, so she’s such an important member of our team.