As the Canadian women’s team is about to embark on its greatest journey ever at this summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup on home soil, optimism abounds, and for good reason.
A lot of it has to do with coach John Herdman and his staff. Under his guidance, this team will be absolutely, 100 percent prepared, better than any Canadian team before it.
When you look back at Canada’s performances at the World Cup in the modern era, there’s been a disturbing trend.
You might recall that Even Pellerud took over a program in shambles in the early part of this century. While playing a long ball brand of soccer with little possession, he got the most out of what he had and led Canada to a remarkable fourth-place finish and the 2003 World Cup in the United States. Four years later his influence had waned and so, I think, had his enthusiasm. Canada did not get out of the group stage and Pellerud was gone a year later.
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Then came the disastrous regime of Carolina Morace who entered the fray with much fanfare and praise from all corners. It was a sham. Nothing worked. She called out her own players and the system was thoroughly broken. Canada not only finished last in their group at the 2011 World Cup, they finished dead last in the entire tournament. Exit Morace. But the bad taste remained.
Fortunately, the London Olympics followed a year later and along came John Herdman. New memories, good ones, a bronze medal and a bunch of reasons to forget previous disasters.
So what now? Back to Herdman’s preparation. He has left no stone unturned in trying to find the absolute best players he can for his squad. He went so far as to try and get the retired Kara Lang back in shape thinking she could still be useful. Sadly another knee injury ended that experiment.
He also has found players with tenuous connections to Canada. American born and raised defender Lauren Sesselmann comes to mind.
Herdman has always taken a scientific approach to developing a program.
If his team has a two-hour training session followed by lunch, followed by team meetings and then a coaches’ video session in the evening, it was designated as such three years ago. His calendar as it relates to team functions on the pitch and off has been filled in to the day since he began the long road towards building a successful World Cup team this summer.
He’s also been given the money to make it happen.
So how far can this team go? It’s hard to say. No question the core of the team remains as it has for years with Christine Sinclair leading the way. There are also some fine young players finding their way into the first team. Jesse Fleming, Adrian Leon, Kadeisha Buchanan and a handful of others will be the future. This could be the coming out party for some of them.
But for those thinking of World Cup glory this summer, yes, the magic of London 2012 could be repeated. But keep in mind Canada is ranked 8th in the world. Canada has yet to crack that upper echelon in women’s football. Maybe this is the team to do it. And maybe throngs of flag waving Canadian supporters in stadium across the country will carry them on a wave.
But it seems to me a final-four appearance would be a solid accomplishment for this team. And given what happened in 2007 and 2011, a return to something akin to what happened in Los Angeles in 2003, or London 2012 doesn’t seem so bad after all.