Women's World Cup Wrap-up: Canadian Edition

It is honestly hard for me to know where to even begin in writing this post.   That is a rarity for someone like me who so often has far to much to say.  So I will begin by saying that todays match between Canada and Nigeria has left me feeling just down right bad.  Nigeria were a team that many had written off as just being in the World Cup to make up numbers but instead they played Germany and France closely and then found a way to beat Canada in the battle to see who would not end up last in the group.

The defeat at the hands of France was a tougher one to take for me since it meant that the team were mathematically eliminated and that even a win on the final day would not be enough.  It also worked to ensure that almost all of the positivity that came from the opening day match against Germany was forgotten.  Any good feelings that might have been left over are now gone as well.  I think I would have been able to understand and be okay with Canada just missing out on moving on from this group because France and Germany are two very strong teams but Canada didn't even come close.  What can you say in the defence of a team that was talked up as potential competitors for not only moving in to the knockout rounds but maybe even winning the whole thing gets sent home without collecting even a single point and in the biggest game of many of these women's lives they plain did not show up.  I would have thought that today with the pressure off the women would have at least found a way to put on a show and give themselves something positive to build on going forwards but it was the complete opposite.  They once again did not show up, they looked poor in every area of the game, and they deserved to lose to a Nigerian side that seemed to be putting in a greater effort.

I don't think that I need to say anything more about that really.  We all have the same feeling of disappointment in this team and a lot of that feeling comes from the fact that many of us bought it when we were told this side was going to be a contender.  We liked the idea that Canada might just win something or at least have a good showing on the international stage.  In theory it was great to think that with the players all on board with Morace game plan things would go perfectly come the World Cup.  Instead it all went wrong and we are now left doing the customary finger pointing.  I do think that this needs to be a learning experience and next time the team needs to do a couple of things differently but also I do not see any point in over reacting.  My thoughts on it are:

1. There is no need for drastic change.  Morace is the right coach for the job but her some of her decisions were questionable and she did not get the best out of her players

2. The players we have in the system while they are decent need to be developed in to more refined players who have the skill set required to win on the biggest stage.

3. The training camp in Rome was far to long and may have left many of the players feeling emotionally drained by the time that they got to Germany

4. There needs to be a better balance in the number of games played in the run up to a major tournament.  You have to play some to get ready and develop as a team but they may have played too many matches this year with to much travel again taking a toll on the women who for the most part are not used to that

5. Canada needs to once again look at all of its programs and ask why we never seem to get the best out of our players on the international stage.


For more on what Canada needs to move forward from here I highly suggest you read the article that Jason Devos posted earlier today.  It is something that I feel strongly about and we need a lot more people who feel the say way as Jason to start making things happen as the way forward for Canada requires change at every level from the local club all the way up to the CSA.  Its going to be a long process and maybe even an expensive one but if we ever want to have international success its something we have to look at and give serious consideration.

Devos Article: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifawomensworldcup2011/blog/2011/07/fixing-canadian-soccer---a-call-to-action.html

Dreams Shattered

After all of the emotional high that came from Canada putting up such a strong fight against the best team in the world I had allowed myself to believe that they would beat France with relative ease and actually be a factor in this tournament.  Sadly that is not to be.  Maybe I was being a bit overly dramatic yesterday when I wondered to myself and all of twitter why I let myself actually believe in a Canadian Soccer team because like always they never seem to meet my expectations.  Having taken some distance back from the match and gotten over the initial awful feeling that I had for almost the entire game against France I can say that I was wrong to comment that this made the Gold Cup feel like a happy memory.  I am still proud of our countries women's team and I hope that they finish off strong against Nigeria and can then say that they represented this country well on the World Stage.

I think there was a fair bit of extra hype going around trying to convince us all that this team was capable of winning the Women's World Cup and it sounded so great that we all wanted to believe it to be true.  The fact is though that it took them a great run of results to get to number 6 in the world and it would probably have taken an almost perfect performance from our ladies to beat any of the 5 teams remaining above them.  Are they better then they showed against France, no doubt about that in my mind, but are they good enough to have been seriously considered as World Cup contenders, I am starting to doubt that.

The fact of the matter is that in the biggest game of many of these ladies careers they just did not have it. The back line once again looked questionable at best and were allowing shots from all over the field.  At the same time the attack was completely unable to put anything on goal that actually threatened to go in.  It is a terrible combination when you allow your opponents to test your keeper 10 times but you fail to test theirs even once.  I almost feel that the final score of 4-0 was a bit kind to Canada based on the way that they played in the second half.

But now I want to move on.  As a fan of Canadian soccer if I spent to long dwelling on all the bad games, the early exits, and the painful memories I would probably be suffering from some form of sports fan depression.  It is the delusions that we allow ourselves as sports fans that keep us coming back for more almost as if we are all gluttons for punishment.  It is the fans motto to believe that next year is always going to be our year no matter how bad we have been this year.  Things are always going to turn around and will get better, if we did not believe that then we would probably all just stop watching since what is the point when you already think your team is doomed to lose.  I will again be believing in this ladies team when the Olympics come around in 2012, same thing for the next World Cup in 2015.  That is just how it works for me as a fan and to be honest a lot of the younger players on this team did just enough in this World Cup to give me a reason to have faith that they will use this experience to come back better and stronger next time.  A defeat like this has to stay with you for the rest of your playing career because it is the kind of thing that can fuel you to greatness and as a delusional fan I think that this team can still be great.

Women's World Cup Underway

So if you live on twitter like many of us seem to do these days you have probably noticed that for the past 2 days the name Christine Sinclair has been trending and for good reason.  In case you are the one person out there who would be reading this and not already know about her performance I will fill you in.  On Sunday Christine proved that she should be the captain of Canada as well as being considered as one of the best players in the world.  She proved that she is capable of taking a free kick with as much skill as anyone in the world regardless of gender.  The free kick goal is only one part of what made her performance so memorable as she also broke her nose and then was seen waving away the trainers and returning to the field as quickly as possible.  There was no rolling around on the ground in pain, there was no calling for a sub, there was only a clear desire to return to play and do anything should could to help her team out.  There is no question that Sinclair would have been within her rights to take the rest of the match off with her nose broken and her team down 2-0 against the best team in the world but that is not how Christine Sinclair goes about her business.  After she returned to the field Sinclair was also seen telling one of the German's to get up off the ground after she went down as she wanted to keep the game going being desperate to get Canada back into the match.

Sinclair's free kick goal was a late effort that gave Canada an outside chance of stealing a draw but it was not to be.  The fact that it had been over 600 minutes since the German team had conceded a goal in the Women's world cup only makes the goal all the more impressive but for me it is all about the heart that she showed.  She led the team into a hostile environment against a team that was clearly favoured to win the game, and possibly the entire tournament.  Germany were the better team in the game and they controlled much of the chances but Canada proved that they belong playing against them and it was because of the efforts of players like Sinclair.

I do not want to make this post about the men's team but I feel that I would be remiss if I did not point out the fact that the men's team is lacking any sort of leadership and heart like Sinclair showed.  I am not going to question the commitment of the men because they are all giving a lot to be able to represent their country and I respect them for that but none of them seem to show the heart and hustle that Sinclair shows.  Would anyone in the men's team break their nose and then stay on?  I somehow doubt that.

The game on the whole was a decent showing for Canada and the fact that they only lost to the German's 2-1 is going to be good for them going forward.  The French team did not look great in their opening match so unless they improve in the coming matches Canada should be in a good position to get a crucial win.  Even if Canada settles for a draw against France they will be in a decent position to possibly take second place in the group based on goal difference since I think it is safe to say that neither France or Nigeria is going to stay within 1 of this German team.  Let me make one thing clear though this game against France is where the tournament really kicks off for Canada and they absolutely must get a result if they hope to move on.

The German team proved to me why they are the favourites to win this thing and why some people are calling them the best women's team of all time.  They had world player of the year nominees coming off the bench, there is just so much depth and talent in that side and the 2-1 scoreline might just be the closest that any of their games end in this tournament.

I am looking forward to seeing more of this tournament because in a lot of ways it is a more pure form of the game then the men's game has become.  It is not uncommon to watch a game and not see a single yellow card which is refreshing for myself as I get sick of seeing players picking up cautions all over the field in the men's game.  There is no diving problem running rampant and in the 3 games I have watched so far I constantly felt that the players out their were all giving their very best and that is great to see.  The game itself is hard to compare to the men's game because of the differences in physical abilities and technique but I do think it is possible to enjoy both of them for what they are.  This Women's world cup is definitely worth a watch though.

Oh and here is the goal:

Canadian Women's National Team: Lessons the Men Should Learn

I have recently come to the conclusion that there are many things that the Canadian Men's National team could benefit to learning from their Women's equivalent.  Having monitored the women in the run up to their World Cup competition later this month I have noticed that the team does a lot more to create a greater public image.  Just a quick search of twitter shows that many of the ladies are on there and often are willing to reply to fans and present themselves as very nice girls.  They do not have the issues that many other pro athletes have come across while using twitter, at least not in what I have seen, they don't send out inflamatory and offensive tweets like Rashard Medenhall of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers nor do they send out tweets that are barely in the English language like Rio Ferdinand.  They all do well to come across as nice ladies who truly appreciate their fans.  This is sort of effort by the team, even if it is informal, makes them seem more human and you can connect with them better.  The men's team on the other hand does have a maybe a handful of players on twitter but most of them rarely tweet and when they do they are often quite useless and just updating us on the games that they are playing soon or their teams results a few days late, thanks for those ones De Ro.  The players on the men's team do not put that effort in to connect with their fans and as such i think they are less popular than the Ladies team in many circle.

I am just using twitter as one illustration of the difference between the two teams.  For me the ladies do many things that help them relate to Canadians and they do more to connect with people at the grass roots level.  You are more likely to see the Women's team members going to their local soccer club where they used to play and being well known in their community then the men.  I will attribute a lot of this to the fact that the men have a more rigorous professional schedule throughout much of the year which requires them to spend more time away from home and several of the players play over seas.  So the women do have a bit more time to spend at home and being connecting to their communities but a part of it is also a conscious effort on their parts.

Another illustration of how the Ladies team does more to relate is their efforts to raise funds for breast cancer research.  If you follow a number of them on twitter then I am sure that you have seen earlier today a lot of them tweeted pictures of sports bras which they have added their own unique designs to and made available for auction following the women's World Cup.  This is the kind of initiative that can only improve the popularity of the team and to be honest it was probably fun bonding that did not take that much time or effort on their parts.  In the end they will have done good by raising some funds for research and also done good for their perception throughout the country.

This is a lesson that the men's team needs to learn.  These small little things may not win them loads of new fans but it can help to make them more popular and well liked and at this stage every little bit is going to help to grow the program.  The men's team is not very well connected to its fans and does not do much in the community so they feel distant and like they do not really belong to us as a country in the same way that the Women's team does.  It is not often that you hear of Canada's top male players staying connected to the clubs where they grew up and being hugely supported by them but you hear that about almost every female player.  They are not going to be able to change this perception over night, and like I said due to restraints I do not expect them to do as much as the Women do, but there is a lot of room for improvement and any little bit would help.

There are other areas that the men could learn from the women but I am not going to really get into the idea of searching for a coach overseas in hopes of getting the best possible candidate or the idea of holding training camps to help the player build a better connection because those things just are not really possible.  But let me just wrap up by pointing out that there is a reason that the women are ranked 6 in the world and arguably better supported.

Women's World Cup 2011: Roster Unveiled

In case you are still feeling sad about Canada being out of the Gold Cup it is time to turn that frown upside down.  In only 10 days the Canadian National Women's team will be taking to the field against Germany to kick off their World Cup campaign and as I will try to show to you in this post we have every reason to be excited about them.  This is a very good team and many experts have them as a team with the potential to make a push into the knockout rounds.  Who knows maybe they will do one better then they did in 2003 when they finished fourth, can dream right?

Last week the Canadian women's national team competed in their final tuneup game before this months World Cup kicks off.  The ladies claimed a comfortable 2-0 win over Korea DPR but once again fans were left wondering where the goals were.  The team has shown a vast improvement in terms of quality, fitness, and performance since Morace took over as head coach 2 years ago and now she has the team in a great position to turn some heads at the World Cup.  There is a clear sense of unity and confidence coming from the ladies on the team that can be seen in something as simple as the tweets that many of them are sending congratulating one another on major milestones and sharing their excitement for this tournament.  I for one have never noticed the ladies team being a closer knit bunch and more positive then they are now and that is thanks to the efforts that Morace has put in.

Morace now has the ladies up to an all time high rank of 6th in the World and with a good showing that is a ranking that could very well improve coming out of the World Cup.  There is no reason to not consider this team as a potential semifinalist.  Morace has had the team over in Europe already for a number of weeks with the ladies training in Rome which I expect will pay off in improved bonds between the players which should translate into them working better together during the games.  Morace has changes the entire culture around the team and taught them a new way of playing the game that is based around keeping possession of the ball and working to build chances.  That is a drastic change from the team that used to rely on hitting the ball long and hoping to take advantage of the great goal scorers we have had in recent years.  Morace's hard work has already paid some dividends in the form of a CONCACAF championship for the ladies as they did not concede a goal in their 5 matches in that tournament.  The win over North Korea also improved their record on the year to a very impressive 10-1-2.  So when the news came out last week that Morace would be staying around until at least after the 2012 olympics it was a move that only made good sense.  There is no reason to think that this team will not preform at the World Cup and by keeping Morace on they have ensured that there will be continued stability and growth.

Today Morace unvielled her 21 woman roster for the World Cup which Canada will open against the host, and world number 2, Germany on June 26.  Her roster came with very few surprises and contained a nice mixture of youth and experience.  It is clear that the team will look for a lot of veteran leadership Sinclair (159 caps, 116 goals), 31 year old keeper LeBlanc (in her fourth World Cup), Brittany Timko (100 caps in defence), and Diana Matheson ( over 100 appearances in the midfield).  With these ladies the team has a core of experience all over the field but the addition of some fresh faces make the team more exciting then it has ever been.

Here is Morace's 21 woman roster:

Goalkeepers: Karina LeBlanc (Unattached), Erin McLeod (magicJack), Stephanie Labbé (Piteå IF)

Defenders: Emily Zurrer (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Robyn Gayle (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Candace Chapman (Western New York Flash), Brittany Timko (Unattached), Marie-Eve Nault (Ottawa Fury)

Midfielders: Kelly Parker (Atlanta Beat), Carmelina Moscato (Unattached), Kaylyn Kyle (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Rhian Wilkinson (Lillestrøm SK Kvinner), Diana Matheson (Lillestrøm SK Kvinner), Desiree Scott (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Sophie Schmidt (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Chelsea Stewart (Vancouver Whitecaps FC)

Forwards: Christine Sinclair (Western New York Flash), Melissa Tancredi (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Jodi-Ann Robinson (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Jonelle Filigno (Rutgers University), Christina Julien (Ottawa Fury)