Category Archives: Canada WNT

As Canada fights its spying penalty, the facts only get worse

by Andrew Bates

With Canada Soccer fighting a six-point sanction from FIFA on and off the pitch, we learn more about its drone spying at the Paris Olympics

Bev Priestman is seen walking on a soccer field wearing a trenchcoat.
Bev Priestman, Canada women’s soccer head coach, was banned for a year as part of an investigation into drone use by an analyst at the 2024 Olympics. PHOTO: AUDREY MAGNY/CANADA SOCCER

In March of this year, Bev Priestman had a problem. One of the Canadian women’s team manager’s analysts had refused to engage in “spying” on opposing teams. What was she to do?

The analyst, tasked with providing information on opposing teams had written a tersely-worded email putting into writing a conversation they’d had with Priestman on “spying.”

In point form, they give three good reasons they don’t want to do it: “Morally,” then “My own reputation within the analysis field,” then “Potentially being unable to fulfil my role on a matchday.”

“Just wanted to confirm that you will not be asking me to fulfil the role of “spying” in the upcoming camp & future camps,” the analyst wrote.

Priestman reached out to an individual with the same name as an HR consultant used by the national team about the “formal email on ‘spying’ ” she had received.

“I know there is a whole operation on the Men’s side with regards to it,” she wrote, adding that she asked the analyst “to propose a alternative solution as for scouting it can be the difference between winning and losing and all top 10 teams do it.

“Just after guidance really as to what from a HR stand point I can do or do I need to find another solution in resourcing? It’s a tricky one and it’s formal for a reason I feel…”

These were the emails that got Bev Priestman kicked out of the Olympics and banned from soccer for a year, according to FIFA’s reasons for its sanctions against Priestman, the Canadian Soccer and two of its coaches released Monday.

It’s part of a very stupid debacle that started when one of the two coaches, Joey Lombardi, got arrested July 22 while trying to fly a drone over a New Zealand practice in St. Etienne. It’s rippled out to include a six-point deduction against the defending Olympic champions, as well as allegations of systematic spying which threaten to soil two of the best things to happen for long-suffering Canadian fans: women’s team’s gold medal and qualification for the 2022 men’s World Cup.

Canada is fighting: On Sunday, the women’s team beat France 2-1 to stay alive in the tournament, despite the penalty, and on Monday, Canada Soccer announced that it was appealing the points penalty because it “unfairly punishes the athletes” and “goes far beyond restoring fairness to the match against New Zealand,” with a date Tuesday at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Canada women’s soccer legends Christine Sinclair and Stephanie Labbé said they hadn’t used the footage. Vanessa Gilles, the goalscorer on Sunday, gave an interview where she said they were powered by the desire “to prove people wrong when all this shit is coming out about our values, about our representation as Canadians. It’s not us, we’re not cheaters, we’re damned good players.”

All this has been a massive psychological blow for fans who see themselves as backing an underdog, a scrappy hard-working group of good kids struggling to make space in Canada’s hockey-mad sports culture for soccer and to make space for Canadians in a sport that rarely takes them seriously either. The points penalty has become another hurdle to leap, or evidence of some lingering unfairness against Canada, even though we’re the ones that cheated.

After Canada asked for the reasons for its decision, FIFA has posted its quasi-judicial ruling recommending the six-point, C$310,000 fine against the federation, finding it broke a rule in the competition rulebook against flying drones over training sites, and banning Priestman, Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander for a year.

As a court reporter and occasional soccer writer and talker, this lit my brain up in a particular way. The decision goes some way to confirming what is reported through anonymous sourcing in a number of articles by TSN’s Rick Westhead: that Canada Soccer coaches asked staffers on its men’s and women’s teams to watch opposing teams practices long before Lombardi’s arrest at the Stade de Drury.

Lombardi himself claimed in a statement filed with FIFA that he did his droning on his own account because he “wanted to impress the Canadian Women’s technical staff with informed/accurate analysis to elevate my role for future opportunities with the team.” Tragically for him, he went once without getting caught, but didn’t get anything usable, and came back for a second try at it.

Canada Soccer first called him an “unaccredited analyst” before later admitting he was an employee, and Priestman said it doesn’t represent “the values we stand for” and valiantly offered to withdraw from the New Zealand game.

But when the association’s CEO Kevin Blue sent Priestman home altogether, saying in a statement that “additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents,” FIFA’s disciplinary body, who had not received this info, asked, hey, uh, where’s our copy?

That ended up being the emails between Priestman, the analyst and the HR consultant. Canada Soccer has blamed it all on former men’s and women’s national team coach John Herdman, according to the decision.

“Canada is investigating the history of this matter, but we suspect that the practice of using a drone
stems back to John Herdman when he was the head coach of the women’s national team,” the CSA wrote in a statement to FIFA. “In other words, this was a practice started by one person – John Herdman – and continued by Bev Priestman. It was not facilitated by the federation.”

Herdman, now behind the bench in MLS at Toronto FC, denied using drones or spying “at an Olympic Games or World Cup.” But he and the men’s program have featured heavily in Westhead’s reporting, with a July 26 story offering the scene of Herdman showing drone footage to players ahead of a World Cup qualifier against Honduras in August 2021.

Two days later, Herdman was quoted in an AP story about Honduras reportedly stopping a training session after seeing a drone overhead.

“I’d imagine there’s probably a lot of people in Canada that fly drones, I’m sure,” Herdman is quoted as saying the day before. “I know for sure we won’t be heading into people’s countries too early because with drones these days, people can obviously capture footage. You’ve got to be really careful. So yeah, you got to be careful in CONCACAF. It’s a tricky place.”

France is, indeed, being very careful about drones this Olympics, as Lombardi now knows after spending three days in jail and getting an eight-month suspended sentence. In the decision, FIFA notes that Canada was told at least three times that the official tournament rules this year banned the use of drones, which is one of the two breaches the federation is accused of.

The other is “offensive conduct or violation of the principles of fair play,” or the idea that drone spying creates an uneven playing field by giving teams “real-time aerial views and data that are not accessible to others.” It violates the integrity of the sport by allowing “access to elements, tactics, and other preparation actions” that the team wants kept private, FIFA argued.

It highlights the high importance of the Olympics and a country’s national team and the need for a sentence that’s proportionate but also deters others, saying Canada’s breach “merited severe consequences affecting their standing in the competition.”

Another theme of Westhead’s reporting, reflected in Priestman’s email, is that Canada was looking for any advantage it could get, under the impression that every team was doing something similar.

Former Chelsea legend and onetime Montreal Impact striker Didier Drogba shyly told CBC’s Ariel Helwani that “it happens, it happens few times … for me, I mean, they just caught them, that’s it.”

Tyler Adams, who plays for the US men’s team and for Bournemouth in England, told the Soccer Cooligans podcast that “every team does it in some capacity,” either with drones or more pedestrian means of spying.

In 2019, noted bucket-sitter Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United team caught a fine when an intern was spotted outside a training session for second-tier rivals Derby County with binoculars. In an hour long slideshow slash press conference, Bielsa defended the practice as common in South America and wryly noted that it didn’t stop him getting blown out by Barcelona as Athletic Bilbao manager.

“Even though going and watching an opponent is not useful, it allows me to keep my anxiety low,” Bielsa said, closing his address by saying, “I repeat: Why do I do it? Because I think I’m stupid.”

For all this heartache, what great advantage did drone spying give Herdman? From Westhead:

“Herdman explained that the Honduran team favoured a 4-4-2 formation with either a medium or a high press and that simplicity was the key to Canada being successful in the important game, the source said.

“Herdman emphasized “turning the Honduran team around,” in the first 15 minutes, according to the source.”

Truly ground-breaking stuff, the kind of basic insight anyone could get by watching any of a team’s previous matches or media interviews. Canada in fact failed to turn the Honduran team around and drew 1-1 after getting a penalty in the 66th minute.

That leads to my favourite take on this, which comes from Vancouver Whitecaps coach Vanni Sartini, via Har Journalist. Sartini, whose team trains in the centre of a university campus, says he’s “against secrecy,” and never closes his practices anyways.

“We never try to spy on anyone and we don’t care if anyone comes to spy, because there’s no advantage to doing this. We are in 2024, where everyone can see every game of every team. Every action, every set play everywhere. The marginal gains to send someone to see a training session is almost zero.”

For “almost zero” gain, Canada Soccer has sent itself again into crisis, after dealing with the horror of sex abuse allegations against a women’s youth national team coach which an investigation found that Canada Soccer mishandled, and an ongoing financial crisis which saw matches canceled when players refused to play due to a labour dispute hampered by a contract which puts a clamp on the association’s cash flow.

Westhead, who has a track record of tough but fair reporting on Canada Soccer’s foibles, has come under criticism for the negative press from fans grasping at straws for a person to blame, with his former colleague Kristian Jack telling a OneSoccer panel Monday that Canadians can’t look for excuses.

“It’s a hard look in the mirror. Canadians have to stand on a high moral ground … this is our country doing it right now,” Jack said. “If you look at it, it has not been a good few years for what Canadians stand for in terms of ethic behaviour, how you treat people.”

The organization’s new general secretary, Kevin Blue, who comes from golf, was supposed to be the start of a new chapter, with new men’s coach Jesse Marsch leading the program to a transcendent Copa America and Priestman given a chance to expand her legacy after the gold medal win.

Instead, Canada Soccer is fighting from the moral low ground, muddying the country’s reputation and playing without a head coach — all three things their analyst had warned them about in March. If only they had fully read that “formal email on ‘spying’.”

We’re not ready for Christine Sinclair to leave

by Andrew Bates

Embed from Getty Images

It is a cruel joke that the woman around whom Canada’s soccer universe has revolved for 19 years is the one who doesn’t want the attention.

But Canada is out of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, having lost 1-0 to Sweden in the round of 16, and all everyone is talking about is Christine Sinclair, who’s just finished her fifth tournament, and the play she didn’t make.

It’s hard not to talk about Sinclair. Her incredible talent, historic success, with two Olympic bronze medals, and tantalizing nearness to the world international goalscoring record makes her a magnet for Canadians and women’s soccer fans of all stripes.

But predictions she’d break the record at this tournament didn’t mesh with the more supportive role she’s adopted in the team as a new generation of players developed. She’s not a player that has spent games this year camping out in the penalty area against inferior opponents trying to match Abby Wambach’s 184 goals — she has been the engine of a team that went ten games undefeated through defensive discipline. That risk-averse, locked-in shape gave Canada just a tense 1-0 win in the tournament opener against Cameroon. In the 2-0 victory against New Zealand, Sinclair’s own chances never landed but she assisted on Nichelle Prince’s goal. Her only marker of the tournament was an emphatic strike from the left-hand side, an equalizer before an eventual 2-1 loss to the Netherlands

So it’s not a surprise that as Canada seemed desperate for a lift, losing in a knockout round game against Sweden, when a penalty did come from a desperate Desiree Scott broadside, for Sinclair it was an obvious choice. In a shootout earlier this year in the Algarve Cup against the same keeper, Hedvig Lindahl, she was the only one who missed. Janine Beckie should take it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Janine miss, and so I went up to her, and I’m like, it’s yours if you want it,” she said after the match. “I have all the trust in the world in her.”

This moment is pure Sinclair, as it illustrates the gap between how she sees her role and how she is viewed by Canadians, who instantly began to compare the moment to Wayne Gretzky being left on the bench for the men’s hockey team’s shootout loss in the semifinal of the 1998 Olympics. But unlike Nagano, this decision was hers. It never occurred to her to be a talisman; she analyzed the situation clinically and acted, what-ifs be damned. The shot, low and to the left, wasn’t anything to regret, she told the midfielder.

“I said after the game, did you shoot it where you wanted to?” she told interviewers. “Then you have to credit the keeper, she made a world class save, and you move on.”

The things we talk about when we talk about Sinclair — the possibility that this could be her final World Cup match, the record, how badly we wanted to see her dominate a game again — just weren’t front of mind to her. And at the end of the day, the penalty wasn’t why Canada lost.

Embed from Getty Images

“You get all the glory if it goes in and you take the blame, it feels like, if you miss, and that’ll stay with me for a long time,” Beckie said after the game. She doesn’t deserve that. The game slipped out of Canada’s fingers in a dozen other moments.

“Why is this their only good goalscoring opportunity, on a VAR-reviewed penalty? They couldn’t get a good goalscoring opportunity in the run of play,” former national-teamer Clare Rustad asked on TSN.

The saved penalty was one of only two attempts Canada had on-target, with nine more missing or blocked. Throughout the match, but especially in its agonizing, wrenching final seven minutes of added time, Canada had many great runs with no finish; either passes with no teammate to cover or wild shots that caromed wide of the goal. Adriana Leon and Jayde Riviere increased the tempo, but the resulting chances were desperate and wild. Crosses would fly into the box for Sinclair, but Sweden’s central defenders would rise to head clear each time.

“Their midfielders cannot strike from distance,” Rustad said. “It’s a glaring hole in the development of Canada Soccer right now, is that we’re not producing strikers who can strike the ball from distance, and who are consistently threatening against good teams.”

Up and down the park, Canada has disciplined and gifted players: Beckie, the American-born midfielder who plays for the love of her Canadian parents, Ashley Lawrence, playing in her club Paris Saint-Germain’s home ground Parc Des Princes, Stephanie Labbe, a hero of those Olympic runs who appeared in her first World Cup and kept her side in the game with key saves, and Riviere, who wowed against New Zealand and added freshness to the game on the right on her introduction in the 84th minute. To say nothing of Jordyn Huitema, the 18-year old who routinely substituted in for Sinclair in friendlies but didn’t see the field here. But they haven’t been able to seize control of games, and Sinclair doesn’t do that on her own any more.

She is ceding more space, more opportunities to the players who she will leave behind, when she chooses to; while it’s hard to imagine that moment coming before the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, it’s hard to see her at the next edition of this tournament in four years. (Her eternal rival Marta, also having just completed her fifth World Cup for Brazil, gave an impassioned post-match interview Sunday that certainly sounded like a goodbye address.)

But we’re not ready for her to pass the torch just yet. We don’t want the pictures of Sinclair, eyes red with tears, to be our last memories of her on this stage. And they may not be — in that same interview, she talked about taking a brief break before returning to the NWSL’s Portland Thorns to win a championship. And there’s always those Olympics.

Until then, we are left with the heartbreak, and the sorrow that hangs around the goodbye to come.

Canada starts strong at Rio 2016 with terrifying and terrific win

by Andrew Bates

Christine Sinclair collapsed after her 80th minute goal metres from where she left Australia's Lisa De Vanna flat on the turf. (Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil)

Christine Sinclair collapsed after her 80th minute goal metres from where she left Australia’s Lisa De Vanna flat on the turf. (Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil)

It was tough, tight and nerve-wracking on the pitch, but a 2-0 shutout on the scoresheet that puts Canada in a power position in Group F.

The current incarnation of the Canadian women’s soccer team has been empowered by the 2012 Olympic bronze medal win, but it’s a newer, less predictable squad that can’t be judged on those results. Lose flatly against Brazil in a friendly on a Saturday, hold them off long enough to get the win the next Tuesday. So the fate of Les Rouges in the opening match of the 2016 Olympics against 5th-ranked Australia was really anyone’s guess for about the first 20 seconds.

Christine Sinclair used veteran experience to catch Australia before they even got on their bikes, burning Alanna Kennedy and Laura Alleway with ease before setting up Janine Beckie for the fastest goal in Olympic women’s history. The game’s first minutes are rarely as important as their last minutes, but this squad needed to define what kind of Team Canada it was immediately.

What’s funny about the game’s first twenty minutes is how they defined the game but were mostly separated from its bulk by the red card to Shelina Zadorsky. The same exuberance that Canada showed in its last friendly against France helped it establish itself early on and it contributed to the foul that saw Canada go deservingly down to 10 players.

But although 4-4-1 is certainly not the formation head coach John Herdman anticipated before the game, the switch answered questions and brought results; Melissa Tancredi, a veteran of 2012 with a diminished role this year, made way like a good soldier for Rebecca Quinn. Her energetic play fit into the defense without missing a beat. It’s the defensive game that maybe gives the team its identity and purpose; a mix of young players and tough veterans scrapping it out as hard as they can to keep the team in the game and provide for the forwards.

Or in this match, just one forward. A transcendent forward in Sinclair whose service helped put Canada in front and who took advantage of Jessie Fleming’s long ball to put Australia away single-handedly. Her touch nudging the ball past rushing Aussie keeper Lydia Williams in midfield was perfect, just enough to leave Williams in the dust and give herself enough time before Lisa De Vanna arrived to send a loping chipped ball through the empty penalty area and into the goal.

Canada were lucky here. They did well after the ejection, but had Australia scored on the resulting free kick, it would have been over. The moments when Steph Labbé was on the deck with a leg cramp brought hearts into mouths. Beckie’s missed penalty in the second half could have been a costly missed opportunity. But with Australia in the middle ground of difficulty between Germany and Zimbabwe, they have got all three of the group stage’s most vital points and they were forced to fight together against the odds. Not a bad way to establish yourselves.

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Canada WNT build their game in friendly loss to strong Germany

by Andrew Bates

Photo courtesy Ville Vuorinen/Canada Soccer

Photo courtesy Ville Vuorinen/Canada Soccer

So we can agree now that Canada can defend, right? They can defend.

The Canadian national women’s team did that in spades June 19 against Germany. But a great performance on the backline, highlighted by Rhian Wilkinson and a stunning performance by goalkeeper Erin McLeod, is only half of the game. Coach Jon Herdman will need to build their play in the other two thirds of the pitch in the two years before Canada host the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

Describing every event that takes place for Canada between now and 2015 as a prelude could become cliche pretty quickly. But it’s true: CONCACAF has retired the Women’s Gold Cup in favour of a standalone qualifying tournament, meaning that there are very few competitive games between now and then for the hosts. So a chance to get a blue-chip challenge like this — away to second-ranked Germany, who didn’t go to the Olympics — is a valuable chance to see what Canada needs to do in order to hang with the world’s elite teams.

The key: go forward. It wasn’t just that Germany had the balance of the play, but that Canada was powerless to even start a move. They were outshot 8-2, and Germany won a stunning 15 corners to zero pour les rouges. The passing needed to be crisper; I recall seeing slow passes roll on the carpet only to be picked off before Canada even made it past the centre line.

Part of that is power and part of that is organization. They’ve got a good solid bedrock: they’re committed to winning and pulling off tough wins against good opposition as well as frustrating offenses that should have done better. (Célia Okoyino da Mbabi was half crazy by the end.) Part of that is building an offence that works. Without Melissa Tancredi, Christine Sinclair had nothing to work with, though I really liked debutant Melissa Busque.

What they have is what they’re going to have to work with; they’re going to have to take that attitude they take to defending and spread it to a resilient attack. They’ve got time. But they’ve got to start now.

Programming note: Still dealing with hacking issues; this was sitting half-written in the can until now. If you notice anything fishy, please notify me immediately by email.

No formal deal between CanWNT and the Whitecaps on UBC training centre

by Andrew Bates

women's team

Jon Herdman and Chelsea Buckland of the Canada women’s national team look on as Ida Chong announces the Whitecaps’ National Soccer Development Centre in September. Photo Kai Jacobson/The Ubyssey

I’ve been going through the agreements between the Vancouver Whitecaps and UBC on the new Whitecaps training centre, and there’s one element conspicuous by its absence: The Canadian women’s national soccer team.

When the province unveiled plans for the National Soccer Development Centre in September, it was identified as a “west-coast base” for the Canadian women’s national team, with cabinet minister Ida Chong going back down memory lane to the Olympics and manager Jon Herdman and player Chelsea Buckland in attendance. “The national team will be here, we’ll make use of these facilities as long as we’re welcome, and this may be our little tipping point,” Herdman said at the time.

When you read the agreements for how the fields to be used, the guarantees, which promise 75-25 and 85-15 per cent access for the new turf and grass fields respectively, are solely between the Whitecaps and UBC, with the ‘Caps getting the larger share. The conference also promised community access would make up 50 per cent of the facility’s use, and that is expected to come from each side’s allocation; UBC has suggested the 50-50 split is between internal and external groups, as UBC has suggested. (UBC Board of Governors proposals list “National soccer team” as a primary user of the facility.)

With a women’s national team camp in Vancouver coming up from December 12-20 and no location yet announced, where does the program fit into these commitments?

Here’s what Whitecaps COO Rachel Lewis said about the relationship in an interview I did for the Ubyssey:

We have a very close relationship with the CSA, and obviously with the Canadian Women’s National Team being based here, and [the] 2015 World Cup coming up, we hope that we’re going to be able to be a base for the team. Obviously, Jon Herdman’s working through his plans and we’re not sure yet what his training plans are for the coming few years, but if we can support that group in any way we’re obviously going to look to do so, we want to see them be successful … We’re really closely linked with Jon and his team on the Girls Elite side as well as supporting the national team.

But the “hope to be a base” for the team is a bit of a change in terminology from what seemed to be a sealed deal at the press conference. The CSA refused comment, saying that there was no official agreement between the association and the Caps. Lewis confirmed there was no agreement.

Nothing formal, really what we’ve said to Jon and the CSA is, “We’d like to understand what your needs are and what your plans are up in the leadup to 2015 and beyond, and tell us how we can support you.” These conversations are undergoing, but it’s still quite preliminary, as we haven’t even moved out to the campus yet.

There’s nothing to say there won’t be significant partnership – a CSA spokesperson suggested that the team was currently conducting siting meetings before deciding where in Vancouver to hold the practices, so this month’s camp could still be at UBC’s existing pitches. The new fields and training facility aren’t near being completed yet, and hey, it’s not like the CSA are paying for it, so the Whitecaps don’t have to guarantee the women’s team anything.

But if you got a different impression at the press conference in September, it’s clear that for now, at least, the National Soccer Development Centre isn’t quite a home for the program.

At the very last moment, Canada rescues a glorious Olympic bronze

by Andrew Bates

sinclair-Ed Kaiser-Postmedia

I swear, this photo is going to make me cry. Courtesy Ed Kaiser/Postmedia

When it looked like all the joy had gone, the Canadian national women’s team got a win that will light up soccer in the country for years to come.

In this Olympic tournament. Canada have shone when they are confident and full of belief, moving the ball from the back and carrying on in the face of adversity. This was not one of those times.

It was hoped that this bronze-medal match against France would be more promising than the last time they met: a devastating 4-0 loss in the 2011 Women’s World Cup. That got more intense after the team got so close to silver against the US, drawing attention across the country.

But those prospects looked really bleak in the first half. Playing their fourth game in ten days, Canada were exhausted by being constantly on the back foot. Distribution is so key in the Canadian game; even if chances aren’t coming together, getting the ball through midfield and holding possession takes pressure off the defense. But by the closing stages of the half, Canada were too tired to get the ball forward, beyond hoofing it to a single player, then being easily closed down without any support. This made it harder on the defense, who had even more pressure heaped upon them.

There was no transformative change at the half-time interval. France became more dangerous, turning offensive possession into lethal, lethal chances. There were almost too many to count. Four players had four shots or more, which what all of Canada together were able to put together. Substitute Eugenie Le Sommer got five in thirty minutes. A shot hit the crossbar, a shot hit the goal post, and then France had four consecutive shots from around 20 yards that sailed just wide over the course 12 minutes. Lauren Sesselmann, trying to win the ball on the ground, conceded an indirect free kick in the area by seizing the ball between her knees and trying to walk away with it, which was only funny because it was terrifying and nothing came of it. Camille Abily cannot imagine what might have been.

Canada did just not look like they could create anything. They had heroic defensive performances from Erin McLeod and Desiree Scott, the former who was incredibly organized on balls coming into the area, the latter who cleared a ball off the line with ten minutes left. But it wasn’t a cautious, confident game. Canada were desperate. We did not see the strength from players that were defensive dynamos in earlier games, and it’s their service that powers the offensive-minded Sinclair and Tancredi. It is absolutely amazing to think that with fifteen minutes left, Canada trailed 18-2 in shots and yet only 53-47% in possession, because it clashes so fiercely with their inability to close down and clear the ball.

Christine Sinclair, for her part, did her best as a provider, getting up the midfield and sending balls forward, but Canada just had nothing going forward to hold up the ball once it got there. With ten minutes left, it became as difficult to see them creating anything as it was to see them being able to run from France for another thirty minutes.

And then.

I have spoken earlier about Canada’s belief being their greatest power. I hoped desperately that it would return at the half, and it didn’t. But somehow, in the very last minute of regular time, something changed. All of a sudden, the ball got forward. Canada were attacking from wide areas. Christine Sinclair was fouled just outside the box, and Diana Matheson’s free kick was directed just wide by Kaylyn Kyle. It seemed as though that would be that, and then Canada returned for another try.

Take a look at it. Sesselmann at halfway lays it off for Schmidt in the centre, who carries it up the field and lays a perfectly weighted slow-rolling ball back for the defender wide on the left. Sinclair bails out Sesselmann, who has got Corine Franco hot on her heels. (If Franco had got even a bit further forward to touch Schmidt’s pass, she could have ended it all early.) Sinclair plays it around the edge of the area to Schmidt. Schmidt is dispossessed and it dribbles out to Matheson at thirty yards. Matheson returns it, and Schmidt’s deflected shot falls right back to Canada’s third-most capped player, now wide-open on the right. She buries it with her first touch.

It was Canada’s only shot on target in the game. It was Matheson’s only goal in the tournament. It was the only one that mattered.

It is so appropriate that this team, with inexhaustible chemistry and unbreakable friendship, succeeded ultimately through a movement of four players, three of which sent and received passes from each other. It was so appropriate that the goal came from ever-reliable Matheson. It was so appropriate that she was supplied by Schmidt, who replaced her in this game as the country’s record holder for consecutive appearences. It was so appropriate that this team, disappointed so thoroughly at the last possible moment in the semifinal, mustered their efforts at that exact moment in this game.

It is Canada’s only medal in team sports (CTV have been using the metric of traditional team sports, whose methodology I cannot readily explain) in 76 years. It is Canada’s only medal in soccer since Galt FC won men’s gold in 1904. It, and the WNT’s Pan-Am Games win in 2011, are the only serious hardware for Canada in 12 years, and the only serious hardware in a non-regional tournament since that Olympic win 98 years ago.

The Canadian national women’s team have marked their place in history and the hearts of Canadians across the country, who are offering their unreserved jubilation at this success in Coventry. They did not dominate. They did not blind anyone with silky skills.

But they believed, and so they won none the less. And they have taken their place among the world’s best as a result.

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Why the Canada-USA loss hurts so bad

by Andrew Bates

schmidt

This hurts. It’s a special kind of sporting hurt.

It calls up all the old scars. Watching the 6-1 Montreal loss that put the Whitecaps out of the 2009 Voyageurs Cup. Realizing that Spurs had been pipped out of the Champion’s League in 2005, and again in 2012. Worse than the overtime goal that sank the Canucks in the 2004 playoffs, and the 90th-minute goal that ended UBC’s bid to return to the CIS national soccer tournament, and the dumb horror of watching Calgary pound the Thunderbirds to pulp in the football playoffs.

And the late disallowed goal that gave the United States a win over Canada in the 2007 Gold Cup.

Canadians (and Americans) got invested in the Olympic semifinal against the US. Not just the people who always care about soccer, but everyone! Everyone felt like they were tuned in. And afterwards, especially on the internet, we have been bitter and sore. (We were so mad about it that we stressed out Samuel L. Jackson at the Olympics, which as petulant on our parts as keying Santa Claus’ sled.)

Most American fans have been really gracious, although every story on this topic has at least one comment telling people to stop whining. There are also corners of the internet that consider it disgraceful that Canadian players are talking publicly about being robbed due to how often physical Canadian play in the box wasn’t called, and gifs have already been made of an incident I missed where Melissa Tancredi was treading on a player’s head.

I already wrote a match recap, but I’m still sitting here feeling empty hours after, so I feel like I’m just going to explain what’s so awful about it.

Moments like today’s game are the pinnacle of a Canadian soccer fan. Canada forever seems on the other side of an invisible barrier–for the men, it is qualifying for a major tournament, and for both sides it is defeating elite teams–that leads to constant disappointment, year after year. It leads to isolation, where the population who doesn’t know soccer knows only that Canadians aren’t as good at it, and half of the population that does has decided Canada aren’t worthy of support and pine after a European team instead. Almost every time, all we have is hope, and we lose anyways, and then we get ready to hope for the next one.

And then there are a few occasions where it looks like this is the one. This is the time we make the final. This is the time we beat the States. Atiba Hutchinson is one-on-one with the keeper. Christine Sinclair has scored in the 73rd minute, and I think it’s going to fucking happen.

And then a goal kick turns into a free kick inside the box. Why do we focus on this call? Americans tend to speak in muted conciliatory tones about these sorts of things, acknowledging we feel wronged but not really convinced that they should feel bad about it. In a poorly reffed game where both sides were vicious to each other and didn’t get called, in a game where the real heartbreak was the last minute header, why do Canadians speak in only barely-joking tones about the game being rigged because of that call? Why do the players mention the referee before they mention the other team, and why did Christine Sinclair say she felt like she let the country down after putting in one of the finest performances anyone’s made in the uniform?

Because we thought we had it. Because the header was clean, we will not have the chance of penalties, because the US will go on to the final and win (or not), because it will keep me awake nights wondering what it would have been like–for Canada, for the players, for the game, for my joy as a sports fan–if we could have done it just this once, if only that weird awful call hadn’t have happened. Because we don’t know what more Canada can do than it did this time, and it feels like it will never get better.

It will, of course, get better with time, like any sporting hurt. They did really well, and I’m really proud of every one of them. On Thursday, I will wake up at 5 AM, and hopefully Canada wins a medal, and if they do people will wake up hours later and think “Hey, that was neat,” and put it in the same mental drawer as the synchronized diving and the weightlifting.

But this time, they were watching. Everyone was watching. And we almost pulled it off.

Try as they might, no victory for Canada in pulsating, maddening clash with USA

by Andrew Bates

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Photo courtesy AP

Sometimes you do everything you can and you still lose.

There is no doubt that the Canadian women’s national team that have turned out for these Olympics are better by far than the one that showed up for the Women’s World Cup in 2011. They work hard, they work together and they believed wholeheartedly that they could beat a team that bested them twice this year already, and all but three times in history.

But the number-one-ranked team in the world just had too much to offer. Canada held three separate leads against the United States before conceding on a free kick in the 123rd minute in extra time. There were no penalties and no historic win after all, as Canada fell 4-3 at Old Trafford. They will head back to Coventry for the bronze medal match, and the US will go to Wembley for a rematch of the World Cup final against Japan.

There was no shortage of foreboding before this game for Canadians. Every time these teams have met since 2001, Canada have come in as underdogs and tried to pull off a result, and every time the US came out ahead. No matter how good Canada looked against GB, America have shown no sign of weakness.

That’s why it was so astounding in the 22n minute when Christine Sinclair put Canada ahead. The US looked more dangerous early on, so Sinclair’s goal was the first indication that Canada might have a chance to contend. A product of great build-up play in the midfield, it was a great ball forward by Marie-Eve Nault to Tancredi that gave Sinclair the chance. She pulled right until she had an opening, and she buried it.

For the longest time the goal and the 1-0 scoreline stood. The energy of this game is such that there weren’t a lot of particularly direct chances; Erin McLeod had a lot more to contend with and the US made about 11 more shots than hit the goal, but it was playmaking that tested the most nerves. Canada were strong defensively, depending on a strong performance from Sophie Schmidt, a rock on the backline, and were able to ride it out till halftime.

And then, that goddamn second half. Megan Rapinoe punished poor organization to draw level for the US on a corner kick. An Olimpico (a direct goal from a corner kick) at the Olympics, it was the lack of a defender on the near post that saw the ball slide through Schmidt’s legs and in.

There was nothing like deflation in the response. Canada retained a decent share of possession, although neither team had the ball long without having it torn away by the other. Then on the 67th minute, a clearance attempt bounced back to the Canadian midfield, and after a few tests, Nault was able again to lift the ball down the left wing to Tancredi, who was able to cross in while the US defense was still on the run. Sinclair again was on hand to send a header just past Hope Solo’s glove on the right side.

The US were back to pressure McLeod immediately after conceding. The Americans benefit from solid organization and distribution, and this is how they kept it up in the immediate minutes after dropping it. The movement of the goal started from the midfield, with a long pass from Kelley O’Hara fifty yards down the left sideline finding Rapinoe just outside the right corner of the area. It settled flat at her feet, and she cut all the way across goal to bounce it in off the right goalpost, three minutes after the last goal.

And them, as soon as that happened, it whipsawed back the other way; on a Canada corner kick, somehow the movement flowed away from Sinclair at the same time as the ball came to her head. Two different US defenders tried to jump to head it–one away from her, one towards her–and ran into each other, and just like that the Canadian captain had a hat trick, giving her one more career goal than American talisman Abby Wambach. With 74 minutes left, if Canada could just hold on, they might be actually able to hold on and make it past the United States.

It’s hard to explain what happened next. It looked like McLeod handled outside the area at first, but what really took place was that on a goal kick, the Canadian keeper opted to punt the ball rather than place it and took eight seconds rather than six. Keepers are only allowed to hold for six, and so the referee called an automatic indirect free kick inside the area for delay of game, regardless of the fact that the play didn’t hold any of the usual cynicism of timewasting.

For a second, it looked like Canada had escaped the dangerous free kick, but then terror swept in as it became clear that the ball hit Nault’s arm. It was a penalty, and Wambach drew back even with Sinclair and Canada at 3-3. It’s this that have the Canadian fans the angriest. (We were rude on Twitter to Samuel L. Jackson!) The game’s refereeing was spotty throughout the game, but it was spotty in both directions. Rapinoe alone had two ball-to-arm scenarios that weren’t called, but then again Canada just flattened Wambach in the box a few times with no call.

It will not be the first time a team playing as the away team in Old Trafford will look skyward after conceding a penalty. It will not be the last time people say that the team that stepped up to take have the luck of champions.

But they had more than that. In extra time, both teams played a little surer and a little safer than they did before. But the Americans physically punished the Canadian defense and ground them down throughout the extra periods, and at the end of the day Alex Morgan was too far open and too ready to take the header. It wasn’t a referee that ended it, but a wide play and an open header.

The remaining half-minute was a formality. Unbelievably, frustratingly, undeniably, the US did it. That’s the maddening part of soccer; you could never explain exactly how Canada led three times and yet this game just became another loss on the piles of losses to the Americans except that the US were crazy, deadly good.

But Canada is too, and they aren’t done quite yet. The country is watching now (they won’t be watching-watching, though, as the game is at 5 AM on Thursday morning) and a bronze medal would be a way to tell them that Canada belonged here, that this is a sport we can win things in.

The match is in Coventry, a new home-away-from-home for Canada, against the French. It’s terrifying because of the nightmare that was the 4-0 loss in the group stages of the World Cup last year.

But Canada has come far since then.

Stats after the jump.

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Clinical performance against Brits sends Canada women to quarterfinal test

by Andrew Bates

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Photo courtesy Armando Franca/AP

They showed they could be clinical, and that’s all-important coming into the semifinal.

Making their only Olympics quarterfinal appearance, the Canadian women’s soccer team powered past Great Britain 2-0 to secure a spot in the semis against the USA at Old Trafford. The fact that GB were mostly composed of players from England, a squad ranked two spots below Canada, lent some hope ahead of the game, but nobody could have predicted the dominant performance by Canada in Coventry.

In short, Canada played like dominant overdogs, like they never doubted for a moment they could knock the first-and possibly last-ever Team GB out with style. Both goals came from set pieces, which shows the strength of Canada’s preparation and the inability of GB to find a solution for them. Jonelle Filigno’s goal was glorious, a half-volley that floated up into the corner and put Canada ahead early; Christine Sinclair’s free-kick stunner only ranks lower because the GB defense was so disorganized.

The second half was not an offensive masterpiece for Canada, but a defensive one; playing physical, organized soccer, Les Rouges turned away wave after wave of attack from GB and were able to defend in some sticky situations. But the mental battle was won because despite what Britain saw as a coming-out party for the women’s game (because they were doing well), despite their professional league and despite the fact that commentators on both sides of the pond saw this game as a formality, Britain were losing 2-0 and looked to find no way back.

So now Canada is off to Old Trafford, to face an enemy as familiar as they are frustrating for Canada. There are lessons here: The first is to keep playing like they did Friday. They were organized, they were confident, and the believed utterly that they had the ability to beat GB. The second is to react to adversity better than GB did. The US are powerful and will be better organized in defense and more dangerous in attack. If Canada drop behind, they need to keep their heads about them and continue to believe they can find success.

The deck is stacked against Canada, as they’ve lost to the US twice lately and indeed have only ever beat them three times ever. But Canada can afford to play like they have nothing to lose, as a loss doesn’t mean elimination but dropping into the bronze-medal match, where victory would be a fine result. And they must, because they certainly have something to lose: If they are embarrassed here, they will have a hard time pulling themselves together for the bronze match, especially if it’s against France, who shellacked them 4-0 in the 2011 Women’s World Cup.

It’s 90 minutes. Keep it close and hold well enough, and maybe you can eke it to extra time and penalties, and from there it’s a lottery where the winners get a guaranteed medal and a trip to Wembley.

Give it a shot.

Canada refuses to lose against Sweden and earns its place in the quarterfinal

by Andrew Bates

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Christine Sinclair and Melissa Tancredi connected on both of Canada’s goals in a 2-2 draw with Sweden. Photo courtesy AP

Canada did not break in impossible circumstances.

The Canadian national women’s team came back from an early, traumatic deficit to draw 2-2 against Sweden and in the process define the team’s resilient character. It’s a quality they will need if they are to provide a victory against the elite nations in Olympic women’s soccer.

Canada started with pace and threatened with three fine chances, but the game whipsawed from a blank slate to a desperate attempt to get something from nothing in the space of three minutes.

Sweden’s two goals were astounding in that they came so quickly, they came against the run of play and they were so simple: both balls from wide areas, both in the same weak spot that Japan took advantage of, weaker with the absence of the injured defender Emily Zurrer.

The rapid change in fortunes could have been devastating, and I’ve seen teams knocked flat by conceding twice before. But Canada stuck to their game, which focused on ball movement up the pitch, delivering to the area and hoping something happens. This is how Canada had 13 shots, but only 2 on the net. Olympic leading scorer Melissa Tancredi’s goal just before halftime was Canada’s first shot on target.

Sweden’s approach was to apply more of a physical game than Japan did, trying to frustrate the Canadians. And as you might expect from a team defending, they were comprehensively outposessed by Canada, who had them 60-30. But they didn’t close down les Rouges (and Christine Sinclair, specifically) the same way Japan did, and Canada simply created too many chances to be denied.

Sinclair, as well, was sublime. The prolific striker has turned to a provider, using her vision and poise on the ball to create many of Canada’s best chances. This has created the secondary scoring Canada has long desired, but the captain remains crucial.

Her teammates work hard, but create little alone; this was the root of striker Jonelle Filigno’s frustration, who was limited by offside and foul calls until she was replaced by Kaylyn Kyle. Sinclair has been the one to turn sparks into goals, and it was again her cross on Tancredi’s head that earned Canada the valuable point.

The reason why it was valuable is because Canada’s greatest asset is their inexhaustible confidence. Canada could have qualified for the quarterfinals with a loss, depending on other results, but if they were to shamble through to the knockout rounds with only a win against South Africa to their names they would not have anything to bring to the incredible challenge ahead.

Because try as they might, this draw did not break the glass ceiling in women’s soccer that has separated Canada from the elite teams in major tournaments. Qualifying as a third-place team will mean they cannot escape group-winners like the US, GB or Brazil, all three of which pose a sterner test than anything they found here.

But this too seemed impossible, and Canada were able to pull out a result, just to prove that they could. It would be unwise to count them out a second time.

Stats after the jump.

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