Breaking down the details for the CanWNT/CanXNT's upcoming gold medal victory tour
After a long wait, the CanWNT/CanXNT has finally released details surrounding their Olympic gold medal victory tour this fall. In this, I break down what stood out from their announcement.
It’s been a long time coming.
In fact, since the last time that the CanWNT/CanXNT even played a game on Canadian soil, we’ve seen them:
- Go to the World Cup.
- Return from the World Cup.
- Play a few friendlies.
- Go to the 2020 Olympic qualifiers.
- Qualify for the Olympics.
- Lose a year of playing due to the pandemic.
- Play a bunch of pre-Olympic friendlies.
- Go to the Olympics.
- Win the Olympics.
To put it in numbers, since they played Mexico in a send-off game at BMO Field in May of 2019, Canada has now played 29 games, including 2 major tournaments, in the 2.5 years that have elapsed since.
So to see news concerning a potential victory tour for their gold medal triumph emerge earlier this week is massive news, because while it’ll be great to celebrate that achievement with Canadian fans, as seen above, it’s been a long time coming in general.
It might have taken a little longer than expected to iron out the final details, but now that those have been worked through, some big games await Canada, on home soil, to boot, which will make these next few months quite exciting for this Canadian side.
It’s not often that you see a team go that long without playing any games at home, yet that’s a reality this Canadian side has had to deal with, showing A) how unlucky they’ve been, and B) some of the structural issues within CONCACAF.
Now that the games are here, though, they do appear to be here to stay, and that’s the important thing for this Canadian team.
They’ve been away from home for far too long, but that changes next month, which for Canadian fans across the country, is very exciting news after such a ‘golden’ summer for the team in Tokyo.
Details emerge about the victory tour:
Returning to the victory tour, however, it’s important to note some key details about what it’ll entail for Canada.
To start, it looks like it’ll be consist of at least 4 games, stretched out over multiple windows, played in multiple venues.
We learned about 2 of those venues this week, as it was formally announced that Canada would play 2 friendlies in the upcoming October window, one in Ottawa on October 26th, and the other in Montreal on October 29th, both coming against New Zealand.
Based on what Canada projects, they’ll be able to play in front of around ~18 000 fans in Ottawa, and upwards of ~13 000 in Montreal, allowing them to kick off the tour in front of strong crowds, as well.
Plus, with the presence of several players from Ottawa (Vanessa Gilles) and the province of Quebec in general (Gabrielle Carle, Eveylne Viens), this game will also serve as a homecoming for those players, only adding to the occaison.
And what’s nice about these games is that they come in cities that typically haven’t had a chance to host Canadian games, men or women, in a while, which is nice to see.
To get an idea, the last time Ottawa hosted a game, it came in 2018, while for Montreal, it came back in 2017, so that they get to host this golden side is a bonus, showing what lies ahead in this victory tour.
While we don’t have any idea of what the rest of the victory tour will look like quite yet, what we’ve seen so far seems promising, which is positive news. Plus, Canadian head coach, Bev Priestman, did also confirm that she wants her side to have both an east coast and west coast tour, showing that they will head out to the west coast in some way or another in the future, giving an idea where the next games might be.
Seeing that the west coast often feels forgotten when it comes to hosting the National Team, that’s also a good bit of news, one that certainly isn’t lost on fans from the region.
So looking at all of that information, however, here’s what we could expect from the rest of the tour.
Based on the current FIFA calendar, Canada has access to both a Type I and a Type II window in November, meaning that they can either host 2 friendlies against 2 teams of their choosing, like they did in October (Type I), or can host a 3-game tournament with 4 teams, like a She Believes Cup (Type II).
Obviously, seeing that the goal is to play in front of as many Canadian cities as possible, organizing a Type II tournament would be nice, although it might be a bit hard to do at this stage, as UEFA teams remain in World Cup qualifiers, but it could be a nice way to coax some top non-UEFA opposition up north.
Otherwise, Canada hasn’t ruled out extending the tour into 2022, either, where there’s a type II window in February, and a Type I window in April, giving them even more options to work with, so there’s that to consider, too.
As for venues, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver would seem like the logical choices on the west coast, as they’re the 3 biggest venues west of Ontario that already host soccer games. It’d be nice to see venues such as Victoria’s Starlight Stadium or Calgary’s Spruce Meadows get a shout, too, but you have to imagine that Canada wants to play in stadiums that hold 20 000 or more people, allowing them to get as many fans into seats as possible, pandemic-permitting.
Logisitcally, though, unless Canada hosts a Type II tournament, it’d be impossible to fit all 3 of those stadiums in for 1 window, so Canada will have to choose between either doing that, or splitting games across a 3rd window.
If you did the latter option, you could just break games into 3 tours, split into one on the East (Ottawa and Montreal), one in the middle (Toronto/Hamilton and Winnipeg) and one on the West (Edmonton and Vancouver), but that’ll depend on how many games Canada wants to host, and across how many windows they want this victory tour to stretch out.
Seeing that they haven’t hosted games in Canada for far too long, there shouldn’t be such a concept as ‘too many games’ on this tour, but we’ll have to see if they agree with such an idea, but either way, 4 games seems to be the low bar from what we’ve seen, although it could make sense to stretch that to 5 or 6 matches.
(Canada celebrates a victory over Brazil at the Tokyo Olympics) (Canada Soccer/Richard Callis)
What lies ahead for Canada?
But while there are many factors to consider on the tour, at least in terms of how many cities you want to hit and across how many windows you want it to stretch, what about the competitive side of it?
And seeing that Canada scheduled their first 2 games of the tour against a very solid New Zealand side, it looks like they’re trying to make it pretty darn competitive, which is important to note.
They could’ve easily done what the US has so far done since returning from the Olympics, and that’s to schedule games against minnows where you end up winning by massive margins, but they’ve instead chosen an opponent that has given top teams trouble in the past.
With the CONCACAF Championships coming up next summer, though, Canada is looking to prepare themselves for that tournament in the best way possible, and that’ll mean organizing plenty of competitive friendlies before then.
As one of only 2 teams that has gotten a bye to that tournament, along with the US, they won’t have any qualifiers to play before then, so they’ll look to play as many tough friendlies as they can in the windows that they have available to them.
So the fact that they can do that parallel to a victory tour is a big bonus, because A) fans will be treated to high-quality games on the tour, and B) Canada can prepare for the CONCACAF Championships at the same time.
But as some will have the question, it’s important to answer it - what’s so important about next summer’s CONCACAF Championships?
And it’s worth noting that with some structural changes in CONCACAF, the answer is a lot, actually1.
Usually, the only thing you could earn at that tournament is a spot in the World Cup, and that remains the case for this edition, as 4.5 spots are up for grab in the 2023 World Cup, which will be held in New Zealand and Australia.
New to this tournament, however, is the chance for you to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics (usually a seperate tournament in 2024 would have allowed that), while also earning a berth into the 2024 Gold Cup, which CONCACAF is finally bringing to the women’s side of the game that year.
So if Canada can have a good run next summer, they can set themselves up nicely for the next 2 years after that, as they can try and go on a good run at the 2023 World Cup, while also using Nations League games (which will be the other way into the Gold Cup) as a chance to prepare for both the Gold Cup and the Olympics.
Because of all that, you can see why Priestman and her Canadian side will want to make the most of the time they have between now and next summer, hence the decision to schedule some strong friendlies.
As a result, expect some more strong opponents when more victory tour games are announced down the road, only adding a layer of competitiveness to these games.
Looking Forward:
Returning to the here and now, though, there’s a lot to like with this victory tour announcement, as it’ll be nice to see Ottawa and Montreal get to host this golden Canadian team, who have long-deserved a homecoming like this.
Seeing some of the reception online, these games should pack the stadiums in those cities, before then hopefully doing the same in the west coast games, helping showcase how popular this team is.
Having had the chance to inspire a nation from afar this summer at the Olympics, they’ve finally got the chance to do so in front of their home fans again, which is exciting to see.
So even though they’re just getting started with what they want to be about going forward, with the 2023 World Cup the big goal that they’re targeting right now, it’s important that they get a chance to sit back and celebrate what they’ve done so far, and they’ll now get a chance to do that next month.
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(Canada celebrates their golden moment in Tokyo) (Canada Soccer/Daniela Porcelli)
https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article/concacaf-revamps-womens-championship-unveils-womens-gold-cup/
https://btsvancity.com/2021/09/29/golden-return-canwnt-ready-for-special-homecoming-ahead-of-long-awaited-gold-medal-victory-tour-in-october/
Great article! Dreaming of the day the CanWNT/XNT come to play a game at the Wanderer's Grounds in Halifax!