Early thoughts from the CanWNT/CanXNT's November squad & game announcement
As expected, the CanWNT/CanXNT finally announced a pair of friendlies against Mexico Thursday, while also revealing their squad for those games. Here are some early thoughts from that announcement.
They left it to the last minute, but it’s now official - the CanWNT/CanXNT will be in action later this month.
As they announced on Thursday, the current defending Olympic gold medallists will now hit the road and head to Mexico, where they’ll face Mexico in a pair of friendlies on November 27th and 30th.
In the midst of their cross-country celebration tour for winning gold at this summer’s Olympics, of which they kicked off back in October with a pair of games against New Zealand in Ottawa and Montreal, they were expected to keep that home celebration going through into this November windows, but as seen with this announcement, that tour has now been put on pause.
Due to a mix of factors, they were unable to schedule a game at home this window, so like most Canadians tend to do in the winter, that means that they’ll now have to migrate to Mexico for these games, which was a big surprise, especially after it seemed likely that Canada would play in western Canada this window.
But while it’s very unfortunate that those games won’t happen, that there are any games at all is good news, helping Canada continue their preparation ahead of the 2023 World Cup, of which they’ll begin qualifiers for next summer, something they clearly have a close eye on right now.
And you can tell that’s the plan with these Mexico games, as by scheduling these matches against a team that they’ll be expected to compete against at next summer’s qualifiers, they’re going to get an early taste of what to expect in that process, which will only help them down the road.
“Mexico have definitely improved over the years,” Canadian head coach, Bev Priestman, said on Thursday. “And (they) will be a threat for us in terms of qualification and all the rest of it, so it’s just a great opportunity to practice against CONCACAF opposition.”
So while many Canadians will be understandably disappointed with the celebration tour on pause, these games promise to be intriguing for so many reasons, as in a sense, they represent Canada’s first big step towards the 2023 World Cup.
Canada celebrates a goal vs New Zealand in October (Audrey Magny/Canada Soccer)
Celebration tour put on pause:
And for those who are hoping to see Canada at home soon, the good news is that will happen over the next few months, too, as this Canadian team most definitely wants to properly complete the celebration tour that they started in October.
As they said back when the first games were announced, the plan was always to make it a proper cross-country tour, and that hasn’t changed with this announcement.
But unfortunately, while they wanted to originally host games this month, it just wasn’t meant to be this window, for a couple of reasons.
First, there’s the reality that many of the European teams remain in the midst of World Cup qualifiers in this window, much as they were the last window, making it impossible for them to travel to Canada for any friendlies, reducing the pool of potential opponents significantly.
Secondly, there’s the reality that this international window is both a type II window (3 games) as well as a type I window (2 games) for all non-UEFA teams, meaning that many non-UEFA teams will also be in the midst of tournaments of their own this window, removing even more potential opponents for Canada to call.
Obviously, they could also host one of those tournaments, but that would’ve taken months of planning beforehand, which considering how last-minute the pandemic rules changed for sports in Canada, would’ve been very challenging to do on short notice.
Lastly, and most importantly, there were also health restrictions that came into play, as Priestman shared that they’d actually found some willing opponents and were about to book the games, but due to the vaccination status of several of the opposing players, that didn’t line up.
Theoretically, they could’ve secured an exemption for those players, but doing so would’ve cost a lot of money, something that might be worth paying for if you’ve got competitive fixtures, but not really so for a friendly.
So while they were able to line something up with New Zealand the last window, they just couldn’t find a similar dance partner this time around, and because of that, it looks like Canadian fans will have to now wait until April for their side to return back home.
“Yeah, first we obviously wanted to get another home fixture to connect with our fans,” Priestman explained. “But with the reality that we’re living in, you have teams lined up, you’ve got vaccination issues with recognized vaccines.”
“So we tried endlessly to make that happen, but we couldn’t, so we’re committed to coming back potentially in the April window, but I think what was pleasing for me was the group were really determined that no matter whether we’re at home or not, we definitely want to keep pushing forward.”
As mentioned, though, the plan does remain to continue the tour, albeit at a later date, likely in April or even June.
They do want to play out on the west coast, where many of their players are from, and the fans of the west coast want to host them, but for now, the logistics just proved too large to hurdle in time for next week, meaning that Canada will have to content themselves with a trip to Mexico for the time being.
“Yeah, (a big hurdle) was absolutely recognized vaccinations here in Canada,” Priestman explained. “With the teams that we had on the table, that was essentially the final point where some teams just couldn’t come in because of that, and that’s the world that we live in, and the players fully understood and are ready to move forward.”
“Regardless, we weren’t just going to sit still in this window, I obviously would’ve loved to be at BC Place, you’ve got a whole lot of players from Vancouver, and we’ll make sure that it happens in the near future.”
The preparations continue in earnest:
But while it’ll be good to see the celebration tour continue in April, as some know, that isn’t actually the next available window for Canada to play in, as there is also a February window between now and then.
And typically one of the busiest windows in women’s international soccer, surely Canada won’t skip out on that one, so why couldn’t just return home then?
But according to reports out of England, it looks like Canada will instead be heading to the UK in that month, where they’d look to join England, Spain and Germany for a 4-team tournament.
And if those reports do end up coming true, that’d make a lot of sense.
Obviously, Canada could theoretically host one of those tournaments, but A) those aren’t always easy to host, and B) with Canada also starting to prepare for the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, playing 3 top European teams in one window is a great way to do that.
So while in a dream world England, Germany and Spain would be Canada’s 3 opponents for games on home soil, if they’ve got to head to the UK to play those games, that wouldn’t be the worse thing in the world.
A huge part of Canada’s preparations for the Olympics this year included playing the US, Brazil and Argentina at She Believes Cup, and it looks like they believe this would offer the same impact.
Plus, reading between the lines, with Priestman hinting at something being announced soon when asked about these rumours, it sounds like this could be finalized quite soon, which is exciting, even if it puts a delay on playing back home in Canada.
“Yeah, I think we definitely will be active in that window,” Priestman said. “We’ve always taken part in tournaments (then), She Believes Cup was a massive part of our Olympic journey that started a year ago in that window, so we’ll definitely be taking part in a tournament, details to be announced in the future, but it’ll be exciting.”
Ultimatley, the goal right now for Canada is to qualify for the World Cup, and while it’d be nice to have as many of the games for them to help do that to be in Canada (be it via friendlies, or maybe even hosting the qualification tournament itself), if it takes a trip to the UK to help out on that cause, then you wouldn’t fault them for taking it.
Ideally, they do still have a half-dozen games in Canada next year, if not more, but this tournament in the UK seems like about as good of a reason for them to not host until April, even if that feels too far away right now.
A battle for spots begins now:
But while a lot of talk in the aftermath of this announcement was about the celebration tour, and rightfully so, that shouldn’t take away from how important this camp is for this team, even if it won’t be in Canada.
As seen with the roster, this is a very interesting Canadian side that is heading to Mexico, one filled with all sorts of intriguing names, ones to keep a close eye on.
Obviously, the Olympic gold medallists are the headliners in this squad, and that 18 out of 22 of them will be there is huge, even though it’s unfortunate that Janine Beckie (recovery), Adriana Leon (injury), Jayde Riviere (school) and Gabrielle Carle (school) can’t attend.
But where things really get interesting is in the new faces, because while the core players make up most of the roster, Priestman surprised many by calling in 8 names who weren’t at Tokyo, including Amanda West, who has never been called up before, and Sura Yekka, who hasn’t been called up since 2015, among a few other familiar faces, including Cloe Lacasse and Victoria Pickett.
And by doing so, it seems to show that while Priestman obviously has a lot of trust in the roster that won gold, and will continue to lean on those players, no spot on the World Cup qualifying squad is guaranteed, so it’s important that everyone realizes that.
Complacency can often be the biggest enemy of a champion, so while this Canadian squad remains hungry to now go on and win the World Cup, they’ll have to fight for their spot on the roster that will be tasked to try and do that.
But those who have followed Priestman this year shouldn’t be surprised by that.
In the leadup to the Olympics, she called in some big squads to increase competition for spots in the Olympic squad, and even when she had her Olympic squad finalized, no one’s position in the starting XI was ever assured, keeping competition high in her squad at all times.
So after going exclusively with as many of the gold medallists as possible in her October roster (something she said she’ll keep doing, especially when the celebration tour continues), this just shows that the battle for spots begins now for everyone in this roster, and that if a players wants to play, they’ll need to be deserving of the opportunity.
And that’s not a bad thing at all.
Priestman trusts this group, having won gold with them for a reason, so she believes that this will just get the most out of them, while also potentially opening the door for anyone who can take that next step and find a similar level, hopefully helping this side find yet another level.
“It’s critical, I think a key ingredient of the success that we had was that no shirt was given, and I think that absolutely stands as it is right now,” Priestman explained of the increased competition. “I think what you see when players are at their highest moments or lowest moments, you see a lot in (them).”
“And I think those hungry players who consistently want to turn up and do the work every single day, those high performers that this group are made of in abundance, I think bringing in some young talent just pushes people to be better, and it’s there for the taking.”
Canada’s roster that won Olympic gold celebrates with fans in Ottawa last month (Audrey Magny/Canada Soccer)
Opening the door:
And speaking of top performers on this Canadian team, it’ll be interesting to keep an eye on Jessie Fleming and Deanne Rose this camp for Canada, as they enter this window in excellent form at the club level for Chelsea and Reading in the WSL, respectively.
First, you’ve got Fleming, who in her 2nd season as a professional, has taken off this year, scoring 4 goals already this season, which after scoring none in her first year, has been quite the improvement to see from her.
Then, you’ve got Rose, who is in her debut season yet looks like a seasoned professional, having already picked up 2 goals and 2 assists, adapting to England’s top flight quicker than anyone would’ve thought she would.
Already 2 key pieces on this Canadian side, that’s been exciting to see, as you just figure that they’ll play prominent roles in any success that Canada would have at the 2023 World Cup, and this sort of form is a big example of that.
Yet, they’re just 2 of many Canadians currently taking big steps forward in Europe right now. The big hotbed is in England, where Canada has a really star-studded crop of players in Fleming, Rose, Shelina Zadorsky and Janine Beckie, but Canada also has a similarly strong group of stars playing in France, where there’s over a half-dozen Canadians playing in the top flight of that league, and a few others smattered around some other good leagues.
And that’s been huge to see this year.
Every time a Canadian succeeds on the big stage like this, that just opens up the door for another down the road, and there’s no doubt that Fleming and Rose’s performances as of late are going to do that for the next generation of Canadian youngsters.
So because of that, it just feels like we’re at the beginning of what’s going to become a strong wave of Canadian players heading over to Europe, especially given that Canada is yet to have a professional team or league (something that desperately needs to change), because as seen this year, they’re most definitely good enough to make a dent in those sorts of circuits on a more regular basis.
“I think it shines a spotlight on what Canadian players can offer in European leagues,” Priestman said of Fleming and Rose’s play as of late. “And I’ve got no doubt that it might open the door for some of our players to make their way to Europe, which so far is working really well for our players.”
Looking Forward:
And of course, one other great way to increase one’s profile is to play for a winning international team, which Canada now is, and will want to continue to be going forward.
As they continue to slowly march towards the 2023 World Cup, this is just the start of their journey upwards, but it’s such a key step, one that is as important as any other one.
So while it would’ve been nice to share this journey with their supporters, that will have to come in the future, because it’s long overdue for a team that had to do spend so much time away from them this year.
But at the same time, while their hearts will miss their supporters, they also know that it’s important that they get to work no matter where duty calls, and for the next week, that’ll be in Mexico, where their push towards the 2023 World Cup will truly start to get going, continuing what they started with their triumph this summer.