Canadians came ‘to hear an anthem’

Quarter-final game against France rematch of 2012 bronze medal match

Head coach John Herdman may be Canada’s soccer poet — in that he speaks so lyrically he’s a veritable quote machine — but he’s not entirely immune to the ordinary superstitions of his profession.

Asked if he wasn’t occasionally struck by his magical team — the only Olympic squad in the women’s competition to emerge from preliminary play with a perfect 3-0 record — he all but gulped in horror.

“It’s a cool group,” he said on the eve of Canada’s sudden-death playoff match Friday against France. “And if we were in a final ... but it’s only a quarter-final, we’re not there yet. And if we get into a final, it’s going to be a hell of a push.”

Clearly he didn’t want to jinx anything.

But then, because the Canadian team is an undeniably magical group and because he’s an honest man, Herdman admitted he has had moments when he had to pinch himself.

The performance of Rebecca Quinn (her 21st birthday was Thursday) in the Australia game was one of those moments, he said. He called it an “on-demand” performance because even two weeks before, given the depth of the Canadian midfield, Quinn wasn’t sure she’d be able to crack the lineup.

But, Herdman said, despite “struggling emotionally” a little, Quinn stuck to her program and, when called upon against the Aussies, rose to it.

Similarly, he said, the magnificent two-goal performance from veteran Melissa Tancredi against the powerhouse Germans earlier this week still makes him emotional.

“What she went through in 2015,” he said, “the harsh criticism that woman endured (from those who mistakenly believed the 34-yearold’s long and honourable career was on the wane) … That’s one of my favourite memories of all time. “I do pinch myself.” In the French, the Canadians face the No. 3-ranked team in the world; Canada came into the Olympic tournament ranked 10th.

In the final warm-up for the Games, Canada was hosted by France and played well, but lost 1-0.

“First and foremost,” Herdman said, “our goal is to score.”

Both teams have changed considerably since they last met in Olympic competition in 2012, when Canada won the bronze medal match. This, Herdman said, is a “fresh French team” and so is Canada’s with rookies galore.

While the first two games against No. 5-ranked Australia and No. 93-ranked Zimbabwe were “about the staff” taking the lead, Herdman said, the match against Germany, ranked No. 2, was about the players taking charge themselves and letting Tancredi go.

Herdman said a coach knows his team has a “sense of where the team’s at ... and the spirit and culture is where it needs to be.”

He said his only job now is, “Don’t mess it up, coach,” not to stand too close to the flame the players have lit.

The team earlier made a commitment not to read any media, he said. “All they’ve got is their own self-confidence and belief.” They won’t fall prey to believing their best publicity or being shaken by their worst.

Thus, he said, they have no idea if they’re considered the underdog against France (they are) and are deliberately not looking for validation from “the outside.”

But, said the soccer poet, “We came here to hear an anthem and that’s what we want to do.”

If the Canadians lose Friday, their Olympics are over. If they win, they’ll move into a semifinal match Tuesday in Belo Horizonte.