Back playing for Canada, Leon shines as never before at CONCACAF
TORONTO — Three years before Adriana Leon’s four-goal night in a 12-0 win over Cuba on Monday in the CONCACAF Women’s Championship, the striker was out of touch with the Canadian women’s national soccer team.
Leon played 139 minutes as part of Canada’s FIFA Women’s World Cup roster in June 2015, a tournament that should have solidified her role with the squad after playing in 34 games for her country in the two years leading up to the competition.
But after registering no goals or assists in the World Cup, she wouldn’t be called into another national team camp until the spring of 2017.
The native of King City, Ont., had a few calls with then coach John Herdman during that time but was largely left to her own devices.
“I definitely came back as a different player, a different person,” Leon said. “When I was away from the national team, I was playing in Zurich for a little bit and I was just working hard on my own and doing the hard work behind the scenes that no one really saw. So I would say when I came back to the environment, I was ready.”
Leon proved her abilities to the team soon after her return, scoring three goals in her first 180 minutes back. It matched her best tally for the national team in a single year.
“It just goes to show the work that I had put in and the work that I will continue to put in, because I really do want to strive for greatness with this team,” she said.
As things improved with the national team, Leon’s professional career flourished. She met Matt Beard, coach of the nowdefunct National Women’s Soccer League organization the Boston Breakers, who brought her back to the United States, where she began her career, to suit up for his team. In Beard, she found a coach that “really believed in me at the right time.”
“He really just showed that he put faith in me and I think that almost game me confidence as a player,” Leon said.
“Coming into Boston I had a role to play and I knew I had to deliver. And I did.”
Leon repaid Beard’s faith with six goals and six assists in 24 matches — 21 starts — for the Breakers in 2017.
The tumult wasn’t over, though. As Leon solidified her role in the national team program once again, making six appearances in 2017 and eight so far this year, the Breakers organization folded.
Leon had little choice but to accept where she landed in the league’s subsequent dispersal draft, with New Jersey-based Sky Blue FC, an organization that has made headlines this season due to reports of poor playing and living conditions.
Unhappy there, Leon requested a trade. She landed with Seattle Reign FC in June after more than a month without playing, making six appearances for the West Coast team.
“I was really thankful for that,” Leon said of the trade, even though limited minutes on a talented Seattle squad made it difficult to show her stuff.
Leon doesn’t know where her professional career will take her next season.
For now, she’s focused doing what she can for a national team that, once upon a time, almost left her behind.
Canadian teammate Janine Beckie hoped Leon’s four-goal night was a confidence builder for a player she has seen redefine herself since rejoining Canada’s ranks, among others who scored in that game.
Leon had never scored four goals in a professional or international game before Monday. But even with the quartet under her belt, she had her eyes on more.
“Once I got the fourth, I even wanted a fifth,” she said.