PRIESTMAN'S PLAN FOR SOCCER GOLD
Savvy veterans, younger talent in the mix for medal
It is not enough for the Canadian women's national soccer team to finish on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics.
Going in as a two-time bronze medallist, Canada is looking at changing the colour of the medal this time around, and the team has the ability to do it.
With a solid mixture of experience and young talent, new Canadian head coach Bev Priestman said she believes her team is capable of getting to the final in Tokyo and challenging for gold.
“Although the team doesn't have a major amount of age, we have a good blend of young, old and a middle group,” Priestman said. “I would say a lot of this group have major experiences and a lot of caps (international appearances). There are some new faces and when I came in, I wanted to make the group hungry.
“There was a comfort level, I felt with the team, and I think the comfort level shifted and I think when people are uncomfortable, you see things from them that maybe you wouldn't have seen at a comfort level.”
Despite being on the job for less than a year, Priestman knows the players on her roster well. A native of Consett, England, Priestman was an assistant under John Herdman at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, where Canada won its second bronze medal. She also ran a number of Canadian youth programs, watching players who are now on the national team come through the system.
Priestman left when Herdman took over the Canadian men's program, returning to England to work as an assistant under Phil Neville at the 2019 Women's World Cup. When the Canadian women's head coaching job opened up after the unexpected departure of Kenneth Heiner-moller, when the Games were postponed for a year, Priestman returned from England to take over the program, with a short lead-in to the Olympics.
Regardless, the team is in good hands with Priestman and she still has the greatest international goal scorer of all time, Christine Sinclair,
on the squad.
When it came to the rest of the roster, however, Priestman had some difficult decisions to make in regards to the 18 players and four alternates she was allowed to take to Japan.
Priestman decided to leave veterans Sophie Schmidt and Erin Mcleod off the main roster, along with rising star Jordyn Huitema, who plays professionally in France for Paris Saint- Germain, one of the best club teams in the world.
“Probably the main thing for me was to not get caught up in the past or the future in what players were or could be,” Priestman said. “I needed to use my time in the role as head coach in the way that I want us to play, and assess who is performing now. Ultimately, I wanted to pick players in form.
“To do that, I had to troll through footage, statistics and try to get the right blend of experience and legs to get us through the tournament; some youth as well. So I was just trying to get us that blend. But ultimately, what it came to for me was that good feeling of who I think can go and change the colour of the medal and that's the team I selected. But as you can tell, it wasn't easy, which is a credit to all the players.”
Getting through to the medal round will not be easy for Canada. They are in a group with hosts Japan, South American qualifiers Chile, and Priestman's former team playing under the banner of Great Britain.
Canada opens the tournament against Japan on July 21, then take on Chile three days later and conclude group play against Great Britain on July 27. The top two teams in each of the three groups are guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals, with two of the best third-place finishers joining them.
“I think playing the host nation in the opening game is where we want to be as coaches and players,” Priestman said. “I think it's a relatively tough group and a great test. When you want to go win a medal, you have to play the best teams and we have very good teams in our group.”