Youth pushing Canadian veterans
Players like Wilkinson embrace roles as mentors
Every soccer international dreams of representing his or her country at the World Cup finals. Imagine how much more exciting it becomes when those finals are played in front of home fans?
Mouth-watering doesn’t begin to describe it.
Canada’s women are in that position right now.
These are the players who captivated the nation with an astonishing performance against the United States at last summer’s Olympics. Many regard it as the best women’s soccer game ever and, even though Canada lost in the most unfortunate circumstances, the world certainly heard about us.
Winning bronze by beating France at the last gasp was hardly less thrilling.
However, hidden behind all the deserved hoopla lurked the nagging possibility for some players that their international careers might be waning. They might not make coach John Herdman’s Canadian squad at Women’s World Cup 2015.
No place for them to perform on Canadian soil at the largest women’s sporting event on the planet.
It’s not that their skills are diminished, rather it’s a question of age. The fact is 12 of the 18 who represented Canada at the Olympics were 30 or over and there are younger legs taking a run at their positions.
RHIAN WILKINSON
National team veteran
Rhian Wilkinson, one-time Ottawa Fury and presently playing for Boston Breakers in the newly minted National Women’s Soccer League, which opened its first season last weekend, is one of them.
And like her teammates for all these years, she is dealing with the situation with remarkable professionalism and an astonishing love for both game and country.
“John (Herdman) is a very honest coach and that is all I require as a player,” she said on her way to practice in Boston on Wednesday.
“He told us after the Olympics that we were going into a new fouryear cycle for the national team. We will see new faces, which we will need. We all know this is a team in transition and we understand. I’m well aware of the fact I am 30, almost 31, and new right backs (her position) are coming through the system.”
What she says next makes me catch my breath. It’s the epitome of what we would all dearly love to hear from our professional athletes and too often do not.
“I guess it’s a scary transition, but when you get your ego in check, you remember you’re playing for your country and, most important, you want your country to do well.”
How, then, is Wilkinson dealing with the latest challenge? More words of wisdom.
“We all work really hard to make the environment on the national team a learning one and a welcoming one. We know what it’s like and remember being young players on the national team and it wasn’t always a welcoming environment because you are taking someone’s spot.
“Our staff is fantastic in helping us come to terms with where we are at and it’s not a shock because John has told you where you stand with him. So when new ones come in, you are expecting it and you accept the fact that you now get to be a mentor for young players coming through. “That’s a pretty cool thing to do.” Pretty cool is an understatement, and Canada is blessed with having an entire squad of players ready to work for a common cause. Canada red beats strong in these hearts.
Wilkinson and three of her best pals — Diana Matheson, with whom she spent time at the Fury, Karina LeBlanc and Christine Sinclair — have already squeezed in several trips to different parts of the country to give coaching clinics to starry-eyed youngsters.
When they were in Ottawa at the invitation of West Ottawa Soccer Club and their former Canada teammate, Kristina Kiss (the club’s acting technical director), the quartet made it absolutely clear they intended on acting as role models to young players from coast to coast.
They welcome media attention so long as it keeps up the hype Canada’s Olympic adventure created and keeps the game in the public eye.
“We love it and we’re trying to put as many of these events into our schedule as we can,” Wilkinson says.
Truth is, that’s not the easiest to achieve right now. All four are playing in the new pro league and their respective teams have schedule demands. All four are integral to the national team and the push to 2015.
“It’s not a lack of will,” Wilkinson says. “It’s a lack of time. Things always seem to come up. I think of taking a little time off but it never turns out like that.”
That’s a bit of a smiler. Wilkinson strikes me as a woman who thrives on being busy, on achieving. And that is why Canada’s still-speedy right back has no intention of fading into the background. While she admits “younger legs are needed in many positions,” her career glitters with winning attitude.
She has played pro for years in Norway, is in her 13th year as part of the national team and is one of the 16 Canadian players sponsored by the Canadian Soccer Association to play in the women’s league.
Anyone wanting to displace Rhian Wilkinson as Canada’s first choice right back had better have their sprinting shoes on and their technical wits about them. She will not be overtaken easily.
‘I’m well aware of the fact I am 30, almost 31, and new right backs are coming through the system.’