Wilkinson exudes leadership
Potential future Team Canada coach directs the play on the field
You can picture Rhian Wilkinson coaching Canada one day. She has that attention to detail. Has oodles of experience and the highest respect from all her coaches and teammates. She also has a passion for it. She’s taken her UEFA B certification already, through the Football Association of Wales — she has a British passport — and has been a volunteer assistant at her alma mater, the University of Tennessee, and for Canada’s under-20 team.
Coach John Herdman has long talked about handing over this program — one day between now and 2020 — to some of the women he’s guiding through this pressure-packed FIFA Women’s World Cup.
He’s called Wilkinson “a great Canadian” on a few occasions. Most recently, it was after she helped set up Josée Bélanger’s winning goal against Switzerland — the goal that has Canada in Saturday’s mouthwatering quarter-final against England at B.C. Place.
So Wilkinson’s future will make for interesting viewing. As for the here and now, only she knows how long she has left as a player. She’s 33. The Rio Olympics will be tempting. But there’s unquestionably a sense of urgency in her answers.
“We haven’t arrived,” she said Wednesday when asked about reaching a quarter-final and her coach’s comment that the pressure’s off in some sense. “This is not our goal. It’s do or die, so you leave it all on the line. Nothing changes. We just keep (climbing) one rung of the ladder at a time and this is where we’re at: England, quarter-finals.”
She’ll be at right back Saturday, where she started the Switzerland game after a hamstring injury had kept her out of the lineup for the better part of two months.
Wilkinson struggled as a late substitute against the Netherlands — who tied the game late — but Herdman took full responsibility for that, saying he got the sub all wrong.
He wanted to get Wilkinson some game minutes, but she was put in a tough spot, coming in cold after weeks off game action.
But starting her against the Swiss gave Canada a double boost because it pushed the speedy Bélanger up front, where she belongs.
Those two players will again be key against England. They give Canada a little more hope for a goal than they had through the group stages — and every bit counts with this team.
“It’s just huge (having Wilkinson back),” Christine Sinclair said. “Nothing against Josée (playing right back). I thought Josée did tremendous back there. But I think you saw last game Josée’s a natural forward and if you look back to a lot of our goals scored in London, it was from crosses from Rhian.
“She has this unique ability to get forward and put quality balls into the box, and we scored on that against Switzerland.”
Added midfielder Sophie Schmidt: “She brings so much confidence and calm back there. With Rhian, it’s very predictable. When she has the ball ... we know what’s going to happen and it allows us to play easily.
“And it’s just that leadership she brings. At any moment, she’ll be, ‘Hey, guys, this isn’t good enough,’ and having that confidence and vocal presence is good.”
Wilkinson — a native of Baied’Urfé, Que., who has a twin sister, Sara, in Vancouver — is sitting on 164 caps for Canada. She’ll pull one behind the injured Diana Matheson Saturday. Matheson is second alltime behind Sinclair (226).
It’s been a rich career for Wilkinson, one of Canada’s more understated players: four World Cups, two Olympics, a bronze medal.
She counts Clara Hughes, the multi-sport Olympic legend, among her heroes and has always spread the message kids should be encouraged to try to play all sorts of sports. There wasn’t much she didn’t play.
But soccer has served Wilkinson well, and the hope, of course, is that there are a couple more rungs to climb on this ladder.
Not a bad story to tell her future players.