Canada cements place as women’s soccer nation
World Cup saw country rally behind national team and, more importantly, the sport By the numbers
Within a half hour of the Canadian women’s national team knocking her side out of its first Women’s World Cup, Swiss coach Martina VossTecklenburg was full of praise for the host country.
Voss-Tecklenburg’s post-game news conference on June 21 had finished when the former Germany midfielder, a legend in her own right, asked for her microphone to be turned back on.
“I would really, from the bottom of my heart, thank the Canadian audience and the Canadians,” she said through a translator. “We had a lot of fun in Vancouver and in Edmonton and we found that everyone is very friendly, the welcome was fair. Thank you very much, you’re an amazing country.”
The testimony provoked a rare reaction from a room of reporters: applause.
It was a telling moment in the tournament. Canada may not be the first country that comes to mind when it comes to soccer, but over the summer it cemented its place as a football nation. A women’s football nation, that is. This year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015, the largest single sporting event ever hosted here on home soil, brought with it an excitement for the female side of the game that re- sounded from Moncton, N.B., to Vancouver and many places in between.
Never before has this country bonded over women’s soccer like it did between June 6 and July 5.
Sure, many people fleetingly caught on back in 2012 when the Canadian women were robbed of a spot in the gold-medal match at the London Olympics after some poor refereeing.
It didn’t hurt that the loss came at the hands of rivals United States. Actually, it really hurt; that helped.
With Canuck captain Christine Sinclair and company splashed across the news, how could you not jump on the bandwagon?
But that was nothing compared to the coast-to-coast recognition female soccer players of all national- ities received on Canadian soil this summer.
“This is a real women’s football country. I don’t care what the result is tonight. Those fans showed everyone around the world how to support the women’s game,” national team head coach John Herdman said after the Canadians were knocked out of the tournament following a disappointing 1-0 quarterfinal loss to England.
The atmosphere at that game in Vancouver, buoyed by the best attendance of the tournament with 54,027 fans packing BC Place, was the closest you’ll get to a men’s match in Europe this side of the Atlantic.
If there is regret for the country, it was that loss by Canada. It wasn’t shocking. The Canadian side, laden with veterans, wasn’t at its peak.
But even that frustration couldn’t dim the spotlight shone on the game as a whole.
And the Canucks do have reasons to hope going into 2016, another Olympic year: Kadeisha Buchanan, Ashley Lawrence and Jessie Fleming, to name a few.
Canada Soccer is apparently willing to invest in the women’s game from the grassroots level; hopefully the momentum garnered this year continues to force the organization’s hand. “Stick with us,” Herdman said as his Women’s World Cup came to a close. “That’s all I’m going to say. Stick with us. We’ll be back and we’ll be back fighting strong.”
After the year that was, it’s tough not to believe him. 2.81: The average number of goals per match at the Women’s World Cup this summer. That number increased from 2.69 goals per match during the 2011 tournament in Germany. 3: American midfielder Carli Lloyd scored the first ever hat trick in a Women’s World Cup final. She and her United States teammates beat Japan 5-2 to win the tournament. 7: Matches at the tournament that had more than 50,000 spectators in attendance, including Canada’s quarter-final versus England and the final game in Vancouver. 2,500: Number of volunteers between the Women’s World Cup and the U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2014. Those volunteers represented more than 100 nationalities. Together, they donated more than 153,000 hours of time. 258,000: Estimated number of out-of-town spectators at the tournament. More than 84,000 people made one or more day trips, while 174,000 people stayed over night in one of the six official host cities. A total of 96,000 people from the United States crossed the border. 1,353,506: Total attendance at venues in Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver over the month-long tourney. Average same-day traveller spent $162. 3.2 million: Viewers who watched the quarter-final match in Vancouver between Canada and England, making the game the most-watched of any Women’s World Cup meetings.