Leon’s return comes with its returns
Four-goal game against Cuba was a highlight for once-exiled striker
Adriana Leon spent three years preparing for her moment Monday. The 26-year-old striker scored four goals in Canada’s rout of Cuba at the CONCACAF Women’s Championship, though she had already achieved the most important goal: getting back on the Canadian team.
Leon played 139 minutes for Canada’s World Cup team in 2015, a tournament that should have solidified her role after she played in 34 games for her country in the two years leading up to the competition. But after registering no goals and no assists in World Cup, she wouldn’t be invited to another national camp until the spring of 2017. The King City, Ont., native talked with then-coach John Herdman a few times 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 ... (when) I came back to the environment, I was ready.”
She scored three goals in the first two games of her return, matching her best single-year output with the team, and her professional career began to flourish. She met Matt Beard, coach of the now-defunct Boston Breakers in the National Women’s Soccer League, and he “really believed in me at the right time.”
“He put faith in me and I think that almost gave me confidence as a player,” Leon said. “I had a role to play (in Boston) and I knew I had to deliver.”
Leon had six goals and six assists in 24 matches — 21starts — for the Breakers in 2017. The tumult wasn’t over, though. As Leon was solidifying her role with the national team program — six appearances last year, and eight so far this year — the Breakers folded.
Leon was selected in a dispersal draft by the New Jerseybased 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, and made six appearances.
“I was really thankful for that,” Leon said, even though she had limited minutes on a talented Seattle squad.
Leon doesn’t know where her professional career will take her next season. For now, she is focused doing what she can for a national team that, once upon a time, almost left her behind.
Canadian teammate Janine Beckie hopes Leon’s four-goal night was a confidence builder. Leon had never scored four in a professional or international game before Monday and she had her eyes on more.
“Once I got the fourth, I even wanted a fifth,” she said. “That game, I probably should have had six or seven goals. I like to hold myself to higher standards ... always just striving for more.”