Canadian coach John Herdman laid out a warning — or more like a call to arms — to the country and its soccer leadership this week.
After eliminating Switzerland 1-0 at B.C. Place June 21, Herdman responded to public suggestions the team’s captain was past her best-before date.
“That woman doesn’t deserve to take that stick,” he said. “International football ain’t easy, and Sinclair is giving everything, every single game.”
Canada holds the honour of being the first team to finish at the top of their group with only one win in the group stage of the World Cup. In three games, they scored two goals, one of them a penalty by Sinclair.
The game’s leading scorers have been kept quiet, said Herdman, pointing to Abby Wambach’s for the U.S. and Marta’s single strike to keep Brazil in the running.
But the Canadian striker who turned 32 the day after Canada tied New Zealand and whom the coach called “the pride of this country” doesn’t have an obvious successor. This concerns Herdman.
“Look — you put her in a different team and she’ll score 20 goals,” he said about Sinclair in a press conference after Saturday’s win over the Swiss. “We said the French are the favourites. The Germans are the favourite. They have a talent system that just produces players on a conveyor belt. That is the beauty of their country.
“We’re still waiting for the next Sinclair to come along and we’re going to keep waiting for hopefully that same forward to appear.”
No professional women’s league exists in Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»since the semi-pro Whitecaps FC women’s team in 2013. (They run a U18 squad.) Two Canadian teams — the Laval Comets and Quebec Dynamo — compete in the W-League, a second-tier open league below the U.S. National Women’s Soccer League. Numerous Canadians play in the NWSL, while others have pursued opportunities in Europe.
In January, Desiree Scott signed with , the English side in the Women’s Super League that will play Chelsea for the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium in August.
A defensive midfielder, known for her take-no-prisoners power that’s earned her the name of “Destroyer,” Scott will face four Notts teammates — keeper Carly Telford, forward Ellen White and defenders Laura Bassett and Alex Greenwood — when Canada meets England in Saturday’s quarter-final.
“I know their tendencies,” she said. “A lot of the focus is going to be on us and how we can hurt England with our attack, with our set up. Last time we played them, they [set up a defensive] block so we’re going to be working on how to beat that and also really on our possession and how to keep it.”
Ěý
Ranked sixth in the world by FIFA, England and No.8 Canada have been separated by only one goal in four of their last five meetings. When they played at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton June 5 before the start of the World Cup, Canada won 1-0 on a from Sophie Schmidt.
The best premier leagues in the world are in Germany, Sweden, France, England and the U.S, which gives women in those countries home-grown opportunities to play year-round and closes the gap between the best national teams, those in the middle and others that make up the rest.Ěý
Such an example in Canada, said Scott, “would provide motivation and fuel that passion of training and working hard at the grassroots level and wanting to be the best you can at a young age, knowing the potential of a professional league right in your back yard is available to you. With the Whitecaps for example, that was what I was pushing for, training day in and day out and [playing] on provincial teams to get noticed and play on a semi-pro team. Opportunities just rise from there.”
She said it was sad to see the Whitecaps fold, but FIFA has promised investments to encourage international parity on the pitch and as well as leadership roles off it.
“You need that quality growing up,” said the 27-year-old from Winnipeg. “I was lucky enough in Manitoba to have some of the top coaches and trainers helping me get to where I am. With a better program and better structureĚý and coaches who are following our system of play — John [Herdman] has developed a great program for the grassroots to stimulate what we’re doing here — without that, I think it would be a struggle to provide those good players. It’s key to get those things at the grassroots.”
Scott runs clinics and , a leadership roll she said she will pursue her entire career.
“It’s important to have young girls who are some of our biggest fans know that dreams are possible and that they can look up to us as role models and see that through hard work and dedication and commitment to the sport that you love that you can go places," said Scott.
Twitter:
