Women’s football is developing at an enormous pace and Canada, by in large, is staying still. Exhibit 1a of those changes could be seen today in Canada’s opponent France. Three years after beating Les Blues in the bronze medal game the gap in talent between the two programs is staggering (and French were already more talented in 2012).
So, despite brave/misguided rhetoric coming out of the CanWNT camp, there is quite literally no way Canada can close the gap in the next 60 days.
What’s troubling is to imagine what the gap will look like in 10 years, but what matters now is what Canada can do this summer to have a good World Cup at home.
Having a good World Cup is about exceeding the talent and putting on a good show for Canadians. It was with this in mind that I watched today’s 1-0 loss to France and came away feeling both hopeful and terrified.
The latter comes from the fact that anyone could see that Canada is not in France’s class. For the sake of this article, we will put that aside.
What made me hopeful was that for the first time in memory I saw a Canadian team that understood its place. That sounds bad, but it isn’t. Canada played hyper defensively, organized today. It didn’t kid itself by trying to out skill a masterful opponent. That pragmatism isn’t pretty, but it’s needed if Canada is to be a factor this summer.
Earlier, I said that Canada cannot win the World Cup. I believe that to be the case, but that’s different from saying that Canada can’t beat a team that can win the World Cup. Or, at least, keep a competitive score line.
It was only 1-0. Woulda, coulda, shoulda for the French, but the fact was Canada was one weird bounce away from a draw. So long as they can be one weird bounce away they have the chance to pull one upset off this summer. If they do that then the World Cup is a smashing success.
If they do it three times someone is throwing “billion to one odds” back in my face.
So, even though Canada was badly outplayed and that reinforced the fact that they aren’t close to the best teams in the world, I still walked away with hope because I finally see evidence that the team understands what its best chances are.
They need to “pull a 2004 Greece” basically.
The time for worrying about “playing the game properly” and entertaining people is not now. Now they just need to do whatever it takes to make sure the legacy of this World Cup is positive.
Defend and hope Sinclair can score. No one will remember the how if the result is a Canadian win.