Bev Priestman becomes England Women assistant coach.

[tc-in-bc]

 Congrats. I wish her well.  That said, a pessimist may be inclined to   suspect that Canadian women soccer is like the Titanic  and that  Herdman and Priestman  knew the iceberg was coming  and  did not say anything to the ship's  passengers -- then got into a pair  lifeboats and left. 

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/sports/soccer/article-coach-bev-priestman-leaving-canada-soccer-after-five-years/

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/28508/11459553/phil-neville-appoints-bev-priestman-as-england-women-assistant-coach

[rkomar]

Hard to believe it's that bad, unless they predict losing OTP funding or something.  Maybe the new job is just too good to pass up for Priestman, especially after Herdman moved over to the men's program.  It does seem to be a step up from training young players.

Anyway, I wish her luck in her new post.  I hope our EXCEL program can continue to produce similar results after she is gone.

[The Ref]

With Priestman gone there is hope the younger girls will get a better coach.

 

[Markoaleks]

Addition by subtraction 

With this move 

[rkomar]

One of the articles mentioned that Worthington was taking over.  It may have been bad luck, but the few international games I watched where he was coaching did not leave me with a good impression of the team.  So, those of you assuming that things will be better now that Priestman is gone may be in for a rude surprise.

[The Ref]

44 minutes ago, rkomar said:

One of the articles mentioned that Worthington was taking over.  It may have been bad luck, but the few international games I watched where he was coaching did not leave me with a good impression of the team.  So, those of you assuming that things will be better now that Priestman is gone may be in for a rude surprise.

Knowing the CSA I wouldn't expect anything else but a rude surprise.

[red card]

From her perspective, she was passed over for the top job in Canada. So, she was going nowhere for the time being.

From Canadian football's perspective, it is unclear how much credit she deserves for identifying and developing players vs Herdman and the structure put in place around her.

While results were secondary, her results have tapered off given the non-qualifications and Mexico has surpassed us at the youth level.

So, hopefully, she isn't replaced by a Canadian who may have done one or two noteworthy things in the Canadian context but is sub par in terms of the global game. Or worse case scenario, a person who has played the political game right more than the football game gets slotted in. In this case, Priestman staying would have been better.

[Lord Bob]

It's always hard to tell what youth coaches are up to. I wasn't impressed by Priestman's teams, but I wasn't impressed by Worthington's either and he qualified. I remember deriding Andrew Olivieri's work a few years ago but people in the know tell me he's been doing amazing things.

I dunno, I don't get the feeling Priestman was the indispensable woman, and neither Herdman nor the CSA treated her like she was, but she may well have been. All the best in England.

[Patrick]

 

On 8/3/2018 at 10:17 AM, tc-in-bc said:

That said, a pessimist may be inclined to   suspect that Canadian women soccer is like the Titanic  and that  Herdman and Priestman  knew the iceberg was coming

I don't know what to think, but I fear you might be right.  The golden days may be dying.  I remember when Sinclair burst upon the scene just after the disaster that was the '99 World Cup (why she didn't get selected...).  I remember the end of Charmaine Hooper's career, going out knowing the team was only getting better.  There were some hiccups on the way, sure, but we had good coaching for a lot of years under Even Pellerud and John Herdman (let's forget the Carolina Morace interregnum), but we have also cycled in a consistent stream of serviceable players.  Still, we have no new Sinclair, and while that might be asking a bit much, I can't name anyone who is even close to her level.  Other countries are catching up and somehow seem to find high level replacements for their retiring heroes.  I just don't see that player coming out of our youth squads yet, and I have to ask where is our player development?  Sinclair wasn't a result of the CSA, she came through youth clubs and provincial squads.  Our next great hope, Kara Lang, flamed out in injury,  and since then who has there been?  In more than a decade we haven't produced a single serious offensive threat (except Sydney Leroux, right?).  We have poached a couple from the US college programs, but we haven't developed anyone in that role. 

That's scary, and it also makes me question our coaching philosophy.  Are we stifling our best and most creative girls?  Are we failing to identify those players in favour of more "athletic" girls?  I'd suggest the latter based on the teams I have seen.  The "best" teams are full of tall, athletic early bloomers, with speed and physicality and utterly lacking any creativity.  And why would they be creative?  They're big and strong!  They can play a system and win.  Jordyn Huitema is exhibit A.  She's tall and strong but I haven't seen anything that really impresses me.  And where are the smaller players, the creative midfielders?  I hope we didn't lose all of them because they didn't hit puberty fast enough to be noticed, and quit.

[carolynduthie]

1 hour ago, Patrick said:

 

I don't know what to think, but I fear you might be right.  The golden days may be dying.  I remember when Sinclair burst upon the scene just after the disaster that was the '99 World Cup (why she didn't get selected...).  I remember the end of Charmaine Hooper's career, going out knowing the team was only getting better.  There were some hiccups on the way, sure, but we had good coaching for a lot of years under Even Pellerud and John Herdman (let's forget the Carolina Morace interregnum), but we have also cycled in a consistent stream of serviceable players.  Still, we have no new Sinclair, and while that might be asking a bit much, I can't name anyone who is even close to her level.  Other countries are catching up and somehow seem to find high level replacements for their retiring heroes.  I just don't see that player coming out of our youth squads yet, and I have to ask where is our player development?  Sinclair wasn't a result of the CSA, she came through youth clubs and provincial squads.  Our next great hope, Kara Lang, flamed out in injury,  and since then who has there been?  In more than a decade we haven't produced a single serious offensive threat (except Sydney Leroux, right?).  We have poached a couple from the US college programs, but we haven't developed anyone in that role. 

That's scary, and it also makes me question our coaching philosophy.  Are we stifling our best and most creative girls?  Are we failing to identify those players in favour of more "athletic" girls?  I'd suggest the latter based on the teams I have seen.  The "best" teams are full of tall, athletic early bloomers, with speed and physicality and utterly lacking any creativity.  And why would they be creative?  They're big and strong!  They can play a system and win.  Jordyn Huitema is exhibit A.  She's tall and strong but I haven't seen anything that really impresses me.  And where are the smaller players, the creative midfielders?  I hope we didn't lose all of them because they didn't hit puberty fast enough to be noticed, and quit.

Not that I think things are all great and rosy but you're describing Jessie Fleming here, this is Jessie Fleming. 

[Patrick]

7 hours ago, carolynduthie said:

Not that I think things are all great and rosy but you're describing Jessie Fleming here, this is Jessie Fleming. 

It's not that I don't appreciate Fleming, but she is another example of an early bloomer.  She was on the National team at 15.  Honestly, if you're not on the team by 15 it seems you may as well give up, at least if you are a Canadian who grew up here.  If you have dual Canadian you can get noticed in the NCAA, but it sure seems you better be streamed in to the national program by 13.  It's not just for the women, though, look at Alphonso Davies.  At 15 he likely needed to shave more often than me.  My son, at 14, hasn't hit the hard parts of puberty yet.  And my daughter is 10, in the developmental stream at her club, but as a smallish 10 year old she is being dropped a level despite having a lot more skill and a more developed kick than many of the much bigger girls in the "A" stream.  She can't compete with their speed and aggression.  Maybe I'm just sensitive because of her but I do think Canadian development is based more on a win-now attitude that discards a lot of talent that isn't ready at the first blush of teen-hood.

[tc-in-bc]

[ 1 ]  Today,  England qualified  for next year's  2019 FIFA WWC  France with a 3 - 0  victory over Wales.  Phil Neville in the middle of the picture and Bev Priestman  on the far right.

http://

[ 2 ] Phil Neville with some thoughts about his new assistant  manager:

QUOTE:

On his new assistant manager, Bev Priestman, and the process behind choosing Bev as his new number two:

The story was Casey was my assistant and I always had a floating assistant which I wanted to be a female because I wanted to develop female coaches and give opportunities to female coaches.

I don’t think they get enough opportunities at the top level. Casey went to United and Geraint Twose came in but I felt the rotational coach wasn’t working. There was no consistency in the messages, every camp we were going back to square one and introducing someone else to the camp.

Mel [Reay] did a great job, Rehanne [Skinner] did a great job but I wanted consistency. I wanted someone who was different to me because I’m a coach. I wanted someone with different skillsets who could help me and manage my weaknesses.

I also wanted someone who had gone to a tournament. Gone to a World Cup, an Olympics, been through the system coaching U17s, 18s, 19s etc. Bev was just the outstanding candidate. I spoke to her once and within 20 minutes me and Sue said she was the one.

Her detail in her interview, the feedback from my friends in Canada was great and she’s going to be an unbelievable asset. She’s pro-active, she reminds me of a coach that you go into a room and ask for something it’s already done. She challenges me, she won’t just say ‘that’s great Phil’. She’s been really impressive.

https://shekicks.net/2018/08/28/fifawwc-wal-v-eng-preview-phil-neville-talks-squad-balance-fitness-and-much-more/

[Vic]

"I wanted to develop female coaches and give opportunities to female coaches."

Then step down ffs.

"10 year old she is being dropped a level despite having a lot more skill and a more developed kick than many of the much bigger girls in the "A" stream"

Stream/division/tier means nothing at the very young ages. What matters is developing skill, athletics and an understanding of and love for the game. Our kids have always been harped on about falling behind technically in the "golden years", but I think the main patterning that needs to happen here is athletic.