RJB

You know, this is interesting to me. I get that things need to change, and that we all want to do better, but I think it's pretty immature to just blame the provinces for 'not getting on board.' I suspect there is lots they can do for sure, but it is far to easy to turn around and say that since A didn't work, then B was certainly the solution. The fact is that if we play a particular style, that falls on the coach of that team. If subordinate coaches don't play a particular style, then they may be hurting the program, but it still falls on the highest level coach to have their team playing how they want. And that didn't happen. The failure at this tournament rests solely on the coach and the team, and not with in some board room in Saskatchewan or Manitoba or wherever. Now, well after the fact these issues - whatever they may be - should definitely get addressed but I refuse to say that political strife caused us to play poorly and lose as we did. That's the coach. That's the players. And you know, JDV has been in his role for some time and if nothing has changed then maybe people need to start questioning his ability to make that happen. Is it not literally his job to ensure that players are developed appropriately?

I was being facetious, because he was hand-picked by Herdman in the first place.

I wonder if Herdman will fire his coach?

If all we care about is getting it correct, then we have to take the officials off the field and leave it entirely up to VAR. I’m sorry but if this is what it has come to with so many stoppages making calls at such incredibly fine margins(in many cases) then I don’t think it’s worth it. Especially given that I think referees are not making calls, knowing that VAR will inevitably bail them out; no call is the safe call because they’ll get a second - and better - look. We can all sit and say that VAR is ultimately making the correct call, but the Cameroon disallowed goal was offside by what must have been millimetres! Technically correct, but those are the types of fine lines I think I’m ok with. Is something different at this World Cup? At Russia I don’t feel like it was used nearly as much, but I’m not really up to date on changes to these types of things.

I agree with this. Referees don’t make calls knowing that VAR can bail them out. I just don’t want to hear that this is a WWC issue. It’s a footballing issue across the men’s and women’s game.

But is this any different that the men’s tournament? I agree there are kinks, but at Russia 2018 it was bad too. And in the various test leagues. I think this is a problem, but I don’t think this is a case of women being unfairly treated.

1. Then which competition is the ultimate women’s competition? 2. This is not a “they wouldn’t do this to men” moment. You’re grasping at straws here.

If Canada goes into the game thinking that a draw will be best because then they'll finish second is the type of thing that cases Fate to step in and have USA lose and finish second. There are no guarantees, they are both opponents that can beat Canada. This is such a superb response. We can't watch this tournament and expect it to be a carbon-copy of World Cup Russia. This has been a superb tournament so far with a higher standard than ever. And we should expect that 2023 will be even better. It's such a great era for Women's soccer. And the refereeing has been fine if you ask me. Any issues with VAR are VAR issues and perhaps we could blame the evolution of that rather than blaming female refs.

Agreed. I took the bait. Looking forward to tomorrow, seeing us face our toughest challenge of the tournament so far.

Give me a break. This is so unintelligent, misinformed, and disconnected from the reality of the world. When privilege starts to look like equality, it's often perceived as oppression. There is a lot of ignorance in what you're saying here. Next are you going to try to say that Christmas is under attack? Whether you like the US team or not, there sexuality is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is that they are doing all of the same things that Christine Sinclair and her teammates are doing, and that is realizing that they have to leave the game in a better place than where it was when they started. You know, the campsite rule. You call it self-serving and self-promotion, but really it is integral to making things better for girls and women around the world. Patrick, I'm sure that your life is so much more challenging than anyone else, but perhaps you should stick to watching Bill O'Reilly and telling yourself what a bunch of snowflakes everyone else but you is. Spare us from this tripe.

It's certainly Herdman's first test. He's had a pretty smooth road since he was hired, playing a series of minnows up to this point. Granted we've done well, but this is our first challenge that he's faced.

The last time we beat a FIFA team in the Gold Cup was against El Salvador in the group stages of '09 . That includes wins against French Guiana ('17) and Guadeloupe ('11).

The only option that is acceptable is going out and playing our best. If finishing second means we were to play Vatican City, you still can't try to lose. That's putting the cart before the horse. Luckily, this is a moot conversation because I don't think either of the above options is a clearly better option. The only factor would be the US somehow losing which if we lose the group pits us against them. I don't see them losing to Chile, so fortunately that could only come to fruition after our last group game which puts that out of the players head. Play our best against the Netherlands, try to win, and stay sharp.

VAR or not, this is something that keepers have done for many years, and I'd love to see that more enforced. the '94 World Cup Final comes to mind as particularly egregious. And oh dear, that '99 Final video is awful. She's half way to the ball before it's touched. I think they've made improvements allowing the keeper to move side-to-side, but they still manage to get forward illegally.

I will be very surprised if any games go to anywhere other than Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal. There isn't enough games to share past those three cities, those are the easiest places to get to and from to points in Europe, and in North America. The fact is that most cities in Canada deserve a game. It just isn't going to happen, especially now that we've started drawing well in the big cities.