Sober Second Thoughts: Learning to live with the bark

Canada does Canada things in opening World Cup draw against Nigeria

Photo by Robert Gramner on Unsplash

It almost seems cruel to write about Canada’s issues in its 0-0 draw with Nigeria in the opening game of the World Cup.

It’s not like we learned much. Going into the tournament we knew that this was a team that struggled to create anything from open play.

And, against Nigeria, they didn’t produce anything from open play. Well, almost nothing. Christine Sinclair did draw a penalty. It was more about sloppy play by the Nigerians than it was anything Canada did and, as we all know by now, Sinclair missed the penalty, but that does qualify as creating something, I suppose.

The missed penalty was the first shot on target for Canada. They ended with three, although it’s hard to remember the other two.

I don’t want to belabour the lack of production, however. As I said, it just seems cruel. There is a point when it becomes pointless to be angry or frustrated by the fact that the dog barks, you know? Dogs bark. If you love your dog, you’re going to have to put up with the occasional barking.

The Canadian Women’s National Team does not create opportunities from open play. That’s its bark. That’s not going to change before Wednesday, or at any point in Australia. We just have to live with it.

Sure, Bev Priestman can tweak things a little by starting Cloé Lacasse and/or Evelyne Viens — and she probably should — but, realistically, that’s not going to suddenly turn this team into an offensive juggernaut.

No, they are going to go as far as the defence takes them. On that front, they did pitch a clean sheet yesterday. It was a nervous one, sure, but let’s focus on the positives.

On Wednesday, Ireland is going to sit back and dare Canada to break them down. They will look to hit the No Official Nicknames on the break. It’s imperative that Canada doesn’t let them.

If they can shut down the Republic of Ireland completely then it should give the attack enough time to huff and puff itself to a goal.

It only takes one, which is good because they probably only have one in them.

As far as what this all means for the tournament at large? Well, it seems unlikely that a team that can’t score is going to win the World Cup, so maybe the focus should be on just getting to the portion of the tournament where you can advance from a 0-0, provided you win a penalty shoot out.

I’m only partly being flippant. The greater point, however, is that all that matters over the next week is the results and one point yesterday wasn’t the end of the world. I don’t think this is a team capable of winning the World Cup, but I didn’t see them winning gold in Tokyo either.

There’s truth to the cliché that you have to grow into a tournament. So, let’s hope they grow. Just don’t expect them to become something they aren’t capable of. Fixing the goal scoring issue is a tomorrow problem.

Today, Priestman just needs to find a way to beat Ireland with the team of barkers that we currently have.

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