What to do about the CanWNT

Can Canada return to (stay at?) the top of the women's game?

Photo by Raph Howald on Unsplash

In hindsight, everything started to change on June 27, 2015. The day that England defeated Canada at BC Place to end the host’s run at the 2015 World Cup represented a watershed moment for both programs.

It could even be seen as an important marker in women’s football, in general, I think. That was the day that Canada’s — and other early WoSo adopters — head start advantage against the historic football nations disappeared. They would, of course, continue to be competitive with those countries and even win from time to time, but no longer would Canada enter into contests against the global football power nations as a favourite. Previously, they had been based on the funded the program received and how it compared to the crumbs that the bigger football countries were giving their women.

The sexist handicap was, thankfully, starting to disappear.

Since that day, we have seen incredible (and overdue) movement from those countries. The early WoSo adaptors — USA, Canada, Japan and the Scandinavian nations, to name a few — no longer can be counted on to make up the last teams standing at major events.

Maybe it’s a stretch to draw a straight line from the Canada v England 2015 quarterfinal to Sunday’s final between England and Spain (two countries very much part of the global football elite), but I can’t help but think that was a day that saw two paths crossing in opposite directions.

The question for Canadian fans, is can we turn that train back around and get back to the top of the sport?

To have this conversation, we first have to agree that Canada was at the top of the sport during the last decade or so. Although, I don’t think that CanWNT was ever as good as the press clippings suggested, they were regular participants in major tournaments and the three Olympic medals are an obvious sign of the team’s standing (even when you factor in the difference in difficulty and importance of the Olympic tournament versus the World Cup).

Using that criteria, I would suggest that Canada was a secondary player at the top (think Switzerland or Mexico on the men’s side) from 2012 to now.

Maintaining that level will require an honest look at the program and some structural changes in the system. Increasing the level to become legitimate World Cup contenders will require a sustained effort over several years and some luck.

Bluntly, Canada isn’t a big enough country, with enough history in the sport, to be able to consistently compete at the top of the game, now that the major footballing nations are starting to take the women’s side seriously. There’s no shame in being in that secondary tier, however, and second tier nations can have golden generation runs that put them in the mix for titles (think Belgium on the men’s side).

Getting to second tier status is a worthwhile — and obtainable — goal.

I should probably change “getting to” to “staying at” because I don’t think we’ve completely fallen down yet. This World Cup was pretty disastrous, sure, but if Christine Sinclair scores the penalty against Nigeria they go through to a knock-out game and things feel marginally better.

They are also still the defending Olympic champions. That fact, ties into the first thing that needs to happen for Canada to retain its standing in the women’s game.

They need to qualify for the Olympics

The most immediate need they have is to get to Paris. Every resource available needs to be put in place to make sure the team gets the job done against Jamaica.

It won’t be an easy tie. In case you were only paying attention to Canada at the World Cup, Jamaica was one of the Group Stage darlings of the tournament. They eliminated Brazil and advanced from a Group that also included France and Panama.

They did so on their strength of defending in numbers. Jamaica had two 0-0 draws in the Group Stage and defeated Panama 1-0.

Considering Canada’s struggles to produce from open play, this is going to be a tough ask.

Not an impossible one, however. Canada must find a way to get through this tie and back to the Olympics. Failing to do so would remove direct athlete funding from the players and valuable exposure to the program. In short, it would be a disaster.

They need to re-evaluate their tactical approach

The World Cup was not Bev Preistman’s finest hour. Canada was predictable in attack the entire tournament and, most surprisingly, terrifying in defence.

The latter point was truly surprising, as Canada won the gold in Tokyo largely based on a world class defensive effort. Why they moved away from their strength in Australia was confusing. They played into Nigeria’s strengths and were lucky against Ireland.

The less said about the Australian game the better.

If they set-up against Jamaica like they did in Australia they will likely lose this tie. They need to change the approach and they don’t have much time. Scary.

They need to make peace with the CSA

I’m not suggesting that they should just roll over and accept whatever the CSA is offering, but there comes a point where the constant fights and leaking of stories to TSN is counterproductive to the end goal.

The battle with the CSA has taken on the look of a particularly bad divorce right now. And, like a bad divorce, there comes a point where you have to let go of the anger and instead focus on finding common grounds to move forward with.

That starts with an actual willingness to engage with the federation. Right now, they aren’t and, as much as fans want to cheer the women on in the fight, it’s just not realistic or helpful to simply refuse to work with them.

Get lawyers. Stop leaking stories. Start listening. Find solutions.

You don’t have to like each other, but you do have to work with each other*.

*to be clear, the CSA also has to do this. This article is only focused on the team’s role

They should consider making peace with CSB

I’ve been told that the player’s goal is to “destroy” the CSB deal.

That’s not going to happen. It’s a legal agreement and the CSB owners are not going to simply walk away from it. So, we need to change the focus and instead look for ways that the deal might be tweaked or reimagined that might be beneficial to the players.

As it relates to the women, that means finding a way for CSBs money to be included in Project 8. The moral argument the women have in the CSB fight is that their success is being used to fund a men’s league, which in no way benefits them. It’s a good argument.

So, change that. CSB always maintained that it intended to start a women’s league. The women were right to call them out on the feet dragging. It’s silly to shut them out now, though. Instead, get in a room and find out how to help each other get a league off the ground.

Because, without one, Canada is just going to keep going backwards.

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