When the Canadian women’s soccer team struck gold at the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021, it did so in a COVID bubble far from family and friends.
And while the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will take place in more normal conditions, with some loved ones able to make the long trip watching from the stands, weeks away from home can take their toll.
Coach Bev Priestman has planned accordingly.
Priestman is taking a page from her time as an assistant coach with England, under then-manager Phil Neville, before becoming Canada coach in November 2020.
“That’s one of my learnings from being in England with the Lionesses,” she said in an interview. “I thought we did a really good job of that freshness approach.”
Priestman and her staff have broken down the Canadian team’s time in Australia as “three blocks of work … knowing that you could be away for 52 days.
“And the 52nd day (the final) is the most important day, so how do you make sure that the players are mentally fresh, physically fresh as they can be,” she added. “So we’ve really put a lot of attention on that — around wellness, a whole load of aspects of making the team feel like they’re away from home but they’re home away from home.
“I think my staff will be fed up with the amount of World Cup planning workshops that we’ve done, but absolutely we’ve gone down to the hotel layout, right down to the finer detail. Everyone thinks that as a head coach that you just worry about the X’s and O’s but in countries where you’re not resourced like an England, a U.S. that might have someone like a general manager or someone doing that, you are getting down to that level of detail. But that detail does matter.”
The seventh-ranked Canadian women arrived in Australia at the end of June for a pre-tournament camp on the scenic Gold Coast, southeast of Brisbane. The early arrival allowed for on-field preparation and team bonding as well as overcoming jet lag and the time difference.
They open play July 20 against No. 22 Nigeria in Melbourne then fly west to face No. 22 Ireland in Perth on July 26 before returning to Melbourne to complete Group B play against No. 10 Australia on July 31.
The competition runs through Aug. 20 across nine cities in Australia and New Zealand, although the draw will keep the Canadians in Australia.
“Bev does a really good job of creating an environment where we have time to get away from the team … to bond outside of the soccer field,” said goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan. “I think that’s really important that we have that friendship outside and we have that ability to also say ‘I need some time away from you guys.’
“Sometimes I just need my own time, to get away and refresh myself. Then I can come back and be my best self.”
Australia has already been a welcome change from the confines of Tokyo.
“It’s been amazing to have the freedom,” captain Christine Sinclair said. “A few of us went on a boat (Sunday). We went to the animal sanctuary. We’ve been going to the beach and hanging out. We’ve been going for dinner, while obviously playing soccer as well.
“It’s been night and day compared to Tokyo.”
Tournament soccer at the highest level comes with considerable stress. Something Sinclair, at her sixth World Cup, knows all about.
“As of right now my mindset is just to enjoy it,” she said. “I’m a perfectionist and I always put so much pressure and stress upon myself that my goal is to enjoy this World Cup. My family’s coming down. Obviously they got to experience a little bit of the 2015 World Cup (in Canada) but it’s the first time they’ve really travelled to watch me play. I just want to create amazing memories.”
Sinclair says her two nieces, who are the apples of her eye, are “over the moon” at the prospect of coming Down Under.
“They’ve never been farther than Disneyland so that’s good. My brother and his wife might kill them before they get here,” she added jokingly. “My brother, he’s just not looking forward to a 17-hour flight. But I’m sure once they get here, hopefully all in one piece, they’ll have a great time.”
Priestman’s family is also coming. Wife Emma Humphries, a former New Zealand international who is also a coach, and son Jack will attend two of the group games and possibly another after that.
“It will be lovely to have them there,” Priestman said. “I think the one feeling that we all had as a family is when that gold-medal moment happened (at the Tokyo Olympics) they weren’t there because they couldn’t be there. To have my family, who through a very tough year have always been there, it’s going to be great to have them there, for sure.”
Sinclair says Priestman, who at 37 is three years younger than herself, understands the need to get away from the game.
“The ability to let the team unplug, (have) some down time, some days where we have nothing as a team and you can go enjoy yourself,” she said. “The thing we’ve learned in the past about World Cups is they’re a long tournament. As (Priestman) says, it’s a marathon not a sprint and we have to save some of our energy for the end of the tournament.”
Adding to the comfort level is the fact the Canadians were in Australia last September for friendlies against the tournament co-host (Canada won 1-0 in Brisbane and 2-1 in Sydney).
“A lot of people were saying when we were there, walking the streets, that this could be any city in Canada,” said midfielder Quinn, who goes by one name. “It felt like a Toronto or a Vancouver. A lot of similar things, as well as well as some incredible coffee, which I think people didn’t mind as well.”
“We’re all addicted to coffee,” added Sinclair, who took a portable espresso machine to Tokyo. She dispensed with that for Australia “because their coffee is exceptional.”
Australia is also easy because “if you forget something, you can just buy it,” Sinclair said with a laugh.
Sheridan says the games in Australia in the fall came with a payoff on and off the field.
“It was big for us to do that trip and kind of understand the feeling that we’re going to put on our bodies travelling across the world and playing in front of their fans,” she said. “Playing a home team in their World Cup is always a challenge. We got a taste of that last year … We expect them (the Australian fans) to be brutal on us. We expect them to show up for their team as they did last year.”
Bottom line, Sinclair sees this World Cup as a “new start” for the Canadian women.
“It’s been a rocky year for the women’s national team with (labour) negotiations and everything that happened at the SheBelieves (Cup),” she said, referencing the tournament in the U.S. in February when the players threatened not to play over the labour dispute.
“I think we’ve used these first couple of weeks here in Australia just to like restart, refresh. We’re starting from scratch, again, on a new page and it’s been exciting to see the team build on and off the pitch, nail some things down on the field that we think we have been lacking earlier in the year. Once again, just building that family (feeling) that we’re known for.”
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