We don't know how many home games the Canadian senior women's national team will play in 2014. But we've now had the chance to get a little bit more familiar with some of the youngsters who almost certainly will suit up for Canada in next summer's U-20 Women's World Cup.
Ahead of the third-place match of the Torneio Internacional de Brasilia on Sunday, Canadian head coach John Herdman promised we'd see some new faces in the starting XI against Scotland -- and he delivered. Kadeisha Buchanan, 18, Sura Yekka, 16, and Jessie Fleming, 15 (making her first start for the CanWNT) were all out there at the opening whistle... as they likely will be for the U-20 side next summer (hell, Yekka and Fleming will probably also be at the U-17 Women's World Cup in the spring).
What Herdman also said was that he'd be "very disappointed" if Canada didn't come away with a win over Scotland, who Big Red had defeated 2-0 in their tournament opener. Well, he came pretty close to such disappointment, saved in the 83rd minute by a well-taken header from veteran midfielder Sophie Schmidt -- off a Diana Matheson corner -- to finally reward Canada for nearly an entire game's worth of attacking pressure.
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Said Herdman in a news release: "It’s just about resilience, persistence to keep going, and I think we should have had it sewn up by halftime to be honest."
Indeed they should have... but, much to the consternation of their fans, they hadn't. Was it the conditions? The inexperienced lineup? The disappointment of not reaching the gold-medal game? Perhaps it was some combination of those three. Or perhaps it was another, more long-standing and more pressing issue.
Perhaps this was just the latest bit of evidence that Christine Sinclair is no longer in a position to single-handedly will Canada to victory anymore.
That's not a knock on her, of course. The fact that she's largely had to carry the team on her back for the last decade is a credit to her once-in-a-generation skill set and leadership abilities. But the reality, as everyone knows, is that she won't be around forever. And if Sinclair isn't in a position to use that lethal finishing touch we've seen for so many years, then Canada's chances of scoring drop precipitously.
There were chances against Scotland. Plenty of them. Scotland collapsed early and gave Canada plenty of chances at long-range shots, but none were effective. Eventually, the Canadians found a way through and created more close-range opportunities -- none better than Adriana Leon's second-half shot from six yards out that was miraculously parried away by Scotland 'keeper Gemma Fay -- but came up empty until Schmidt expertly finished off Matheson's well-taken corner.
Scotland, at #20 in the most recent FIFA rankings, came close themselves, clattering a shot off Erin McLeod's crossbar in the second half. Twenty-four-year-old striker Jane Ross -- who scored in Scotland's 4-3 loss to Chile last week -- looked especially dangerous for her squad.
As for Canada's youngsters, the generation we'll see on display (hopefully) at the U-20 World Cup? They were largely as advertised. Buchanan had an especially hard-crunching day on defence (even by her standards), picking up a yellow card along the way; Yekka showed plenty of industry coming forward from the fullback position (exactly what Herdman wants from that spot); and Fleming showed off some of the technical skills that have followers raving about her potential going forward.
None of those three, however promising they may be, are goal scorers.
Leon, 21, was touted as potentially breaking through at this tournament, and looked dangerous at times, but only scored once in four games. In fact, the whole team scored just three times in four games.
Of course, the official CSA press release addressed this concern, as if the person who wrote it somehow knows exactly what goes on inside the minds of distressed Canadian soccer fans:
Herdman did say the one concern from this game, and this tournament, was the team’s lack of scoring but pointed to the possible return of names like Jonelle Filigno, Melissa Tancredi, Josee Belanger, and Kara Lang as reasons to be optimistic that more scoring is just around the corner.
Indeed it may be a reason for optimism. And hey, if even one or two of those players are able to live up to the standard we've seen from them in the past, they will definitely make a positive impact for this team. But, of course, there's no guarantee that will actually happen.
And in fact, as this tournament has taught/reminded us, there are no guarantees at all for this team anymore. Few would have expected that at tournament's end, we'd be talking about Canada having scraped out a 1-0 win over Scotland just to claim third place in a four-team competition.
Then again, a win is a win is a win -- and a win with three teenagers in the starting lineup is nothing to sneeze at, either. But while Canadians will definitely be pleased to see budding stars at centreback (Buchanan), fullback (Yekka) and central midfield (Fleming), the true relief and optimism will come when we see a new, consistent star emerge at what will be the most important position of all for the post-Sinclair Canadian team: Striker.
Will that yet prove to be Leon, or one of the kids we saw scoring at will for Canada in U17 World Cup qualifying earlier this year? Time will tell.
For now, in case anyone's interested, Brazil defeated Chile 5-0 in the tournament final, with the goals coming from five different players.
Happy new year, everyone.
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