As far as Mother's Day gifts go, Kadeisha Buchanan delivered a pretty good one on Thursday night.
With her mom watching Canada's friendly against the United States amongst relatives, members of a teammate's family and other Canadian fans at a viewing party in downtown Toronto, Buchanan fully and firmly announced herself to the soccer world by almost single-handedly earning Canada just its ninth result in 56 all-time matchups with our southern neighbours.
"That's my daughter!" could be heard at approximately 245 decibels when Buchanan, the 18-year-old central defender, rose up in the 36th minute to head home her first goal for the senior national team.
And on the other side of the ball, the rough-and-tumble Buchanan did the same thing to Abby Wambach -- the top goal scorer in the history of international soccer -- that she did the previous two times the teams played: She made her look positively ordinary.
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While Buchanan rightfully earned the headlines and player-of-the-game honours, the fact that she was part of a back line that contained two other relatively inexperienced teenagers -- Rebecca Quinn, 18, and Sura Yekka, 16 -- that held the world's No. 1-ranked team scoreless for more than three quarters of the match is probably even more pleasantly surprising.
Yes, it's just one game. Yes, the U.S. spurned a few glorious scoring opportunities it had created. And yes, Erin McLeod was called upon for big saves, which she made.
But the positive showings from Buchanan, Quinn and Yekka -- along with the promise of Jessie Fleming, 15, and Ashley Lawrence, 18 -- should give Canadian fans plenty to look forward to when it comes to this summer's Under-20 Women's World Cup. Fleming, of course, made a cameo appearance against the U.S., while Lawrence was reportedly fighting the flu as she remained an unused substitute.
Buchanan is presumably a lock to wear the captain's armband at the U-20 tournament this summer, and could very well follow in the footsteps of another player who wore the armband for Canada on very many occasions -- Kevin McKenna, a fellow centreback who would occasionally line up as a striker for the national team, and is actually tied for seventh all-time in CanMNT scoring with 11 goals.
Hey, Buchanan is a natural striker (so says her family) and did line up at the position occasionally for the Toronto Lady Lynx. Is it too early to call Kadeisha Buchanan the CanWNT version of Kevin McKenna?
Yeah, probably. But hey, getting a result against our border rivals (again, only Canada's ninth non-loss in 56 all-time matchups), especially with a youthful lineup and only about a year away from hosting the Women's World Cup, will make a Canadian soccer supporter say all sorts of wild and upbeat things.
Nowhere near as wild and upbeat as Kadeisha's mom -- who attributed her daughter's terrific performance to her new hairdo -- but hey, we can all dream.
And when it comes to wild and upbeat, kudos were well-earned by those who turned up to the tune of over 28,000 for a midweek, 7 p.m.-start May friendly in not-especially-friendly weather conditions in Winnipeg. Surely, the CSA was hoping that this game would serve as a showcase, ahead of the WWC, of not just the Manitoba fanbase but the suitability of the shiny new Investors Group Field as a soccer venue.
Well, mission accomplished on both counts.
And yeah, a win -- which would have been Canada's first over the USA since 2001, not 2000 as the TV broadcast said -- would have been really swell. And not conceding the equalizing goal to that same Canada-punishing jerk would have been even more swell.
But to get hung up on those two points would be to dwell unnecessarily on what could have been -- which is, admittedly, a favourite pastime for the masochistic Canadian soccer fan.
Instead, for once, why not focus on what could be?
Canada has passed the first of its four big tests on home turf this year. The next one comes on June 18, when Germany rolls into B.C. Place in Vancouver. A hard-fought and deserved draw against an admittedly reeling and somewhat shorthanded American squad is a good start. But a result against the No. 2-ranked Germans -- and another raucous home crowd on the west coast -- would serve notice that the entire Canadian team will be ready to compete at next year's World Cup.
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