Let's take a moment, right off the bat, to revel in the biggest margin of victory that a Canadian national soccer team has been able to achieve in 2013.
(reveling, reveling, etc.)
Now then. Goals from Christine Sinclair, Brittany Timko and Adriana Leon -- and an excellent first-half performance from goalkeeper Erin McLeod -- lifted the women's national team to a comfortable 3-0 victory over South Korea in a friendly on Wednesday night, in front of over 12,000 fans at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium.
Given the relative paucity of home friendlies for our senior national teams, the instinct is to simply enjoy the game's existence (and ratchet up that enjoyment after the favourable result). But the responsible Canadian fan (contradiction in terms?) in me says we need to figure out what -- if anything -- it all means. So, here we go.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
In the grand scheme of things, every game at this stage needs to be viewed as an evaluation tool for Canada going into the 2015 Women's World Cup. Funnily enough, the main subject of evaluation on Wednesday night was the venue: Commonwealth Stadium will host Canada in the opening game of the tournament, and head coach John Herdman spoke of the importance of acclimatizing to the facility in advance of WWC2015.
In terms of his lineup on the night, the realities of NCAA soccer (oh those lousy kids, needing to "go to class" and "earn an education" and everything) meant that many youngsters on Herdman's radar were unavailable, leaving him with plenty of familiar faces from the podium run at the 2012 Olympics, and a few relative newbies.
The biggest surprise (in many facets) was Sura Yekka, a 16-year-old who won her first cap for the senior team and started at right back. After impressing Herdman with her performance at a U-20 camp, the Mississauga, Ont. youngster -- like 18-year-old Kadeisha Buchanan before her -- got plunked into the mix for CanWNT with generalized sink-or-swim parameters.
And full credit to Yekka: On this night, she swam.
Sure, there were some deficiencies in defensive positioning, but like Buchanan, she has a composure on the ball that makes you forget she's an inexperienced teenager. And her willingness to burst up the wing as a fullback was refreshing -- in fact, it was her run on the right side that helped create Canada's first goal, as she forced a corner kick that was ultimately swung in by Diana Matheson onto the head of Sinclair.
As for the two other youngsters, Leon and Melissa Busque? Both are attempting to stake a spot in Canada's future post-Sinclair attacking setup, and both made some solid claims on the evening. Busque had energy and some good off-the-ball movement, while Leon showed the strength and finishing touch (capping off a splendid sequence on Canada's third goal) that have some Canadian supporters (i.e. me) tabbing the 21-year-old for big things in the years ahead.
Beyond the newcomers, what did we learn? Well, nothing new, really.
Sinclair is really good. Matheson continues to explore her attacking side (with exciting results) as her career progresses. Desiree Scott is called "the destroyer" for a reason. Lauren Sesselmann continues to be a significant asset to the team. McLeod is part of a remarkably good line of goalkeepers that Canada has produced (Stephanie Labbe came in at halftime to maintain the clean sheet).
But in a general sense, even a "Tier II" team like South Korea -- who were defeated 3-0 on the night, remember -- showed sparks of technical proficiency and passing ability that the Canadians simply couldn't match. Canada utilized their size, speed and strength to full advantage on Wednesday, properties which were relevant on at least two of the goals. Still, as the global parity continues to increase in the women's game, it's important not to misconstrue results such as Wednesday night's as a sign that all is well within the Canadian system.
C'mon, though, those ever-present concerns about the future can be suppressed for a day, though, right? After all, how often does a Canadian national team win 3-0 in front of an adoring home crowd? (Bonus if the opposing team comes into the game with more than 11 players dressed for the match.)
The 2015 Women's World Cup is two and a half years away, which is both a huge stretch of time and not that much time at all. We saw a good chunk of Canada's core on display against South Korea, but we didn't see a good number of other players (returning veterans like Melissa Tancredi, Jonelle Filigno and Kara Lang, as well as additional youngsters) who'll surely factor into the mix as well.
So to hell with it. Let's learn to stop worrying and love the good results when they happen. One of them happened tonight, and thousands of young fans in Edmonton were sent home with smiles on their faces.
Come to think of it, the women's national team seems to have a good history of inspiring youngsters with their performances in Edmonton.
Let's just hope that can carry through to 2015.
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