On today's edition of Checking In With CanWNT, we've got midfielder Diana Matheson. The 28-year-old from Oakville, Ont. tells us about her long road to recovery in early 2012, winning a league championship in Norway, being peer-pressured into finally joining Twitter and why she celebrated her Olympic medal-winning goal the way she did.
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You've had quite the whirlwind since the Olympics ended; where have you just come from (Dec. 11)?
I just came doing some camps in Ottawa and then in Halifax. There was Christine (Sinclair), Karina (LeBlanc) and Rhian (Wilkinson).
The national team played the friendly in Moncton earlier this year, and now visiting Halifax, do you sense there's a lot of excitement about the team in Atlantic Canada?
For sure. I mean, I think we get recognized a little bit more since the Olympics, but the number of times people were stopping us on the street and congratulated us was amazing.
Prior to that you'd just come back from Norway after winning a league championship with Lillestrom. What was that experience like for you?
It's a team that Rhian and I have both played for before, so we went back at the end of the season. They were trying to win the league. They were in first when we got there, so that helped. We really wanted to go out, there are great people there, so we were really happy that we could do what we can to help them win. We'd come in second with that team a few times before, so it was really nice to actually get a win with them.
Did it make the experience of winning the title even sweeter having Rhian with you as a teammate?
Yeah, for us, that whole group of players, we've been there on and off for parts of four years, so we know them all very well. That club has never won the league before so it meant a lot to the players, the coaches and the club itself. So it was the overall.
How tough has that been for you, making that adjustment and going overseas on numerous occasions?
It's not ideal, obviously. It's very far, it's not easy being a six-hour time difference. Skype and all that makes it easy, but the time difference isn't easy, and if you're there for the whole season that's about eight months. You can be gone that long, out of Canada, which none of us prefer. I think we'd all like to be close to home, I think.
At the Olympic qualifying tournament in January, you were left off the roster as your recovery from knee surgery was taking longer than expected. Watching the tournament take place, were you worried that you might miss out on the Olympics themselves?
Yeah, that definitely crossed my mind. When I had my scope done, I thought it was just going to be a tear in the meniscus, so about six weeks and that's it. It ended up being more long term than that. I had microfracture surgery, which is normally a year before it's OK, and then it can bug you for a couple years after that. Karina LeBlanc also had it done before.
End of March, I still wasn't running, so I was definitely getting worried then. But I have a really good athletic therapist near Toronto who was curing me not only physically but mentally, so that helped me a lot to keep me sane. And then once I started running, things started moving a little bit quicker, and I was back with the team in April. So then I knew I'd be alright. I just might be on a few more anti-inflammatories.
Ah, what's another anti-inflammatory here and there, right?
Exactly!
In the last year and a half, we've seen a few of your fellow midfielders really emerge for the national team, specifically Sophie Schmidt and Desiree Scott. What's it been like for you to be around those two as we've seen them transform into regular contributors for the national team?
Sophie's been an impact player on the team for a few years now. She's a fantastic midfielder, and she makes a huge contribution to our team. And Desiree Scott, what she's done in the last year has been incredible. I think it's just all about confidence for her, and once she realized she can do it at the top level, she just started doing it day in and day out, and dominating. They're really fun to play with, both of them.
Credit to John Herdman too; he had every single one of us playing at our top potential. And I think especially for players like Desiree, it made a huge difference.
Did you feel the London Olympics represented a chance for redemption after last summer's World Cup?
Yeah, it did, but I don't think that was at the front of our minds. The main thing was just preparation and doing everything possible. John was kept so busy just preparing in every single way, whether it was video, keeping our bodies healthy, training, stuff like that. I don't think training was really at the forefront, just getting our personal best and getting results was.
In the France game, obviously there's some redemption there, since they're the ones that beat us 4-0 last year, but more so it was just about the personal bests, and all the preparation that came with that.
One of your teammates said the team was better prepared for a big tournament than ever before. Is that a sentiment you'd agree with?
Yeah, we were better prepared, period. For everything, I think. There were so many things we didn't know we weren't doing before. John said, "you don't know what you don't know", and it's true, he brought in so many new things. We learned so much in the past year with him. His tactical parts were fantastic, we were preparing for specific teams in specific tournaments. Three weeks ahead of time we'd spend a week on one system, a week on another. Anything that came out, we'd be prepared for.
The physical side, the mental side, we just did everything possible. John always said that we would be the hardest working team off the field, and I think for sure that we were.
It seems as though it all came together at the perfect time, both on and off the field for the fans. You've been with the team long enough to know that soccer isn't usually at the forefront of the Canadian media. So what was it like for you to see, both during the Olympics and afterwards, the way the team had really been adopted back at home?
We knew there was support there. We go and play and we've always had strong crowds, except when we play late on Wednesday night. We knew the support was there, we knew it would take us actually winning something at the top level for people to really get on board. People aren't going to keep backing a team that comes fifth or sixth. Canadians want to see a result, and they're going to back a winner, so we knew it was going to be up to us to really get more people on board.
We didn't get a sense of how big it got, because we were in a bubble over there, but when we got back we just couldn't believe the amount of support we got and how big it got over here, it was unbelievable.
I suppose seeing Christine win the Lou Marsh award is definitely another sign soccer is no longer being ignored in this country, right?
I think so. I think there's no one more deserving than she is, so I'm so proud that she won that award.
Christine Sinclair is now a household name in the country, and after the bronze medal game, so is Diana Matheson. Is that something you've gotten used to?
No, it's still a little surreal. It's kind of interesting, as a kid... I didn't really have that crazy Olympic moment that kids are going to remember in five or 10 years when they go to the Olympics. But it's totally surreal that it was us that did it, you know? We know now how big that goal was, but it's still crazy that it was just us that did it. It doesn't feel real. Hopefully in the next couple of years, things will keep going and keep building towards 2015 and not drop back down again.
Now, I need to ask about what came after the goal: Your celebration. The little bow, the robot arm. What was that all about?
That was for one of our teammates, Robyn Gayle, who was in the stands. She joked earlier that if I scored I should do the robot. She hurt her hamstring earlier in the tournament, so he was an alternate at that point, she was in the stands with our two other alternates, Emily Zurrer and Christina Julien. So, yeah, that was for her.
Had you been practicing doing the robot ahead of time?
Ahhh, no. There was no practice. And I was hoping the cameras were off me by that point -- but apparently, one was not. Robyn didn't even notice it, so, there was no point, I guess.
So it's safe to say that's the last time we'll be seeing you doing the robot, then?
Ahhh, yeah. I don't think I'll do that one again. Well, who knows, maybe another medal on the line, you know, some friend or alternates, I'd do it for them. Robyn would have to think of something new, I guess.
A lot of your teammates have been active on social media for a long time, but you only joined Twitter after the Olympic Games. Was that a matter of finally caving to peer pressure from your teammates?
It was a little bit of peer pressure; I've seen them have fun and have jokes on Twitter which non-Twitter people don't know about, so it's part that. And it's part necessity too; we as players have to try and keep marketing ourselves to keep soccer in the public eye and maybe even create some new opportunities from this. It's just a way people can access me. We can share the camps. It was a little bit out of necessity and a little bit out of peer pressure. But it turns out it's a lot of fun, and I'm enjoying Twitter quite a bit.
You weren't with the team at the most recent camp in December. Was that a matter of you taking some time to rest?
Yeah, the players that were still playing professionally, or the NCAA players, had that camp off.
You've spoken about how tough it is for yourself and other players to make constant journeys to Europe while keeping up national-team commitments. Is it safe to say you're looking to get involved in the National Women's Soccer League?
Yep, I would love to be a part of that.
How important is it for not just current national-team players, but younger Canadian players, to have a domestic option?
For us as a program, it's important to have us more in one place, more on one schedule; logistically that makes a big difference. Personally, we obviously like being close to home as well, and we're a lot closer to Canadians too, so hopefully they can look over here and see us playing, and they can look up to the players close to home as they grow up.
Ideally the league sticks around for a few years and we get some Canadian teams in there too. I think that would be the best case going forward, something like MLS where we have a few clubs across the country, then we have academies leading into the clubs. Then kids really role models and something to look forward to when they're growing up, and they have something to aim for?
Do you already have your eyes on 2015?
Yeah, I'll hopefully stick around for that and the next Olympics. That's the plan.
If you had to summarize, in a sentence or two, what 2012 has meant, what would you say?
It's been a roller coaster -- I've had some pretty low lows for the first half of the year, and then the highest of highs. It's just been surreal, and it's like you said, everything kind of fell into place, not just this year but everything prior. We've had all the right coaches, from Even (Pellerud) to Carolina (Morace) to John, all in the right order, everything happened the way it's supposed to, I think; it's just been incredible.
And then everything in the Olympics itself -- the performance in the Japan game, and then slowly growing through the tournament, the Sweden game when we were down two goals in the first 20 minutes, coming back from that, the Great Britain game, and then the U.S. devastating loss... every single thing just added to the story. The whole thing is incredible and it's really hard to describe.
That was a really long answer, so I'll just say: Surreal.
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