Nearly a year after their medal-winning performance at the London Olympics, the women's national team will finally get their homecoming with a "friendly" against the U.S.A. at BMO Field on Sunday, June 2.
While the focus in the Canadian women's program is ostensibly centered around the 2015 Women's World Cup, this game will seemingly exist outside of that narrative. It's being billed by the Canadian Soccer Association as "The Rematch" -- a shot at redemption after the heartbreaking Olympic semifinal loss against our cross-border rivals, and an attempt to capitalize on the excitement and goodwill generated by the team during their run last summer.
But that rivalry has been rather lopsided historically (Canada has only three wins and five draws in 52 matches against the U.S., and haven't beaten the Americans since 2001). The last two showdowns on Canadian soil have both been comfortable 4-0 wins for the Yanks. So head coach John Herdman will be temporarily suspending his strategy of testing younger players in the run-up to 2015.
"Not this game," he said at a press conference Tuesday. "I think this game is quite special for Canadians, and I think there's only a set group of players that are ready to play this game. Some of the younger players we've been immersing, it's OK in China at a friendly tournament (last month). But coming up against the best players in the world, these teams can destroy you in seconds. That's the quality, and they have a mindset that they are unforgiving. I think the Canadian public deserve the opportunity for us to get out there and really try and do something quite special."
Indeed, it will be a special night for the team and its supporters -- but given that Toronto won't be serving as a host city in the 2015 Women's World Cup, why use it as the venue for a heavily-hyped match such as this? I asked CSA general secretary Peter Montopoli about whether thought had been given to having this match in one of the six host cities, in an attempt to build up to the 2015 tournament.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
"Yeah, there was thought," he said. "It comes down to what's the best opportunity for success for our team, and also, secondary, from a revenue perspective. And this certainly was the best location, the best venue for us in that period of time on June 2. A lot of it depends on timing and availability, and we found for us, that this was the right call for this."
The "revenue perspective" in question is almost certainly the fact that -- as originally reported here on CSN last month -- under a revised agreement with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (the operators of BMO Field), the CSA must sell 16,000 tickets per year to national-team games at BMO Field to avoid facing a financial penalty. Given the lingering excitement around the women's national team and the cross-border rivalry, there's a good chance that mark will be surpassed on the evening of June 2.
But is selling out the stadium a reasonable expectation? And what of fans elsewhere in the country; can they expect to see the women's national team visit any time soon? I followed up with an exclusive one-on-one conversation with Montopoli to try and answer some of those questions:
John made reference to having 23,000 fans out there (earlier in a press conference to announce the match). Is that something you're hopeful for, a sellout or close to a sellout at BMO Field?
We believe there's enough interest and appetite for this match, and for the women's national team anywhere in Canada. We're pushing for a sellout for that match, certainly, and we believe there's enough interest to sustain that.
Is the CSA going to be working with the Voyageurs in the same way they did during the men's World Cup qualifying campaign?
Yes. A lot of the same plans that we've kind of fine-tuned over the course of two years will come into play. We'll take advantage of that for 2013. That's why we're excited.
And I presume you'll be working with Umbro in the same way, to reach out to clubs and sell tickets?
Yeah, we'll work with Umbro, we have our own ticket-sales club campaign. We have a number of things in the hopper that we hope we can take advantage of for ticket sales.
In terms of games the team has going forward, it has been reported (here at CSN) that Canada has another friendly lined up in France in April. Is that something you're able to comment on at this point?
It's something that we're very close to, we just haven't been able to finalize all the details. Hopefully we'll be able to announce that shortly.
You said it's the CSA's goal to have the women's national team play in each of the World Cup 2015 host cities prior to the World Cup -- is that correct?
Yes ... We want to take them across the country. In 2012, we actually ended up playing in two of the six venues. We played in British Columbia, in Vancouver, for the CONCACAF (Olympic) qualifiers, so there were five matches there. We played in Moncton, so that's two of the six. Ottawa doesn't have a building, and Winnipeg is still building. So really that takes us down to Montreal and Edmonton. Certainly we like to play in Toronto. So when it came down to that decision, you're looking at the opportunity and the availability. And the other piece was where the U.S. (team) was located, and quick entry... It worked out well for Toronto.
I get the sense there will be fans -- particularly in Vancouver -- who might feel a bit aggrieved about having this game in Toronto. They might look to the fact that there was the successful CONCACAF tournament in Vancouver and may have thought this could have been a game that would have been hosted out there.
Yeah, you know, I think you always have to take into consideration the opponent and where they're coming from. Certainly the United States preferred an east-coast environment this time around. Not to blame them, but when we play them, they ask us what's best for our location. But hopefully we'll have the opportunity to announce more matches before the year is out, and hopefully the other FIFA World Cup cities will have the opportunity to host.
Is there a chance the team will play more games on home soil in 2013?
Certainly that's what we're trying to work on right now. We've had some difficulty because the European countries have a lot of their World Cup qualifiers ongoing, and so to get them to play on a FIFA matchday is becoming very difficult, because they're playing already. So we're trying to work on something for later in the year, hopefully we'll have some more announcements. We want to be playing more at home.
Tickets go on sale to the public via Ticketmaster on March 22, with information about tickets in the supporters sections being provided by the Voyageurs (and, shortly thereafter, in this space). For those unable to make it, the game will be broadcast live on all Sportsnet stations.
We now know that Mission 2015 gets officially underway on June 2. It's us, it's the Yanks -- we all know what's at stake.
Now, let's just hope the referee isn't from Norway.
.