VAN DIEST: Canadian women’s soccer team back for Celebration Tour encore

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The Canadian ladies’s nationwide soccer workforce couldn’t have scripted a greater homecoming after successful Olympic gold in Tokyo this summer season.

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Now for the encore.

Canada will play New Zealand once more Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET) on the Stade Saputo in Montreal after beating the Soccer Ferns 5-1 in Ottawa on Saturday, within the first sport of the two-game Celebration Tour.

Saturday was the primary time the Canadian ladies performed at dwelling in over two years. That they had a ship off match at BMO Area in Toronto in Could, 2019 for the FIFA Girls’s World Cup in France and had not been dwelling since.

“I feel we’ll need extra of the identical, the group have dedicated to maintain pushing, maintain scoring extra targets, that’s what we’re going to wish to do to achieve success on the (2023) World Cup,” stated Canada head coach Bev Priestman on Monday. “Some new gamers might be referred to as upon who need to play primarily based on their contribution to the Olympic.

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“It’s a fantastic alternative for gamers to place their greatest foot ahead transferring ahead; we simply wish to placed on a fantastic present for the followers like we did in Ottawa. It was a very particular begin to the tour and I’m excited to see the followers in Montreal.”

Canada overwhelmed New Zealand in Ottawa as Priestman used all six allowable substitutes within the contest attempting to unfold out the taking part in time.

Those that didn’t get an opportunity to play in Ottawa will certainly see the sphere in Montreal, significantly the Quebec-based gamers, together with third-sting veteran goalkeeper Erin McLeod, who Priestman stated was instrumental behind the scenes in Tokyo.

McLeod was additionally entrance and centre in organizing the gathering of gamers previous to the match in Ottawa to show towards participant abuse, which has just lately come to gentle within the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League and was a difficulty with former Canada Soccer worker Bob Birarda.

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Canada Soccer has agreed with its ladies’s nationwide workforce participant affiliation to implement three necessities to fight participant abuse within the ladies’s sport, which incorporates and unbiased investigation into Birada’s conduct whereas employed by Canada Soccer.

“Erin is the one participant within the Olympics who didn’t get on that pitch, however was pivotal in serving to us get the gold,” Priestman stated. “For Erin, it’s far more than simply soccer, she was essential in serving to the younger gamers of their first Olympics.”

Priestman went into the Celebration Tour with a plan on learn how to rotate the squad to ensure that each participant on the Olympic rosters to get on the sphere. She is balancing the tour with preparations for upcoming tournaments, which incorporates the Concacaf Championships this summer season and the FIFA 2023 Girls’s World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

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“I don’t suppose it’ll be the identical beginning 11 as in Ottawa, however there might be some consistency between the 2 groups,” Priestman stated. “I feel now we have to search out that steadiness of the place we’re at now and the place we wish to go and utilizing each sport.

We don’t have lengthy and in order that’s positively behind my thoughts, how do I get extra sport experiences for gamers which are essential to this group, but additionally each participant performed part of that Olympics? All 22 of them, whether or not they have been up within the stands or down on the pitch.”

The 2 exhibition video games can even permit Priestman a chance to see gamers in several positions on the sphere. On Saturday, striker Janine Beckie performed at proper again rather than Ashley Lawrence, who was unable to affix the workforce on account of damage.

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Beckie had an excellent sport, was concerned in on all 5 targets and will have scored one herself, however was robbed by New Zealand goalkeeper Erin Nayler late within the contest.

“I believed she was phenomenal,” Priestman stated. “I’ve seen her at Manchester Metropolis in Champions League means earlier than I even obtained this job and I positively believed it was a future thought for Janine. I feel she was unbelievable.

“She took it on and he or she was an actual workforce participant. It wasn’t about Janine needed to out to attain and be a ahead, which you may get from some gamers. We’re disenchanted Ashely will not be right here, however I believed Janine stepped into Ashley’s footwear and put her greatest foot ahead.”

New Zealand is at the moment a workforce in transition with new head coach Jitka Klimkova taking cost of the workforce for the primary time on Saturday. Priestman expects a harder problem from the Soccer Ferns on Tuesday.

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“If I put myself within the new coach’s footwear, the gamers’ footwear, they wouldn’t have had lengthy to organize and put their stamp on how they wish to play sooner or later,” she stated. “So I can solely think about; I do know Jitka nicely, she’s a radical coach, she would have reviewed that sport and positively taken the group ahead into this subsequent sport.

“We’ve performed New Zealand quite a bit, I perceive their tradition, they gained’t function over they’ll wish to put the flawed proper on this sport and now we have to anticipate that for certain and now we have to place all the things they did on this first sport. We’ve ready the identical means and I anticipate a tough sport.”

Electronic mail: dvandiest@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @DerekVanDiest