Canada are a team who tend to come into Women’s World Cups with high expectations both from themselves and from fans. But they also then tend to underperform to various extents, followed by a rebound the next year at the Olympics. They have progressed from the group at the past two World Cups, but were elbowed out when the rubber hit the road in the knockouts. Their best finish was fourth overall in 2003, after they lost 2-1 to Sweden in the semi-finals. Their worst was, of course, their disastrous 2011 campaign in which they came last of 16 teams, which was compounded by off-field issues with head coach Carolina Morace.
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Manager
Bev Priestman has been a fairly steady hand at the helm since she was appointed in October 2020. While she seems to have taken a page out of former head coach John Herdman’s book on mental motivation, this does feel distinctly like her team in terms of playing style.
Formation
Canada usually set up in a 4-2-3-1, although they may move to 4-4-1-1 with someone like Christine Sinclair withdrawn behind a No 9. Most recently against France, they looked like a 4-3-3.
Three key players
Starting with the obvious, Sinclair is an important presence for Canada even if, at the age of 40, she is not playing the full 90 minutes. Jessie Fleming will likely have to shoulder a huge amount of work in midfield as she is the player most likely to drag Canada to a result through her tempo and vision. Goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan will also need to be massive both through her shot-stopping ability and her distribution out from the back, which has become one of her big strengths in club play. Sheridan might be especially key given Canada’s tendency to go all-in on defense.
Notable absences
Defender Bianca St-Georges was left off the roster despite looking fine — and getting plenty of minutes — at her club Chicago Red Stars. Forward Janine Beckie is out with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury.
Strength
This is a roster with plenty of experience and many players carrying over from Canada’s Olympic gold medal win in Tokyo two years ago. They have a tight leadership group between Sinclair, Sophie Schmidt and Quinn. They also have a good defensive triangle setup between Sheridan and center-backs Vanessa Gilles and Kadeisha Buchanan.
Question mark
It’s injuries, injuries, injuries.
Desiree Scott, long part of the backbone that keeps the Canadian midfield metronome ticking, had been recovering from a knee injury since January, having not played at all with her NWSL club, the Kansas City Current. But, in the end, she just missed out on making the final tournament roster. Buchanan has been on limited minutes in May after recovering from an injury that kept her out of the friendly against France in April.
But there are also additional off-field issues that have impacted this team and may continue to do so throughout the tournament.
Canada Soccer as a governing body is struggling for revenue and it led to the women’s team publicly protesting against “significant budget cuts” to their program going into this World Cup and requesting that they receive the same financial support as the men had in their version of the competition last year. The players have essentially been preparing on two fronts: to face other teams at the tournament in Australia and New Zealand, and to face their own federation, with Schmidt testifying in front of parliament in March that “Canada Soccer treats the women’s game as an afterthought”.
Wildcard
Evelyne Viens is an underrated striker who has been scoring at a steady rate with Swedish club Kristianstad. Priestman used her as a substitute during the SheBelieves tournament in February and Viens could be a useful weapon late in games, particularly from set pieces.
(Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Qualification/recent form
Canada advanced through CONCACAF qualifying in Mexico last summer, coming first in their group with three wins out of three. Recent form is hard to judge, given how much is happening off the field with their federation, a situation which has certainly impacted their tournament preparation.
Group difficulty
Canada are in Group B with Australia, the Republic of Ireland and Nigeria. All three could be tricky to handle, and it is always hard to get drawn into a group with a host nation, who will have all the benefits of home advantage. Canada will have to fight for every point.
Travel schedule
Canada gets the long flight to Perth for their second game in the group, bouncing east-west-east for one of the rougher group schedules. But at least after that, if they get out of the group, they will have a relatively short hop from Melbourne whether they finish first or second. They would also have a massive six-day rest period before any round of 16 tie.
To win the World Cup, they will need…
As much as this team has relied on Sinclair in the past, this is the tournament where they truly need younger players such as Fleming, Jordyn Huitema, Julia Grosso and Jayde Riviere to take it to the next level.
Did you know?
Sinclair’s first cap came on March 12, 2000 at age 16. Team-mates Riviere, Grosso, Simi Awujo and Huitema were yet to be born.
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
