John Herdman, who coached Canada’s men’s team to its first World Cup appearance in 36 years, now says he wished he’d stepped down as manager before the tournament in Qatar in late 2022.
The 48-year-old Englishman told CBC Sports’ Anastasia Bucsis that he “wasn’t ready” in the wake of his sister Nicola’s suicide in May of that year, just a few months after the team had secured its berth for the tournament.
“I had just lost my sister to suicide, and it really, really hurt and it was for a period of time. I’ve never been hurt like that,” Herdman says on the POV Podcast, released Tuesday. “I’d always been the fixer in my family, and I couldn’t fix it. So coming out with World Cup qualification, it was like the highest high, then down to the worst experience that I had in my life.
“I had a decision to make in June [2022] and I went against my instinct … I shouldn’t have went.”
‘I shouldn’t have went’: John Herdman says sister’s death had him not ready to coach Canada at World Cup
On the new episode of Player’s Own Voice podcast, coach John Herdman opens up to host Anastasia Bucsis about his regrets surrounding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Herdman said he wished he’d done more to help his sister.
“She’d reached out for help when I was at the Gold Cup [in 2021]. And I didn’t help in the way I could have,” he said.
Herdman’s revelation stands in stark contrast with the celebrations that followed the team’s qualification for the World Cup in March 2022, where it finished first in the CONCACAF standings after wins over higher-ranked teams like the United States and Mexico.
But the euphoria quickly gave way to discord after Canada Soccer, which oversees the national team, was forced to cancel two tune-up friendlies in the months that followed.
That June, a scheduled game against Iran was called off following protests from families of Canadians killed in a Ukranian plane shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2020.
Panama was then added as a replacement opponent, but that game was cancelled just hours before it was to begin when the Canadian players refused to participate because of a contract dispute with Canada Soccer over compensation.
Coach John Herdman has a pattern of joining organizations and helping them become better versions of themselves. Anastasia Bucsis, host of Player’s Own Voice podcast, spoke to him about his life, coaching style and things he would have done differently leading up to the 2022 World Cup.
Herdman says it all seemed to foretell the performance of the team in Qatar, where it lost all three of its games in the group stage and failed to advance.
“I knew Canada, from an organizational perspective, we weren’t ready. We weren’t ready,” Herdman says. “And the players? You know, when you see what happened in June and the ‘me’, had already shifted. The ‘we’ had gone to ‘me’.”
For Herdman, it all seemed to extinguish his competitive fire.
“I didn’t need it,” he says of the World Cup. “I felt my job was done, on the qualification. I did not need that World Cup. I don’t know if I wanted it either.”
Eight months after the tournament, in August, Herdman stepped down as national team manager to coach Toronto FC of Major League Soccer. He says he’s happy with the move.
“This is a dream to work for a proper organization that’s got great resources and can elevate your performance, your staff’s performance, but more importantly, to be on the grass every day teaching, which is what I love to do.
Transcripts of Player’s Own Voice Podcasts are available for a hard-of-hearing audience. To listen to John Herdman, Nick Wammes & Sarah Orban, Luke Prokop, Laurence St-Germain, Hilary Knight or any of the guests from earlier seasons, go to CBC Listen or wherever else you get your podcasts.
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
