Women’s World Cup 2023: Canada team guide

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.

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Canada usually set up in a 4-2-3-1, although they may move to 4-4-1-1 with someone like Christine Sinclair withdrawn behind a No 9.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.

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.

(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

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