The Canadian women’s national team has one more important date circled on their 2013 calendars: this Sunday, November 24th. To close out the year, the team will play Mexico in an international friendly at BC Place in Vancouver, where the 2015 Women’s World Cup final will be held.
On the roster released this afternoon are two familiar faces that haven’t featured for the national team in over two years: Kara Lang and Josée Bélanger. Although both are not ready to play in the friendly and are on the roster for experience only, Herdman believes they will be integral parts of Canada’s attack moving forward.
“I used to coach against Kara when I had the New Zealand team, and it was a massive challenge to keep her under control,” said Herdman on a conference call. “She used to make a run that I had to spend two training sessions to try and ensure my back four could sort it out.
“I think Kara- she’s got goals in her. She is a goal every three games player, and you need these players in the team.”
Stressing that Lang is still on a long-term plan as she returns from two ACL tears, Herdman said working with B2Ten and the other world class therapists at the Fortius Centre in Burnaby where the team is based has been fantastic. He went so far as to call it “an athlete’s Disneyland.”
As for Josée Bélanger, a forward who was a part of the national team program under Carolina Morace’s regime until an ankle injury sidelined her in 2011, Herdman admitted it took quite a bit of work on his part to prompt her return.
“I’ve been chasing Bélanger for two years! Constantly bugging her. I’ve got some background as to why she dropped out of the program and I had footage of her scoring goals, and you can see she’s the sort of player that this team absolutely needs.
“In Bélanger’s first five minutes she’s done things in terms of her pace, just her direct dribbling ability where you went ‘wow’ so this really could be a player that can make a big difference for this team. Bélanger’s record is a goal every second game [5 goals in 11 caps]. If we can get Lang and Bélanger fit, healthy and consistent, we’ve got a massive opportunity to enhance that attacking area which certainly is limited.”
Unfortunately, Bélanger sustained an injury in training and will not be available for Sunday’s game, as a precautionary measure. If all goes well, Herdman predicts early 2014 for her return.
As for Sunday’s friendly, Herdman wants the team to play more consistently in certain areas than they did in their 3-0 win over South Korea on October 30th, an overall performance that he called “awful.”
“The result masked the performance. There were six performance criteria that we lock in and we actually only achieved one criteria.”
Without giving any tactical secrets away, Herdman offered, “we will be trialing a new playing model in this game, different to what we did in Edmonton.”
More notes from the conference call are below:
Herdman on 16-year-old Sura Yekka, who will earn her second full national team camp experience in Vancouver:
“She epitomizes that modern fullback. She’s got this urge to get forward… When Sura comes in, she doesn’t play like a traditional fullback. She’ll cut inside onto her left foot and open the centre of the pitch up. She brings Sinclair into the game by doing that. She’s been able to play into a winger and underlap…. She’s got this calm technical ability…She’s got no fears, no mental scars of past failures.”
Herdman on bringing players into the Canadian program on trial:
“We’ve got a core group of players in the CDP (Centralized Development Program) that are targeted for the 2015/2016 events but what we’ve tried to do is put in a few wildcard slots. So during the CDP each month we bring in three or four trialists and [27-year-old Selenia Iachelli] is one of those trialists.
“Selenia was with the team in 2006 in Russia and came in under Carolina and had quite a few injuries which meant that she couldn’t really get that consistency and obviously fell out with the program….I’ve had the chance to see some of her videos and she seems to be a player that this team might be able to use.”
Herdman on training and playing mostly on turf ahead of the World Cup:
“We have to become turf experts at this World Cup, we’ve got to be really using this as a positive advantage. Because I know the Europeans who we’ll be competing against won’t get the same turf opportunities and experiences…I have no concerns [about the turf] at this stage.”
Sunday’s game will be broadcast on Sportsnet One at 1pm PT, 4pm ET.
The full roster is below.
CANADA
GK- Stephanie Labbé | SWE / KIF Örebro DFF
GK- Karina LeBlanc | USA / Portland Thorns FC
GK- Erin McLeod | USA / Chicago Red Stars
D- Robyn Gayle | USA / Washington Spirit
D- Rachel Melhado | USA / University of Louisville
D- Carmelina Moscato | USA / Seattle Reign FC
D- Marie-Eve Nault | SWE / KIF Örebro DFF
D- Lauren Sesselmann | USA / FC Kansas City
D- Kylla Sjoman | SCO / Glasgow Celtic FC
D- Rhian Wilkinson | USA / Boston Breakers
D- Sura Yekka | CAN / Brams United
D- Emily Zurrer | USA / Seattle Reign FC
M- Selenia Iacchelli | CAN / Edmonton Victoria SC
M- Kaylyn Kyle | USA / Boston Breakers
M- Diana Matheson | USA / Washington Spirit
M- Sophie Schmidt | USA / Sky Blue FC
M- Desiree Scott | USA / FC Kansas City
M- Brittany Baxter (née Timko) | Unattached/sans club
M/F- Kara Lang | Unattached/sans club
F- Josée Bélanger | CAN / Amiral de Québec
F- Mélissa Busque | USA / Seattle University
F- Adriana Leon | USA / Chicago Red Stars
F- Christine Sinclair | USA / Portland Thorns FC
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