Football is very popular in Canada
It is a big week for the Canadian women's soccer team as they make their way to Houston, Texas, for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. The team looks a little different than the one Canadians cheered on during the World Cup last June. John Herdman, Canadian soccer coach, blends in youth for training camp. Christine Sinclair leads Canadian soccer team into Olympic qualifier. There will be some familiar faces, with veteran Christine Sinclair still leading the charge, but head coach John Herdman made sure to also infuse the team with fresh blood. Get to know some of the young women who will be representing Canada in Texas:
UCLA has signed U.S. women’s national team player Mallory Pugh and Canadian Women’s World Cup veteran Jessie Fleming, giving them the best young players in both countries. Both players will be taking part in Olympic qualifying that begins next week in Texas. There was speculation that Pugh would turn pro and become the first player to sign with the NWSL out of high school, but she committed to the Bruins. “Mal Pugh is the best player in youth soccer in the U.S., and getting her to UCLA was a top priority for our staff,” said UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell. “Mal has the It Factor!
She changes games in a moment with a quick decisive dribble. She has the game intelligence to slice through the defense without the ball to create goals in high level games. She is the player that other coaches stay up at night trying to figure out how to contain. Mal chose UCLA because she could balance her U.S. Soccer dreams and get an elite college education that secures her future beyond soccer in the process.” Fleming made her Canada debut in 2013 when she was 15 years old. She has 21 career caps to her credit and played with Canada at both the 2015 Women’s World Cup and the Pan American Games. She was Canada’s U-17 Player of the Year in 2014 and the U-20 Player of the Year in 2015.
That’s how Canada’s women’s national team will enter CONCACAF Olympic qualifying early next month in Frisco, Texas. John Herdman’s team of 20, named on Tuesday, will attempt to qualify for the Rio Summer Olympics by emerging from a group of minnows in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Guatemala. Defender Kadeisha Buchanan is fine with big expectations on the team from the get-go. Ahead of the NBA All-Star Game, data show that basketball has grown in the country. MacKenzie said NBA Canada’s following on Twitter has grown five times larger over the past year. Across the country, more people — young people especially — have adopted basketball as their own.
Basketball ranked as the No. 3 team sport among youths in Canada, behind hockey and soccer, according to the most recent Canadian Youth Sports Report. And while it has not reached hockey levels of popularity yet,Soccer has been growing at a fast rate, outpacing other team sports. The same report also noted that soccer is the top sport among newcomers in a country where immigration accounts for 80 percent of its population growth. “I think it’s good for us,” Buchanan told TSN.ca of the CWNT’s standing in their group. “Just to start off with a winning mentality and not taking our foot off the gas pedal; keep going for more goals and just building that momentum throughout the tournament.”
Midfielder Ashley Lawrence, also 20, has noticed the change in the dynamic of the team. “In the World Cup, we were amongst the youngest players and there’s been a shift or transition and now we’re kind of in that middle ground,” said Lawrence. “I think we’ve taken on different roles in leadership with our experience, so it’s definitely been a change, but we’re willing to embrace that and do what leaders like Christine Sinclair have done for us for the next generation.”
