Under new head coach Carolina Morace the Canadian National Women are playing a new style of football and the 2011 World Cup will be the first time Morace is really put up to the test. Recent results in friendlies have not been encouraging as this new look Canadian team has already been bossed off the park on several occasions by a superior American side. Even the match this summer which Canada only lost 1-0 to the States, the Americans controlled the flow of the game.
Most Canadian Women’s National Team supporters will agree that the CSA’s decision to hire Morace was a good one, and she has the potential to take this team places, but there a few key things that need to happen. After the long ball style the team played under Pellarud was starting to get found out it was very evident Canada needed to play a game on the ground. Which they have adjusted to. Now what Canada needs to do is start to control the flow of a game. As one of my coaches once said to be a great team “you have to instill your will on the game”.
This means if you want to slow the game down it needs to be slowed down, if you want to play a fast break type of game that is how the game looks. Under Pellarud there was nothing close to this, the most obvious example of failing to control the style of the game was against Australia at the 2007 Women’s World Cup. Canada needed a win to progress and were tied 1-1 with five minutes to go when Christine Sinclair scored to put Canada in the lead and they were in pole position to advance out of the group stages. Had they been able to slow down the pace of this game they would no doubt have gone on to the quarterfinals, but they only style they knew how to play was the long ball game. Australia ended up scoring the equalizer in injury time and they went through.
So Morace has a lot to do. She has to completely change a mentality in the three years she has before the 2011 World Cup. The problem is these players have been playing the same style all of their lives and changing it right away may be difficult. That is why many people are targeting the 2015 World Cup as a big one for the Canadian Women’s team, but right now Morace’s sole focus has to be this upcoming World Cup.
She is already changing up the players. She is using CIS based player which is nice to see as a big supporter of all things CIS. She is also using some older player who were overlooked in the Pellarud era because they weren’t physical enough, but some of them are very technically skilled players. With qualifying for the World Cup by means of the CONCACAF Gold Cup coming up later in 2010, Morace will have to pick a first starting XI and squad soon.
From the CSA side of things, they’ve handled the women’s team pretty well so far giving her complete control of the set-up with the U-20 and senior teams. The only thing Morace can ask of them now is to give her friendlies against quality and varied opposition to prepare. After that it is just hoping Morace has enough time to work with these players to get them ready for 2011.
