Two years to the day from kick-off for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 – Canadian Head Coach John Herdman outlined his vision for the team leading up to the tournament on home soil.
Herdman addressed national media members on a conference call as the country began the two-year countdown towards the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
For the Canadian coach – the focus is on ensuring that Canada will be able to shift its style, as it will have to take on opponents with varying approaches to make a run deep into the tournament.
“When you preparing for a tournament like Canada 2015 – I think you have to break down the opposition into tiers,” said Herdman.
“We know that there will be teams from the top tier of women’s football that will continue to be a real challenge for us – and Sunday’s game against USA gave us opportunity to test out a prospective game-plan that we might use against the world’s best teams. And in ways, we were quite pleased with the results.
“There will be teams from the second and third tier that will be very organized in defence against us. We will need to find a way to break those teams down.”
Canada conceded three goals in the final 20 minutes en-route to a 3:0 friendly loss to USA on Sunday 2 June in front of a record crowd at BMO Field in Toronto, but Herdman was pleased with the way his team defended in the early stages of the game.
Match Highlights: Canada WNT 0:3 USA
“We limited the Americans to a smaller number of shots and crosses than in previous encounters – but for us – we need to find a way to finish the game stronger.
“We now need to take the next steps in closing the gap between us and the real tier one teams.”
With only two years remaining until kick-off for Canada 2015 Herdman told the media that his team and staff must make the most of every opportunity the group has together in advance of the tournament.
“We have two years until the FIFA Women’s World Cup – and that is really a short amount of time,” said Herdman.
“We need to make sure that every single camp we are ticking the right boxes in the lead-up to 2015.
“We also have our EXCELeration program working hard to identify key players in the 18-23 age group that might be able to make an immediate impact at the senior level. “
Next up for Canada WNT is an away friendly against Germany on 19 June in Paderbon, Germany.
Herdman stated that the friendly will present another opportunity for Canada to test itself against ‘tier one’ opposition.
Canada’s players will then return to their club seasons before the team reassembles for a home friendly against Korea Republic in Edmonton, AB on 30 October.
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