Olympic champion Canada heads to World Cup with unsettled contract back home

Two years after successful gold on the Tokyo Olympics, Canada can be one of many groups to beat on the Women’s World Cup.

But there’s ongoing drama surrounding the crew and the federation back home.

The Canadian gamers are looking for equal pay to the lads’s crew and have been negotiating a brand new contract with Canada Soccer for greater than a yr. At the identical time, the crew stated it was advised that funding points meant gamers wouldn’t have any send-off matches in Canada forward of the event.

The animosity between the 2 sides was on show earlier this yr when the gamers threatened to boycott the SheBelieves Cup within the United States. Canada Soccer threatened authorized motion and the gamers acquiesced however wore purple T-shirts throughout pregame ceremonies that learn “Enough is Enough.”

Despite the turmoil, Canada can’t be counted out as one of many high groups headed to the World Cup, which kicks off July 20 in Australia and New Zealand. The crew is at present ranked No. 7 on the earth.

“I know that we have a very resilient group, a very gritty group and that group of people — no matter what is happening off the field — will make sure the job gets done on the field,” Canada goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan stated. “So I’m not really worried in that sense, but I also don’t want to dismiss what’s going on either.”

Canada additionally has the steadying presence of captain Christine Sinclair, who’s worldwide soccer’s all-time main scorer — amongst males or ladies. She has 190 profession targets and is arguably the most effective Canadian participant ever.

Now 40, Sinclair has gained a pair of Olympic bronze medals and the gold in Tokyo. She has two NCAA event titles and three National Women’s Soccer League championships with the Portland Thorns. But a World Cup trophy has eluded her.

Sinclair led a dramatic evolution for Canadian ladies’s soccer over the previous decade. It began within the run-up to the 2015 Women’s World Cup, held in Canada, when John Herdman was employed as head coach.

Herdman, now coach of the Canadian males’s crew, led Canada to the bronze medal on the London Olympics. Canada made it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup on home soil, then gained a second Olympic bronze medal on the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Bev Priestman took over as coach in 2020, forward of Canada’s gold in Tokyo. She has had to stroll a skinny line between the gamers and Canada Soccer amid the dispute.

In March, Canada Soccer and the crew struck an interim funding settlement to compensate gamers for the earlier yr after gamers complained they went unpaid.

The gamers have additionally stated they’ve had to minimize coaching camp days and full camp home windows, in addition to trim the variety of gamers and workers invited into camps. They had been advised there’d be no home video games scheduled earlier than the World Cup.

Players say progress has been made in talks with the federation, however a hoped-for interim pay settlement earlier than the crew went overseas didn’t materialize. Canada has a behind-closed-doors exhibition in opposition to England in Australia earlier than the World Cup.

The gamers imagine they will shut out the noise whereas overseas. Canada, making its eighth World Cup look, is in Group B with co-host Australia, Ireland and Nigeria. Considered the favourite because the highest-ranked crew within the group, Canada opens in opposition to Nigeria on July 21 in Melbourne.

They’ll be with out one of many crew’s key gamers, ahead Janine Beckie, who tore her ACL whereas enjoying in a preseason match for the Thorns earlier this yr. But they’ve a stable protection, anchored by Sheridan in objective and defenders Kadeisha Buchanan and Vanessa Gilles. Priestman has decisions up entrance, with Jordyn Huitema, Adriana Leon and Evelyne Viens all vying for a beginning place.

Canada’s greatest end on the World Cup was fourth in 2003. At the 2019 event, Canada was eradicated within the spherical of 16 by Sweden.

Sheridan stated it was most necessary now for the gamers and workers to channel all their focus into being the most effective crew they are often on the sector.

“There’s definitely been a lot more work that we’ve had to do, kind of making it a bit more of a challenge for us. We aren’t happy with the current situation and we are not happy as a group with the lack of home games or less games than anybody else heading into a World Cup,” Sheridan stated. “But at the same time, we also know that there’s an opportunity to take control of what we can.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.