Before the Paris Olympics opening ceremonies, the Canadian women’s national team was involved in a scandal.
Unless you are living under a rock, you know it involves drones. In the past week, the Canadian media droned on and on about it. (Pun intended.) We won’t go over all the details in this article. Still, it is worth noting that before this article was written, the appeal over the six-point deduction was denied by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Their head coach Bev Priestman has been removed from the Olympics and is suspended from soccer activities for a year. However, it seems she might not even be Canada’s head coach much longer especially after an email of her asking a staff member to spy was leaked.
The point deduction and frankly, the whole drone scandal hurt the players more than anyone. What they went through was a pretty tough situation. But they pulled through.
Canada’s tough journey
It wasn’t easy with the points deduction but Canada had games to win.
The first match was against New Zealand, the team the staff members used the drone on. They went down 1-0 in the first half. But they slowly resurrected and Cloé Lacasse and Evelyn Veins got the two goals for Canada.
It was going to be tough against France, the hosts. They are also the number two-ranked team in the world. France went up 1-0 at the half but just like against New Zealand, Canada didn’t quit. Jesse Fleming, the captain got on Canada on the board. Canada kept pushing until Vanessa Gilles scored one of the biggest goals in Canadian soccer history late in stoppage time.
Just a few minutes before, it would’ve been a disaster for Canada, if not for this huge save from Kailen Sheridan.
That was one must-win game but they had to win another.
There was Colombia on Wednesday. They had the 19-year-old star Linda Caicedo but luckily star striker Mayra Ramirez was suspended.
Canada pushed but the attack lacked the killer instinct until Fleming’s free-kick found the head of Gilles. Perhaps she should be a striker.
Canada bent and didn’t break and are through to the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics.
Resilience shines at the Paris Olympics
There are lots of words to describe Canada’s play at the Olympics. Determined. Angry. Perseverance. Gritty. Heart.
All good words but the best one to describe this is resilient.
Despite the drone scandal, points deductions and all the noise, the players won all three group-stage games. Even when they went down in the games, they pulled through.
They showed that they won’t let anything bring them down and are even hungrier for a medal.
“When adversity and pressure comes, we really rely on each other,” said Gilles after the win over Colombia per CBC.
But their story isn’t over yet. Canada will face Germany in the quarterfinals and are ranked fourth by FIFA. The winner of that match faces Japan or the US in the semi-finals. It’s only going to get tougher.
But Canada has shown so far at the Paris Olympics, that when going gets tough, the tough gets going.