Canadian Women’s National Team head coach Casey Stoney is on an NSL tour.
It is not the first for Stoney. She has been a sight at NSL matches across the country this season, but this particular trip has been about more than scouting players. It has been about learning about the Canadian football landscape as a whole.
Stoney has been meeting with club staff, not only with the Vancouver Rise, who she will be watching take on the Montreal Roses at Swangard Stadium tomorrow, but with all clubs.
She said it’s about “spending time in the clubs, getting to know staff, resources, the infrastructure, speak to the players.”
“Staff have the best insights into their players,” Stoney added. “So, to be able to get under the hood a little bit and understand more about the players, what their challenges are and support them from an organization.”
The NSL is in the final months of its inaugural season, and by any measure, it has been a success. It is still a league in growth, but for Canadian women’s football, it has given Stoney the ability to do a lot of her job within the country rather than having to travel across the world to stay in contact with players.
“It makes it a lot easier,” Stoney said of Canadians playing in the NSL. “I think having more players playing in the same league helps. You look at our national team…I think we’ve got two players at most on one team. And they’re all over the world. And so, it’s not easy to scout. It’s not easy to make sure you stay connected to the players, to be able to have players playing here. Five, six, seven in the same team is really important.”
The league has also helped to grow the Canadian talent pool. Players who may have never had the opportunity to play professionally have a domestic pathway.
For Stoney, this has been imperative. However, it has been a process, one that continues to evolve.
“There’s players coming into the league being professional for the first time,” the Canadian head coach said. “So, that’s going to be a growth period for them. It’s enabling me to see players on a weekly basis competing against each other. I think most importantly is giving Canadian players a home to play, which they haven’t had ever. I think it’s really important. It’s really important in terms of the next generation. How many young girls are in the stands now that might pick up a ball and begin playing? And that’s what we talk about when we talk about doubling the talent pool. We need to double participation numbers first.”
Growth of talent pool ‘not enough’
While the NSL has given many players a chance at showcasing their skills, Stoney wants more. For her, they still have a long way to go to compete with higher-ranked nations.
She pointed to the 3-0 loss to the U.S. Women’s National Team on July 2 as an example that more must be done.
“[American head coach] Emma Hayes could leave out all her European players for that fixture. If I did that, we wouldn’t have half the team there.”
However, Stoney was quick to point out certain differences that affect the player pool but simply cannot be changed.
“I think people need to remember that there’s also a 300 million population difference across the two countries too, which makes a difference,” she said.
Canada women’s players in the spotlight
On July 17, Canadian forward Olivia Smith joined Arsenal from Liverpool in a $1.36m US move, the most expensive signing in women’s football history.
It was not a record she held onto for long. Lizbeth Jacqueline Ovalle signed with Orlando Pride from Tigres in a $1.5m move on August 21.
But for a brief moment, a Canadian player was the most expensive in football history.
“It just shows that there’s talent, like worldclass talent,” Stoney said. “Olivia’s very young. She’s got so much potential, and it is potential at the moment. She’s proved that she can do it at the club game. It’s now for us to support her to prove she can do it at the international game at the world stage, at the highest level.”
Playing competitive matches still a challenge for Canada
The Canadian Women’s National Team has already announced two friendlies against Japan on Nov. 29 and Dec. 2.
Additional matches are set to be announced for the October international window as well.
But since Stoney took the job in January of this year, they’ve had no competitive matches. The closest has been the Pinatar Cup, an invitational tournament that Canada participated in along with three other nations.
Canada won that tournament, but its stature and it being an invitational means it does not rank much more beyond a friendly.
“I’ve got to be honest, one of the biggest challenges and something that we’re really looking at as an organization, that we don’t fall behind Europe. Because Europe are constantly competing, whether it’s the Nations League, qualifiers, World Cup, Olympics, Euros. They are constantly competing. Whereas, we haven’t played a competitive game since I’ve been in. We don’t play one till next November,” Stoney said.
But this may change.
“We possibly might, you might see us in SheBelieves [Cup] in February, which I think would be good.”
Here’s hoping.
