Canada's Jessie Fleming during a training session at the FIFA Women's World Cup in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, July 30, 2023. The sixth-ranked Canadian women prepare for Friday’s friendly with World Cup champion Spain in Almendralejo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Scott Barbour
Former Canadian international Diana Matheson is getting a taste of how the other half lives.
The 40-year-old Matheson, who won 206 caps for Canada from 2003 to 2020, is part of the Canadian coaching staff for Friday’s international women’s friendly against World Cup champion Spain in Almendralejo, Spain.
“It’s been really interesting just to live on the staff side – in the black hoodie, as they say. The dark side, as the players call it,” Matheson said Thursday in a virtual availability from Spain.
“Imagine you did a job for 18 years and then you took five years off and you came back and did a slightly different job in that same environment,” she added.
It hasn’t been all new. Matheson said she joined training briefly on Wednesday. “So I’m also very sore,” she said.
Matheson, no fan of early-morning starts, is adjusting to the hours of a coach,
“You’re looking at 12 to 16-hour days. As a player, your job part of the time is to rest and recover. So that’s been a transition as well, but I was expecting it.”
Matheson, co-founder and chief growth officer of the fledgling Northern Super League, is serving in an interim team support role with Canada, “providing leadership and serving as a resource for both staff and players.” The camp staff also includes Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite head coach Katie Collar, as an interim technical assistant, andinterim performance analyst Maryse Bard-Martel.
They join returning assistant coaches Andy Spence, Jen Herst and Neil Wood in the coaching ensemble.
“It really has been kind of a group effort in terms of preparation and delivery,” said Collar.
The missing piece is head coach Bev Priestman, who was handed a one-year suspension from soccer by FIFA in the wake of the Paris Olympic drone-spying scandal this summer. Priestman remains on the Canada Soccer payroll pending an independent review into the scandal by Sonia Regenbogen from the law firm of Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark.
Matheson said Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue provided an update to the players at the start of camp “around the investigation and next steps.”
“Outside of those meetings, it’s been pretty much camp mode,” said Matheson.
Canada assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi are also serving one-year bans after New Zealand’s Olympic Committee filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee’s integrity unit, alleging drones were flown over a pair of pre-tournament practice sessions.
Perhaps with an eye to shield Spence, Herst and Wood from any drone-spying question, Canada Soccer has used Matheson and Collar on both media availabilities before Friday’s game.
Spain coach Montse Tomé has opted to rest Ballon d’Or winner Altana Bonmati and Barcelona teammate Irene Paredes during the October window, which sees No. 3 Spain play No. 14 Italy on Tuesday after the Canada game. Injured Barça forward Salma Paralluelo is also missing.
But stars Alexia Putellas and Jenni Hermoso are in the Spain squad.
“Spain is Spain, even missing a couple of (star) players,” said Collar. “They’re a talented group across the board.”
“We’ve got a lot of players that are in great form,” she added. “Looking at (Friday), we’ve been really excited by the team in training – and the energy and the quality that we’ve seen.”
But with just three practice sessions, the sixth-ranked Canadians have had little time to prepare.
It marks the first game for the Canadian women since Aug. 3 when they lost to Germany in a penalty shootout at the Paris Olympics. Spence ran the team in France in Priestman’s absence.
Matheson says being back in camp is a “reprieve” for the players, given the news swirling around the program.
“They show up and they get to work. And they do it among the best environments in the world.”
Canada managed to reach the Olympic knockout round despite being docked six points for the spying scandal, which also saw Canada Soccer fined 200,000 Swiss francs ($318,700).
Canada and Spain have met three times before, with Spain holding a 2-0-1 edge.
Canada lost 1-0 in their most recent match, at the Arnold Clark Cup in February 2022 in Wolverhampton, England. Before that, they played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroño, Spain, and Spain won 1-0 in March 2017 in São João da Venda, Portugal.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024
