Canada women's national team head coach John Herdman will announce the roster for Canada's Women's World Cup roster on April 27th in Vancouver. The picturesque city in British Columbia is where the 2015 Women's World Cup is anchored and where the final will be played on July 5.
World Cup fever is starting to build in Canada. The Vancouver city council just voted to spend $1.5 million for a fan zone in Larwill Park, giving fans a place to gather for the month-long soccer party. The appropriation comes as B.C. Place gets ready to roll out new artificial turf for the arena. The installation of the $1.3 million green carpet starts on May 17 after much controversy about the condition of the Vancouver field.
Team Canada would like nothing more than to be playing in Vancouver and the new turf for the finals on July 5, though they are a definite longshot. Even though they are seeded No. 1 in Group A, the host team will have a tough road to the WWC final. They will certainly have to win their group in order to avoid a top-ranked opponent at the start of the knockout round. However, Canada is not without their strengths and stars on a roster still being fine-tuned by Herdman.
"The roster isn't confirmed in our mind," Herdman said. "We've got two more weeks of training where people are pushing and there's still room for people to come in and out."
The Canadian women have a lot riding on them as hosts of the 2015 WWC, especially since every game will be aired live on TV and will be played at times convenient for their supporters. They will kick off the tournament on June 6 with the first Group A match against China in Edmonton.
U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo calls Canada captain Christine Sinclair the best player in the world. Solo would know: Sinclair tagged Solo and the U.S. for a hat trick in the London Olympics, which the U.S. went on to win only after a series of horrendous calls went against Canada.
The France national team players also hold Canada in high regard.
"Even if they lost this match they are still dangerous," said France's scoring machine Eugenie Le Sommer. "You can see that they're forming a good team."
France and Canada played their final World Cup tune ups on April 9, with France coming out the 1-0 winner.
"These (games) are great because we walk out with an opportunity to learn from some of those mistakes and that's the level. The French were a yard sharper at times and a bit quicker," said Herdman after Canada's loss to France.
"So we'll learn with that and tighten things up. When you meet the French team in the tournament after four or fives games and you've battled and you're at the pace of things, that'll be a different game."
With the stout play of Sinclair and the return of veteran defender Lauren Sesselmann one year after tearing her ACL, Canada is a formidable squad. In the latest FIFA world rankings, Canada rose to No. 8.
Herdman has been with the team for four years, and has pushed to have the Canadian women prepared to peak in time for the World Cup. He said he still needs time to make sure his players can handle assignments while as he sorts through training issues for some of injured players like midfielder Diana Matherson.
"It's always a major challenge for a coach to put the right group of people together for this sort of event," said Herdman. "It's going to take a unique group of women to take the team on that seven game journey to a final."
Many Canada players are attached to the NWSL, the women's pro soccer league in the U.S., including goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc and forwards Adriana Leon and Melissa Tancredi (Chicago Red Stars); goalkeeper Erin McLeod, defenders Allysha Chapman and Sesselmann (Houston Dash); defender Rhian Wilkinson, midfielder Kaylyn Kyle and Sinclair (Portland Thorns FC) and midfielder Jonelle Filigno (Sky Blue FC).
Canada will get a decent tour of the country on its World Cup journey. Canada is in Group A and opens against China on June 6 in Edmonton. They play again in Edmonton on June 11 against New Zealand, then head to Montreal to play the final game of group play against the Netherlands on June 11.
