Canada's Women's Soccer Roller Coaster Ride Ends With Bronze Medal

The Canadian Women’s Soccer team has captured the Bronze medal following their 1-0 win over France. The winning goal came in the 92^nd minute when Diana Matheson kicked the ball in the net and celebrated with patriotic joy as she was swarmed by her teammates.

The goal came after France had dominated the majority of the game. France outshot Canada 25-4, hit multiple goal posts and was given many other scoring chances.  After every scoring chance France could not convert on, Canada’s confidence grew. However, that didn’t stop France from throwing everything they had at Goalkeeper Erin McLeod.

With all that the Canadian Women’s team had been through, they deserve this bronze medal. Trust me, most teams would quit on themselves after a heartbreaking loss to the United States. More importantly, Canada almost played the perfect game and couldn’t steal the win. 

In addition, there became more controversy after the game. A select few of the Canadian players made some inappropriate remarks towards the referee from Norway In response, FIFA investigated the quotes and there was potential for suspensions for the Canadian team. Fortunately for Canada, none of the players were suspended. Nevertheless, it would have been easy for the distractions off the field to derail Canada before their Bronze medal game.

Maybe this is what this team was all about. It was a team of heart; passion and determination that got this team to the medal round in the first place. None of the players cared who got the glory; they wanted to do it together as a team.

I can’t think about a team that has faced more adversity in a 13-month period then this one. Canada was coming off a disappointing last place finish in the World Cup. In fact, I’ll take it a step further; it is an understatement to say that the World Cup was a disappointment. Not only did they come last, they also only scored one goal and only generated seven shots on goal. After the World Cup, they fired their coach and hired John Herdman. Since the hire, the team has excelled. The team easily qualified for the Olympics in January winning the Silver medal. In fact, the Gold medal game set a record for the highest attendance at a Women’s CONCACAF game. Thankfully, I was in attendance that night but unfortunately the USA came away with the 4-0 win. Canada also won the Gold at the Pan American Games in 2011.

The roller coaster 13 months was nicely capped off by a Bronze medal for Canada. The goal by Matheson should be a meaningful goal in Canadian Soccer history. Sadly, good portions of the west coast people were still in bed when she scored. For me, I tried to stay up all night but dozed off and on during the game cause I was so tired. I had the game recorded and watched the final minutes of the game around 8:00am Vancouver time. The goal was as timely as it could have been. Not only did it give them the Bronze medal, it also erased the 4-0 loss against France in the group stage of the World Cup last year that eliminated them from the group stage.

It’s easy to see that the Women’s team is heading in the right direction. The next big thing for this team will be the 2015 World Cup that will be hosted in Canada. Being defending Olympic bronze medalist will help greatly heading into the World Cup.