Great Scott! She wants gold

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2015 (4004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hours after she was formally named to Team Canada’s Women’s World Cup roster, Desiree Scott minced no words declaring what goal her side was after.

“We want to make the podium,” Scott said, calling from Vancouver on Monday. “We want to win this World Cup.”

Of course, the 27-year-old Winnipegger added, they know anything can happen in a tournament, and the matches will be tough. It’s not just the competition they’ll face in their own Group A, which includes China, New Zealand and the Netherlands. There are also the powerhouse favourites looming down the line: defending champions Japan, Germany, France and, of course, Canada’s natural rivals from the United States.

Still, on that 23-player roster Canada Soccer and coach John Herdman announced on Monday, Scott believes they have the talent for the job.

At its core, the team features a veteran group that helped lead Canada to that historic Olympic bronze in 2012. Fourteen players who will take the pitch at the Women’s World Cup were part of that thrilling run, including Scott, firecracker midfielder Diana Matheson, striker Melissa Tancredi and captain Christine Sinclair, who remains one of the most sensational players of all time, with 153 international goals to her name.

Six players on Team Canada have made at least 100 international appearances and six more have at least 80 — including Tancredi, currently at 99.

There are some fresh faces for this tournament. The roster includes Ontario phenom Jesse Fleming, the youngest member at just 17 years old. She’s coming off a breakout 2014, including appearances in both the U17 and U20 FIFA World Cups, and last month scored her first goal with the Canadian senior team at the Cyprus Cup.

“It’s exciting that our youth are beyond talented, and can make an immediate impact on this squad,” said Scott, who has made 89 international appearances with Team Canada. “It’s great to have veterans and youth. Anyone can step on that pitch.”

There’s something else, about this Canadian side. They’ll be looking to write the latest chapter in a turnaround story that began in 2011, after they crashed to a miserable last-place finish in the last FIFA World Cup. Frustrated, many players started thinking about hanging up their cleats.

In response, Canada Soccer initiated a shakeup that included hiring head coach John Herdman, who was then coaching New Zealand. The rest, as they say, is history — and in the three years since the Canadians made noise in London, Scott said the coach has turned up the heat — a good thing.

“He’s not as soft as he first came here,” she said. “He’s pushing us to our limits, he knows there’s more in us to give… he came in after 2011, when it was just a rough time period for us. He had to earn our trust again… coming into a team like that is tough.

“Now, he knows we’re all on board. We all love him as a coach and we’re all in this together. So he can push us a little bit more.”

This week, though, the team will get a brief break from their training.

Scott was preparing to fly back home to Winnipeg today, where she’ll be able to spend four days with her close-knit family. “Especially for me being a homebody and so close to my family, having that balance is super important,” she said. “Just being able to check out a little bit from environment… we’ve been going at it for last eight months in residency together.”

After that, Scott and the rest of Team Canada will head down to Los Angeles for some closed-door matches and heat training, then prepare for a friendly against England on May 29. Then they’ll head to Edmonton, settle in, and get ready to open the 2015 World Cup against China on June 6.

Although Scott admits she had her fingers crossed hoping Canada would play a match in Winnipeg, she’ll still have some familiar faces in the crowd. Her mother, brother and a couple of her aunts will head out to Edmonton to watch Canada’s first couple of games.

“It means the world to me,” said Scott, who played in 2014 with England’s Notts County Ladies team. “It’s rare they get to see me play for Canada. The first time was in Winnipeg when we played against the U.S. It just drives me to push even harder.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca