Don’t utter the R word to Bev Priestman. The Canadian women’s soccer team head coach doesn’t want to hear revenge mentioned ahead of the friendly against Australia on Dec. 1 at a sold-out Starlight Stadium in Langford.
Host Australia humbled sa国际传媒 4-0 in the final group game of the 2023 FIFA World Cup in July at Melbourne to eliminate sa国际传媒 and send it packing back across the Pacific.
“We’re staying away from that [revenge angle] and looking at this as part of a bigger journey to Paris,” said Priestman, in a Zoom scrum Thursday with the Canadian sports media.
“That [World Cup] moment is gone. Now our eyes are on the Olympic Games next year. Paris 2024 is where our minds, hearts and tactics are going. Australia came fourth in the World Cup and is a very good team. This will be a great test.”
Defending Tokyo Olympic-champion sa国际传媒 returned from the World Cup debacle to qualify for Paris 2024 by beating Jamaica in a home-and-home CONCACAF Olympic qualifying set.
The Matildas, as the Australian team is known, went 3-0 against Iran, Taiwan and the Philippines in the opening round of Asian Olympic qualifying over the fall to reach the semifinal stage in February where the Matildas will play Uzbekistan in one home-and-home semifinal set and Japan and North Korea in the other to decide that region’s two qualifiers for Paris 2024.
The games against sa国际传媒, Dec. 1 at Starlight Stadium and Dec. 5 at sa国际传媒 Place, will be important preparatory games for the Aussies as they look ahead to their Olympic qualifiers versus Uzbekistan.
They are also the final two games in Canadian colours for all-time world leading-scorer Christine Sinclair. The farewell tour began with a split against Brazil in October in front of sold-out crowds at Stade Saputo in Montreal and the Wanderers Grounds in Halifax.
“What an occasion to send off the greatest of all-time,” said Priestman.
“Christine is taking it all in and interacting with the fans.”
Asked if Sinclair will start in the sa国际传媒 games, Priestman replied: “I’m not giving any secrets away to the Australian coach, but fans can expect to see Christine feature.”
sa国际传媒 named its 25-player roster Thursday with Sinclair joining the likes of Jordyn Huitema, Nichelle Prince and Adriana Leon up front. Familiar names in the midfield and defence include Quinn, Sophie Schmidt, Julia Grosso, Jessie Fleming, Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence.
Schmidt, active still as a club pro, will make her first sa国际传媒 appearance since 2021. Schmidt will join Sinclair and retired sa国际传媒 goalkeeper Erin McLeod in being honoured at the sa国际传媒 Place game, for which more than 35,000 tickets have already been sold. The 5,434 tickets for the game at Starlight Stadium sold out in less than 10 minutes after going on sale in October.
Priestman, meanwhile, reiterated the need for something to match for the women what the men now have with a domestic pro soccer league — the Canadian Premier League, which includes Island-based Pacific FC. That’s something Sinclair never had in her career.
“We need to plug that gap with a [Canadian women’s]’ pro league,” said Priestman.
