AC Lang’s Womxn’s Soccer Round Up

Welcome back to the final Canadian Woso Roundup of 2022 written by AC Lang of wsoccer.ca! As always, this roundup aims to increase the visibility of Canadian womxn in soccer. We’ll start with three highlights as usual. We’re changing up the format to focus on the big news of the month: Pro Women’s Soccer is coming to Canada in 2025 thanks to Diana Matheson and Project 8. Then, we’ll end with the latest CanWNT news including POTY awards, transfer news, and XNT plans for 2023.

Highlights Canadians shine in the UWCL

Four Canadians qualified for the Group Stage of the Champions League in the final days of December. Chelsea’s Jessie Fleming and Kadeisha Buchanan clinched on matchday five and followed that up with a 3:0 win over PSG to secure the top spot in Group A. Kadeisha was particularly impressive in a backline that only conceded one goal in group stage action. PSG on the other hand, also secured qualification on Matchday 5 thanks to a 2:1 win over Real Madrid. Ashley Lawrence once again came up clutch in that win, drawing a penalty and playing 90. She got a much-deserved rest day against Chelsea, unfortunately robbing fans of another Keisha vs Ash showdown. Group C had an epic matchup between Canadians on the final day for a chance to secure the final spot in the quarters. Lyon and Vanessa Gilles ultimately came out on top over Juve and Julia Grosso, thanks to a 0:0 draw. It was close though, as one goal for Juve would have kicked the reigning Champions out of the competition. Lastly, Cloe Lacasse’s Benfica may not have made it out of Group D (aka the Group of Death), however, our Canadian star did manage to score 5 goals (0.84 goals per game) and earn 1 assist, making her joint second top scorer in the group stage behind Pajor and tied with Kerr and Bonmati. Not bad considering she played (and scored) against teams like Barca, Bayern, and Rosengard.

Milestones in England

The strong Canadian contingent in England continued to shine in December. Jessie Fleming scored her first and second goal of the season, in an 8:0 win over Leicester. She continues to pick up solid minutes with Chelsea in part because of Pernille Harder’s unfortunate long-term injury. Shelina Zadorsky also reached a WSL milestone when she made her 50th WSL appearance for Tottenham on December 14th. The Spurs captain continues to lead the way on the pitch, starting and finishing all 9 WSL games so far this season. Lastly, Adriana Leon scored a brace in Conti Cup action for Manchester United in a win over Sheffield United. Good news for Dri who has been struggling for minutes and will look to build on her goals in the New Year. Despite limited minutes, she already has three goals for ManU in 2022 on top of her 5 National Team goals. She capped off an incredible 2022 with a new boot deal with Puma, announcing the new partnership on social media in late December.

5 Canadians in Guardian’s Top 100

As usual, the Guardian dropped their list of the Top 100 Women’s Players of 2022. Five Canadians made the list from #46 to #77. Topping the crop of Canadians was Kadeisha Buchanan who won D1Arkema and the UWCL with Lyon, earned a big-money move to Chelsea, and had 8 clean sheets in 13 caps with Canada. Next up: Ashley Lawrence at #57 who continues to be in the running for the best fullback in the World, and is definitely one of the most consistent. Ashley played about 2,500 minutes for PSG, contributed 6 assists, and won the Coupe de France in 2022. Jessie Fleming came in at #63 as a WSL and FA Cup Champion with Chelsea. She scored 5 goals for Chelsea, and 5 for Canada in 2022, adding two assists for her club. After struggling for minutes in her first six months, Jessie is somewhat of a regular in Emma Hayes’ lineup shining through her versatility, playing anywhere from central midfield to inverted winger. Coming in at #76 is Christine Sinclair. Sincy won the NWSL Championship with the Thorns, scoring 5 NWSL goals along the way. For the National Team, she scored twice and added two assists. Last but not least, Kailen Sheridan was ranked #77 thanks to a strong season with Canada and San Diego. For her club, she led the expansion side to the playoffs and won the Goalkeeper of the Year Award. For the National Team, she had 7 clean sheets in 12 matches and had some incredible performances against top teams like the US and Brazil. Now, if you’re asking me who’s missing from this list I’d say Vanessa Gilles and Julia Grosso.

Local Footy in Focus: Domestic League announced

There’s no way around the big news of the month. Diana Matheson and Project 8 stunned the soccer world when they announced the creation of a women’s domestic league by 2025, a mere 2.5 years away. If you’re still looking for the details, I’ve spent the last month reading every article and listening to every podcast Diana has appeared in and summarized what we know about the league so far and what questions remain.

Here’s a more personal reflection.

As you know I am someone deeply entrenched in the women’s soccer landscape and deeply passionate about it. I have had the fortune of being privy to some of the conversations led first by Moscato and Matheson in advocacy for a women’s league since 2020. It still blew me away how important it was to actually read the headline “pro women’s soccer is coming to Canada by 2025”. One thing that goes underappreciated by some of the critics out there, is exactly how important it was for women across the country to hear this announcement, to hear a concrete date. As these women plan their next few years in soccer, they’ll finally have something to work toward. They have a reason to stay in the game and a genuine hope that there will be a spot for them in whatever pathway they chose, from playing to match officiating, to executive leadership, or as members of the media. And that’s me included. I purposely chose not to pursue a career in soccer because as I looked ahead in my last years of uni it just wasn’t a risk worth taking. Even before that, in highschool, I didn’t apply to a sports management or sports media program. Despite being a decent athlete and passionate about the sport, nothing was actively pulling me in. Something like this would have changed that, and now it will for countless others going forward. Finally, someone is doing it. Someone has committed publicly and said here’s the plan, it’s happening by this date. All we’ve heard until now has been “we’re considering it”, “it’s something we’ll look at in the future”, or “3-5 years”. Now don’t get me started on the fact that these womxn, this generational group of players that shaped women’s soccer in Canada in the 2010’s and ’20s, led by Matheson, Sinclair, and so many others, had to be the ones to say “fuck it, then we’ll build it, and we’ll build it better”. The sense of ambition this group is approaching the league with by stating their goal of being a top 10 league off the bat, one that can compete globally, is what has been lacking from the conversation for so long. It took these winners to go off and get after it. To be ambitious. What we’ve heard from the men in power is “wait your turn” and “you need to walk before you can run”. For me, that’s reflective of a general lack of vision and lack of appreciation for the opportunity and value women’s soccer presents. Needless to say, I’ve had a lot of emotions and thoughts about this. I can’t wait for there to be something people want to buy into and get behind. I see the appetite for it every NT matchday, every week when y’all tune into SN to watch Jessie or Kadeisha or DAZN to watch the UWCL, and every day on socials where the conversation is very much alive and growing. Join me here as we build up to 2025 and are hopefully a big part of it moving forward.

It was a bit of a slow month for the National team, as there were no games or camps to speak of. Nevertheless, there were some exciting announcements to wrap up the year and look ahead to 2023.

Firstly, the Canada Soccer Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year were announced in late December. Simi Awujo was named Young Player of the Year thanks to her strong performances in the U20 and senior teams. Having started the year as a relative unknown, the dual-national from Atlanta, Georgia impressed at the CONCACAF Championship and FIFA World Cup which caught Bev Priestman’s attention. She ends the year with three senior caps to her name. The dynamic midfielder has played as an 8 or a 10 for Canada, but is typically deployed as a holding midielder for her college team, the USC Trojans (11 GP, 2G, 4A in 2022). U20 Coach Cindy Tye was smart to call her in, as she was eligible to represent the United States (she formerly represented them at U17 level) and Nigeria (where her parents were born), but ultimately picked Canada (her mother is a citizen). Jessie Fleming was named senior Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, her second POTY award in total. Some of her accomplishments have been summarized in the monthly highlights section. Let’s just say Jessie fully deserves this honour. She is flourishing into a top 5 midfielder in the word before our eyes. Her lungs continue to impress everyone, running almost 100% of possible canWNT minutes this year. While it certainly feels like we haven’t seen her best, what’s to come is even more promising than where she already is as a 24-year-old. Her co-finalists Janine Beckie and Kadeisha Buchanan both put out messages of support for the diminutive midfielder following the announcement.

In other CanWNT news, Bev Priestman finally confirmed the team will be playing in the She Believes Cup again in 2023, joining the Americans, Japan and Brazil in the tournament. Some fans were critical of the fact that we will be playing two familiar opponents in Brazil and the US, but ultimately the level of play will be high and there will be other chances to test themselves against European opposition before the World Cup. The schedule is as follows: Tuesday February 16th at 7pm ET/ 4pm PT vs the USA, Sunday February 19th at 6:30pm ET/ 3:30pm PT vs Brazil, and Wednesday February 22nd at 4pm ET/ 1pm PT vs Japan. Last but not least, there were two significant player moves. The first being Gabby Carle’s move from Sweden to the Washington Spirit. The second being Sarah Stratigakis’ new contract in Sweden until the end of 2023. There were also quite a few rumours circulating, including Sabs to Arsenal which is reported to be in the final stages, Juve rejecting City’s bid for Grosso, and Cloe Lacasse allegedly linked with Arsenal, Bayern and PSG.