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RHIAN SOCCER JOURNALS

FOCUS ON MEXICO 25th January 20121

(From Toronto Star, The Province)

Mexico head coach Leonardo Cuellar has thrown down the gauntlet for Friday's 2012 Olympic qualifying match against Canada. "I feel that the (Mexican) team, after this experience, is going to be ready for the challenge," he said after a 4-0 loss to the U.S. Tuesday before a noisy throng of Mexico supporters who dominated B.C. Place's crowd of 7,599. "I know we are playing away, but you saw the crowd," he added. "Don't be surprised if we have more Mexicans than Canadians on Friday." The whole lower bowl may be opened up and a crowd of 20,0000 is possible.

For those sitting behind the players' benches, if the whole lower bowl is open, try to ignore the signs in Canada's second official language: "Tournament Olympique Femenine." What are a few linguistic errors, west of the Rockies?

Mexico, ranked 21st in the world by FIFA, meets No. 7 Canada in a CONCACAF women's 2012 Olympic qualifying tournament semifinal (8 p.m.) with the winner earning a berth in the Games in London.

"It's a very difficult team to play," Mexican captain and forward Maribel Dominguez said of Canada through an interpreter. "They are always very orderly and never lose their shape."

"Canada has changed their style with a new coach (John Herdman). They put a lot of numbers going forward, they are very aggressive. They have some outstanding players. We need to play better than we did today to go to the Olympics."

"Canada may also have pressure on them playing at home," he said. "We've been able to play against the best team in the world. That may loosen us up a little and make our players come out aggressively."

“What will be, will be. We’ll be ready,” Herdman said. “Whatever they throw at us, the universe will give us something and we’ll take what’s given. “These players are ready, no matter what happens.”

Part of the Canadian team's preparation is dealing with the pressures of competition, and if the Canadian soccer women are feeling some of the same fears that the New Zealand Rugby men did a few months ago, it’s nothing that Dr. Ceri Evans can’t handle.

He’s the forensic psychologist from Christchurch, New Zealand hired by the Canadian Soccer Association to develop the same mindset the All-Blacks used to overcome the “choker” label in the Rugby World Cup.

A Rhodes Scholar who played soccer for Oxford United in his post-graduate student days, Evans assisted Gilbert Enoka, the All-Blacks mental conditioning coach, and now works under John Herdman in his latest assignment. Evans is a co-founder of Gazing Performance, a human performance company which approaches “pressure” differently than conventional sports psychology by improving athletes ability to manage their situation.

In the case of the Rugby All-Blacks, it was a willingness to be open and accepting about the crushing weight of expectations and to go before the cameras and microphones to acknowledge it.

“The problem that most North Americans have is that using a psychologist is seen as a weakness,” said Canadian team veteran Melissa Tancredi. “I don’t think it is. Especially in this game, at this level. We’re learning that Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan . . . they all deal with the same issues, and had it (sports psychology) in their program, and they all succeeded. I think, in the past, we dealt with a lot of mental issues, secluded ourselves from the pressures, and it took a toll on us. I think now, having it in our program, and having someone actually deal with the issues, can make us stronger. It can be a huge advantage for us.”

“John takes that stress away on the field of panicking, and the feeling that you’re going to be yelled at for every mistake,” said midfielder Kaylyn Kyle. “He’s so encouraging and supporting. He wants us to succeed. It’s awesome.”

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