Canada’s preparations for this summer’s
Women's World Cup of Soccer were thrown into disarray this week when
the resignation of the national team coach led her players to
announce plans to boycott any international matches unless officials
succeed in getting her to change her mind.
The coach, Carolina Morace, has been credited with
helping the Canadian women become one of the best teams in the
world. She told the Canadian Soccer Association in a letter that she
would resign in July, after the completion of the tournament, citing
a lack of support in her attempts to build a uniform coaching system
for the national team program. Morace, who made her international
debut for Italy in 1978 at age 14 (and earned 153 caps), has been
Canada’s coach since February 2009. She had been Italy’s coach for
four years.
“Our boycott yes, has only to do with our coach and
our support for her,” the captain, Christine Sinclair, said in a
telephone interview from Portland, Ore., where she was preparing to
depart Friday for the team’s training camp outside Rome. “She’s just
brought a complete new style of soccer and training. We’ve
completely bought into it and she’s earned our respect and
admiration.”
Sinclair added: “Before we were just a bunch of
athletes. She’s transformed us into soccer players.”
The Canadian women are also involved in financial
negotiations with their association, but have issued their threat to
boycott only international games, according to Jim Bunting, the
lawyer representing the players’ interests.
“The players have thrown their support behind their
coach, saying she’s the best thing that has ever happened to the
program,” Bunting said Thursday in a telephone interview from
Toronto. “They’ve told the C.S.A. to fix it or they’re not going to
play. The women are not boycotting for compensation. The issue is
their coach.”
Richard Scott, a spokesman for the CSA, was not
immediately available to comment. "We are looking to sit down with
her in the next five to seven days,” the association’s general
secretary, Peter Montopoli told the Ottawa Citizen. “We need
to meet so we can demonstrate to each other what needs to be done to
work with each other. I assure you we want her to stay.”
Canada, which is No. 9 in FIFA world rankings,
advanced to the World Cup after winning the regional qualifying
tournament (outscoring its opposition, 17-0), defeating host Mexico,
1-0 (after Mexico had beaten the United States), in the final. In
Germany, where Canada will be playing in its fifth consecutive World
Cup, it is scheduled for a first-round group with Germany, France
and Nigeria.
National team players are scheduled to leave Friday
for Italy, where they will participate in a training camp before the
12-nation Cyprus Cup.
