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SOCCER MEDIA REPORTS:

CANADIAN WOMEN HURDLE CSA OBSTACLES

8th September 2007 Richard Starnes From The Ottawa Citizen

Anyone sitting in the offices of the Canadian Soccer Association should have his or her prayer mat spread on the floor for the next three weeks or so. Divine intervention is probably needed to save Canada's National Soccer future and maybe, just maybe, it can come in the form of 21 super-fit, super-eager young women closeted away in a residential camp in Vancouver since January and presently sitting in a Chinese hotel.

It's been quite a journey for Even Pellerud and the Canadian squad that opens its challenge for the Women's World Cup against Norway next Wednesday in Hangzhou.

It was to have been a defining moment in Pellerud's career because he was the coach who led Norway to the World title in 1995. But the poor man, reading a Norwegian newspaper last week, was astonished to discover he had been banned from the touchline for the Norway game as punishment for arguing over a call and being thrown out of the game against the United States in last November's Gold Cup. The U.S. won the game with a penalty in the dying moments of extra time.

This week, the often fiery Pellerud joked about the news. He said he would already have done everything he could as a coach to prepare the team and he was fully confident of his coaching team's ability to run the game. Besides, he said, maybe the girls would be happy not to have him screaming at them for a change.

We qualified with plenty to spare, but the road to China has still been strewn with more rocks than Pellerud would have wished.

First, way back it now seems, Pellerud and three of his "star" players fell out over the plan to move the entire squad to Vancouver for the best part of a year to prepare for this World Cup moment. When Nepean's very own Charmaine Hooper -- often touted as Canada's one true world-class player -- Sharolta Nonen and Christine Latham didn't show up at a training camp in Newfoundland and failed to be available for an exhibition series against China, Pellerud suspended them. They were dead against the Vancouver residency program and they accused Pellerud of bias.

A coach has to stand his ground, so Pellerud probably had no alternative. An arbitrator agreed, endorsing the coach's actions. So, no Hooper and Co.

Then there was the question of being ignored by the CSA. Why the association would do that to the only national team capable of playing at a world class level is beyond me, but it did. To prepare for an event such as this, it is vital to play as many internationals as possible. The CSA couldn't, or wouldn't, provide sufficient cash for an adequate number of games of this sort.

When I asked Pellerud about this shortly before the squad left, this is what he told me.

"To find opposition is not difficult, but the problem has been the funding. We haven't had the funding to get teams to come to Canada or for us to go elsewhere and play. The number of international games has and is a concern."

So, I asked, is that the CSA's fault? "You'll have to ask some other people about that," Pellerud said, picking his words carefully.

So, I asked, is that because the women are being sacrificed in favour of the men? "It looks so," he said. "It seems so but, again, you will have to ask them."

Very recently, Winners signed a multi-year deal to sponsor the female game in Canada and, while that is welcome news at a time when the CSA has been awash in a sea of bad news, it is far too late to help these ladies.

Because of the lack of international competition, Pellerud's squad has been forced to play junior boys teams to get games and the coach confesses they have been training too hard.

"Since we began this in January, we have trained very hard and at times, maybe, trained too hard, too much," he says. At the Pan Am Games, it was clear the team had over trained and adjustments have since been made. Now, Pellerud says his squad is lighter, fitter and happier than it has ever been.

It certainly will have to been that in China. The Canadian team relies a great deal on fitness, strength and quick-fire attacks to get results. Because of that, the humidity and equally oppressive air pollution may be more of a headache to us than others.

At least, in Christine Sinclair, we have one of the world's top strikers. She may not look fast or slick, but she scores goals, reads the game exceptionally and leads her team by example. There aren't many like that.

A close local eye should also be kept on Kristina Kiss from Kanata. As a one-time rival coach, I watched Kristina develop from a precocious kid with masterful passing skills, blessed with being a wonderful dead ball kicker, into a true team player.

Once a midfielder, she was not fast enough for the top level. Converted to fullback by Pellerud, she is worth her place for the same sort of reasons as David Beckham is to any team for which he plays. Woe betide any team that gives away free kicks close to goal. "Curl it Like Kiss" could become as much a slogan for the women's game as "Bend it Like Beckham" is for the men.

And let's not forget the Ottawa Fury contingent. It has five players -- Tanya Dennis, Robyn Gayle, Diana Matheson, Taryn Swiatek and Rhian Wilkinson -- on parade with Pellerud. And Amy Vermeulen, who was also part of the residency program, only missed out by a whisker.

Fury CEO John Pugh deserves to take his own bow for this. He may have come here from Britain, but he has the right Canadian attitude for developing the game at the highest level.

"When we released players to the ... residency camp in Vancouver back in January, it was with the goal of giving our national team the strongest possible chance of success in the upcoming World Cup," he says with commendable unselfishness. "A strong performance in China can have a tremendous impact on the future growth and development of women's soccer in Canada."

His club took one for the nation. Are you reading this, you CSA Board members?

When the games begin on Wednesday, Canada's toughest first-round encounter will be against Norway, ranked fourth in the world. If it can get by that one without losing, it has the ability to brush past Australia and Ghana. Once in the knockout quarterfinals, anything can happen.

For the record, the United States is a justified favourite and the Germans are not far behind.

But our girls are the best prepared team Canada has ever sent to a major international tournament. They deserve our prayers.