The last time Canada played the US it was an ugly encounter, amid a torrential downpour and a soaked pitch, to the point where players could not string together two clean passes. On that night, Canada eventually lost on penalty kicks 4-1 after finishing 2-2 after 90 minutes of regulation and 30 of extra time.
“They have been consistent since their interim head coach took over”, Bev Priestman told the media Monday afternoon. “They have been playing a certain way and I don’t expect that to change.”
Unfortunately, as luck would have temperature for Lower.com Field in Columbus is 19 degrees with rain but it won’t be a repeat of what happened at the Gold Cup in San Diego in March.
“I think what you have seen from them is their identity and I would expect for what we prepare for.” - Canada Head Coach, Bev Priestman
With Monday being the day where North America witnessed a total solar eclipse Priestman changed her practice schedule to make sure they didn’t practice while it was happening to be able to experience it.
“We did move our training and our players are excited and we have the glasses and they are rushing back so we can see it and it’s a good cultural activity for the players.”
Priestman was asked if she would be looking back on the game to see if she could use what she saw in her game plan but she confirmed it was more of a one-off.
“It was a pretty direct game and you expect things to change tactically and you can see what was exposed but it didn’t give us a sense of how the US was going to set up against us.”
With Canada already missing Sydney Collins, Nichelle Prince, Lysianne Proulx, Quinn, and Jayde Riviere, Priestman confirmed everyone else is good to go. As such, Gabby Carle and Clarissa Larisey are available after being held out Saturday against Brazil. Desiree Scott, who missed the entire NWSL season last year due to injury didn’t play Saturday after dealing with the death of her mother.
“You don’t tweak a whole load and your testing players against a tier one opposition and you have players that can match the US physically while nullifying their strengths and exposing their weakness.”
“The US at home is a really tough team to beat and it’s a great experience.”
Canada is currently trailing the head to head with their arch-rivals 53-4-8 for the Stars and Stripes and the Americans are 341-22-34 all-time when playing at home.
Following this match, Canada will play two friendlies in the May-June window and two more in July before taking off to France to begin their gold medal defense at the Paris 2024 Olympic football competition.