BEHIND THE PLAY #31

Last week I said I’d be happy to answer questions people have about pretty much any aspect of the game and created a short, anonymous (if you want) form for people to submit questions.

Several of you took me up on that and sent some really good questions. BTP #31 will be answers to two of them and future newsletters will likely incorporate one as part of a BTP issue.

Even if you provided your name and email address, I’m not going to say who provided the questions as the names and email addresses were only collected in case I had a follow up question to help with the answer.

Question #1

Tactics spring from available players and team needs. Addressing the needs first, the team needs players who can score in games against top ten ranked teams. Strikers who pot five against the weaker CONCACAF teams and nothing at World Cups and Olympics are unnecessary luxuries.

There’s three years until the next World Cup so there is plenty of time to experiment and give substantial minutes to players that indicate they can score in big games. Factor in player ages and the most unfortunate consideration is that Adriana Leon, who I pointed out in a previous newsletter, was our most prolific scorer against highly ranked teams the past three years, is 32 in October and will be 34 when the 2027 World Cup starts in Brazil. She’ll likely still be capable of playing at the highest level but not a guarantee.

Other than that, barring a surprising leap in form from any other players, it has to be Olivia Smith, who just turned 21 and just signed with Liverpool in a record deal for them and Evelyne Viens who will be 30 when the Brazil World Cup starts. Both Smith and Viens need to start getting substantial minutes and be incorporated into the fabric of the team and how they play.

Here’s Smith in 2023 playing for the U20 national team as well as the full women’s team

And another with Smith at Sporting Lisbon in 2024.

Simply put Smith will almost certainly be the most important attacking player on the women’s team for years to come. How she was not brought to the Olympics is mind-boggling. You’ll see in the 2023 video that she played more as a false nine or even deeper and made loads of surging, aggressive runs with the ball from midfield into the box. Her link play in the attacking third is impressive as is her shooting from range. There is no one in the current women’s national team set up that has a profile that’s close to being similar. Sporting play her wide on the right where she is equally proficient at putting balls into the box with pace and direction and also cutting inside and getting shots away. She’s a beast on the ball both in terms of pace and physicality and is very comfortable with either foot. In her one season at Sporting she scored 13 goals in 18 games.

Viens is a finisher. She will score fox in the box goals off half chances and poor defensive clearances and she will score goals that are about putting yourself in harm’s way to get to the ball and get it across the line. If Smith plays on the left and gives both her and Leon the service you see in the 2024 video, we will have three forwards who complement each other and also score goals.

Trickier than picking a front three is how you supply the strikers.

Tactically, I’d over-invest in attacking play and play with a diamond midfield behind these three with Ashley Lawrence on the right, Cloe Lacasse (31) on the left, Jessie Fleming (26) at the top and either Quinn or, wait for it, Janine Beckie at holding mid. Beckie’s versatility is becoming a real positive for the team and factor in that she also scores goals on the biggest stages and there should be a key role for her as well. If Lacasse’s form going forward doesn’t justify a starting role, Lawrence can switch to the left and Beckie could play on the right. If Julia Grosso can make her mark in NWSL as an attacking mid, after leaving Juventus, she would also be in the running here. About to turn 24, Grosso has the advantage of being a player who should be in her prime for the next WC and Olympics. Note though that Quinn turned 30 last week and Beckie turns 30 tomorrow (August 20). Lawrence is 29. Age has to be considered when you are talking about players in a national team context where their two big competitions, the World Cup and Olympics and three and four years from now.

This would be a truly attacking lineup with the most firepower we’ve been able to put on the field in a very long time. Lacasse is technically strong and provides good service into the box from wide positions while also getting herself goals. Lawrence is our best player overall and is finally being pushed further up the field where she can have more influence. I can see her releasing Smith into the box ahead of her, adding to her danger.

We went to the Paris Olympics with six forwards. In four games they scored a combined two goals. That’s the same amount that Vanessa Gilles, centreback, scored. We scored two goals at the 2023 World Cup in Australia and one was an own goal. Leon got the other. Even when the team won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, we didn’t score a single non-penalty goal in our three knockout round games. Five of the seven strikers we had in Tokyo were in Paris. Deanne Rose was in Tokyo but was injured and unavailable for Paris. Rose has scored 11 goals for Canada in 84 games going back to 2015. Only three of these have been against teams ranked in the top 25 of FIFA’s current rankings. Similarly, Jordyn Huitema has also only scored three of her 21 goals in 85 appearances against top 25 opponents.

Things need to change in terms of how we attack in terms of personnel and how they’re deployed.

What allows the sort of attack-minded approach laid out above is the fact that the Olympics proved that we have an outstanding and reliable back three in Jade Rose (21), Vanessa Gilles (28) and Kadeisha Buchanan (29 in November). Rose, like Viens and Smith, has to be given time and patience as a young player but it has to come in the form of repeated exposure to top opponents.

This is not a young squad. Even Kailen Sheridan in goal is 29. Of the players mentioned here, only Smith, Fleming and Rose will be under 30 at the next World Cup. Additional success for this group of players will need to come in 2027 and 2028.

Question #2

This comes up a fair bit in discussions. Where do MLS teams fit in vis a vis other leagues. It’s tough to compare when it’s rare that MLS teams play teams from other leagues but with newly expanded competitions like Leagues Cup we are seeing competitive fixtures against Mexican clubs this year.

That competition is now down to the semi-finals and in the 15 knockout games between Mexican teams and MLS teams, MLS teams won nine to Mexico’s six.

But how would a mid level MLS team like the Whitecaps do against English teams? Well, for starters they would do well not to get annihilated against top six Premier League teams and I can’t see any MLS team having success against any of the remaining EPL teams without a large dose of luck. Having seen a bit of Championship division play and factoring in that a Whitecaps team with less than half its starters just played Wrexham, newly promoted to League 1, at BC Place recently and lost 4-1 I think it’s fair to say that it would take a pretty special MLS team to compete in the Championship and push for promotion. It’s a difficult comparison to make though with so few data points.

I got season tickets to the Whitecaps for the first time this season and I’ve been to all but two league games. People like to say that MLS is an athletic league but when you have Messi and Suarez, both 37 years old, being first and third respectively in goals per 90 minutes it takes away from that argument. Watching how the Barca expats have come to MLS and toyed with other teams suggest the gap is big. Yes, Messi is the greatest player to ever play the game and Suarez, Busquets (36) and Alba (35) are also exceptional but Miami was the worst team in the league before they arrived. They now have, comfortably, the best record in MLS. Not so sure the Barca Four would take a Championship club from last place to first.

Bottom line: I’d suggest the Caps would do well to avoid being in a relegation battle in the Championship. As great as Ryan Gauld has been for the Caps, keep in mind that before he came here he played two years for Farense in Portugal. The first year they were in the second division and got promoted. The second year they dropped back down and Gaud made the move here where he was soon dubbed “The Scottish Messi.” That’s telling. A player that was on a team that ping pongs between the top two divisions in Portugal is being considered as a league MVP candidate.

The competitive level in leagues where there’s promotion and relegation creates a ferocity in both the players (whose wages almost always drop considerably if they get relegated) and the supporters. It’s a different world in Europe where losing is far more significant than the franchise structures that are somehow passed off as a competitive meritocracy in North American sports leagues.

_{Note: I deleted the last part of the question that wanted a comparison between youth team levels because I don’t have a clue other than to say my club hosted an English team that came over on a four game tour two summers ago and it was a competitive game. No idea where they fit into things in England but they had three competitive games and blew one team out playing BCSPL and Metro (which was our team) teams. BCSPL is the top level division here and Metro is one below it.}

Next week, I’ll answer one or two more of what have been some really good questions. Feel free to send in yours if you’ve got one (or more). The form will remain open. Again here’s the link: Click here.