Canada's Pan Am women's soccer team builds for future Olympic/World Cup success

The soccer competition at the Pan Am Games isn't one of the events that offer direct qualification berths for the Rio Olympics, but for the Canadian women's team, it may still be an essential part of their preparation for 2016.  This will be a young Canadian team, and that's by design rather than by rule. There are no age restrictions in the women's competition at the Pan Ams, which is why the team that won Canada's first-ever Pan Am soccer gold in the last Games in Mexico in 2011 was essentially the main national team, led by veterans like Christine Sinclair and Karina LeBlanc. Given the recent Women's World Cup, though, the Canadian Soccer Association decided in May that this Pan Am squad would be largely a U23 team. That's likely a smart long-term move; it may reduce Canada's chances of winning this tournament (although they're still strong), but it gives veteran players some rest, and even more importantly, it may help develop young Canadian players to play vital roles at the 2016 Olympics and the 2019 Women's World Cup.

Some of those young players are already making an impact on the full national side. Canada's Pan Am team will include four players from the Women's World Cup squad: defender Kadeisha Buchanan (one of our 10 Pan Am athletes to watch, and the WWC's top young player), midfielder Ashley Lawrence (who scored Canada's goal against the Netherlands), midfielder Jessie Fleming (the youngest player on Canada's WWC team, and a player many are hailing as "The Next Christine Sinclair") and goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé (who's the oldest player on this team at 28, but hasn't seen much playing time recently at the senior level thanks to Erin McLeod and LeBlanc). Buchanan's already established herself as a vital part of the full national team (she played every minute of the World Cup and was probably Canada's best player overall), but this is an opportunity for her to lead, while Lawrence, Fleming and Labbé can all get some vital match experience here and hopefully use it to play bigger roles for the senior team down the road.

An indication of how seriously Canada takes this tournament is that national team head coach John Herdman will be an assistant on this team. The team will be led by head coach Daniel Worthington, but Herdman will be there to help out and evaluate these players and how they might fit in his squad going forward. Worthington is capable, too; he's a Canadian who was named the Director of High Performance and National Training Centre Atlantic Director for Soccer Nova Scotia in 2008 and held that role until the CSA hired him to lead the U23 women's national program in 2013. He's spent a lot of time working with Canada's young players and preparing them for the full national team, and that's what he's hoping to do in this tournament, as he told Nick Faris of The National Post:

That may be crucial for Canadian soccer's long-term future. Herdman certainly knows what he has in Buchanan, and he has an idea what to expect from Lawrence, Fleming and Labbé, but this is a great chance for him to get a further evaluation of some of the other young talents out there. He's already seen some of them; for example, 25-year-old defender Chelsea Stewart was on the 2012 Olympic team and has 44 caps for the full national side. Most of the players on this roster are newer to Herdman, though; for example, 23-year-old striker Nkem Ezurike only has five full national caps, while 20-year-old strikers Janine Beckie and Nichelle Prince both scored for Canada at last year's U-20 World Cup (Canada lost to eventual champions Germany in the quarterfinals) and trained with the senior team ahead of this year's World Cup, but haven't seen much action with the full team. This is a chance for players like them to make an impression on Herdman and work towards a full roster spot heading into Olympic qualification next January. Defending the Pan Am gold medals would be nice, and that's certainly possible given the talent on this roster, but the key focus here is on development. This tournament represents a chance for fans to see some proven Canadian players like Buchanan, but also to see which under-the-radar players might be the national team's next starts.

The Canadian women start with a match against Ecuador Saturday, July 11, then play Costa Rica on July 15 and Brazil on July 19, with the knockout and medal games following. All soccer matches are at the "CIBC Hamilton Pan Am Soccer Stadium" (otherwise known as Tim Hortons Field).