Memo to John Herdman and Team Canada: Just win, baby

By Nolan Thiessen

On Saturday afternoon in Vancouver, the Canadian national soccer team will step on the pitch to battle England for a berth in the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup. Canada’s lack of scoring so far in the tournament and England’s penchant for grinding, slow-paced soccer have prompted the pundits to proclaim that this quarterfinal meeting will be anything but aesthetically pleasing for the true fans of the beautiful game.

Hopefully that’s the farthest thing in the minds of our Canadian players and coaches.

Canada has been under the paranoia microscope because it has only scored three times in four games.. It is reminiscent of the quickened pulse of the nation during the Sochi Olympics when the Canadian men’s hockey team was causing DEFCON 3 levels of angst back home because they were posting 2-1 victories on the huge ice surfaces in Russia. The results were there but they weren’t convincing enough for our taste.

In all sports, it goes without saying that teams and their coaching staffs choose a strategy that provides the best opportunity to win. As an athlete it can be a struggle internally when that chosen path is a more defensive or conservative approach. Almost all athletes are wired to put the hammer down and try to blow the doors off your opposition. It’s more fun to destroy them than to just win.

In March when we entered our first playoff game at the Tim Hortons Brier we chose to go for it early and try to overwhelm a Saskatchewan team that was very limited in Brier playoff experience. We thought that our understanding of the moment could help us get out to a big lead and we could win the game in the first half. It was exactly the type of strategy that teams love to employ; mix it up and try to outgun the other guy. The fans love it and we love it.

The flip side of that was that two games later we arrived at the final with a much more cautious approach for the Olympic gold-medal rink skipped by Brad Jacobs. Entering the game the boys from Northern Ontario had been overpowering most teams and we knew that 10 ends of haymakers were probably going to leave us on the mat looking for our mouthpiece like Mike Tyson in Tokyo.

The night before the final we met in coach Earle Morris’ room, ordered some room service, had a nightcap and discussed our strategy for the final. These decisions are never easy as they have to take into account how we’re playing, how our opposition is playing as well as what the conditions are giving us in terms of degree of difficulty on shots we may face. Like most good curling teams our skip and third lead the discussion and as a team we decided that our best chance was to attempt to keep it close and get the game to the second half. The thought was that we could get the game in a situation where one or two shots, either our makes or their potential misses, could win us the game and leave no time for the juggernaut to come back. Unfortunately, for the fans, the aesthetic value of our strategy was never discussed.

Four ends into the game, it was 0-0 and the Saddledome crowd was getting restless including a few shouts of “Borrrrrring!” It was hard to hear, as the competitor in you wants to win AND put on a show. It would be easy to simply go for it to appease the fans, but the fans aren’t the ones who have to live with the “what ifs” that engulf your brain when you lose. We knew enough to understand that winning was more important than the show and employing a high-octane attack was not our best chance to win. We may have put a few folks to sleep early but our strategy helped lead us to a Brier title. Name on the trophy, no marks for artistic presentation needed.

I see positive signs though from our national women’s team in dealing with the paranoia. As an outsider watching, it seems like Canada is in the right head space about it all. The results are all that matter. In interviews after the game coach John Herdman’s comments were “Job done … onto the quarterfinal!”. That’s it . . . end of story. It was a very Bill Belichick-like response to questions about his team (“Do your job … win the game … onto Cincinnati.”)

Canadian fans (and media) would no doubt love to see a 4-0 scoreline and a convincing quarterfinal win. It will warm our hearts to know our girls’ scoring touch has returned and we can free wheel and try to win this World Cup.

All I care about is a win. My favourite quote to my family whenever they ask us what we are going to try to do during our next game is “Try to score more points than the other team”. That’s all that should matter to us as fans this weekend. Get the job done … Canada’s name in the win column … onto the semifinals.

I’m sure that’s all that our women’s team cares about.

Nolan Thiessen is the lead for the Pat Simmons rink, the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier champions. Thiessen is a three-time Canadian champion, one-time world champion and curled in the 2003 World University Games for Canada winning a Gold Medal. The Pilot Mound, Man., native competed for his home province as a baseball player at the 2001 Canada Summer Games after returning from Texas where he was a collegiate baseball player.

You can follow him on Twitter @nolancurling34 and Instagram @nolancurling34.