Canada would win, 2-0.
GRENOBLE—
Tucked away in a parochial city on the edge of the Alps, at perhaps this World Cup’s most intimate venue, a Canadian team no one is talking about spent an evening finding itself, separating itself and breezing through a tilt against a bunkered New Zealand looking very much the part of a team that is capable of more.
We’ve heard hype about Canadian teams before, but typically, that surrounds their splendid attacking talents, players like the inimitable Christine Sinclair, she of 181 career goals, or Charmaine Hooper before her. These days, there’s still fresh attacking talent, players like Janine Beckie, who plays for Manchester City, and Adrian Leon, who plays at West Ham. Canada, it seems, will always produce goalscorers.
But what stands out about this Canada team is an element that’s been missing from previous swashbuckling Candian teams, who played a brand of soccer easy on the eyes but hard on the heart.
They defend first.
In that respect, the pastoral city of Grenoble, with the centuries-old fortifications of the Bastille seated on the hills surrounding the town, was the perfect place for this Canadian team to, perhaps quietly, announce its intent to the World.
Grenoble, after all, is a true underdog story, a city that spent centuries as a pastoral afterthought, not a cultural mecca like southern neighbors Nice and Marseille and lacking the financial import of Lyon. In women’s soccer, Canada knows something- maybe more than anyone else in the sport- about playing second fiddle to its neighbor.
Jessie Fleming’s goal against New Zealand gave Canada the lead just minutes after halftime and with it, a renewed sense of belief.
Then there’s the defending.
Grenoble and the Bastille were strategically important, the Bastille itself built to defend the Huguenots from foreign invasion. Surrounded by mountains and fortifications on all sides, Grenoble could easily be mistaken for a city the world was never intended to find. With its blend of gothic and renaissance architecture, narrow cobblestone streets and lush gardens, the Vieille Ville and Cathédrale Notre-Dame in Old Town beckon have the feel of a sleepy, haunting hideaway time forgot.
At this World Cup, Canada was a team many forgot. The sin was forgivable, in truth. The Canadians stormed to the World Cup semifinals in 2003, finishing fourth. But at the World Cup, it’s been heightened expectations and diminished returns since, including a disappointing quarterfinal exit as hosts in 2015.
This time, Canada arrived in Europe mostly an afterthought, which is something the soccer-mad people of Grenoble identify with and are drawn to.
“In truth, Grenoble trudged on for centuries more than content to be a sleepy, superbly guarded hideaway at the edge of the French Alps,” Lissette Desplans, who tends a bar in one of Grenoble’s many youthful neighborhoods tells me. “It’s geographic position of seclusion has always made the city fiercely independent,” she tells me. “It’s the place the French Revolution began and was a centerpiece of Nazi resistance in France. That independent spirit, a happiness to do it ourselves, is part of why life returned to normal after (World War II) here a bit faster than elsewhere. Then- because of sports- the world found us. And yes, for that reason, we always identify with the underdog, the forgotten.”
Street art and art galleries are found throughout Grenoble. Here, one gallery pays homage to the 1968 Winter Olympics, which reshaped the provincial French town into a blooming city.
The world found Grenoble in 1968, when the city hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics. While reminders of the games are found throughout the city, from the olympic village site to the famous skylifts to street art, the 68 Winter Games may most famously be remembered as the site of the famed “Agony of Defeat” downhill run by American Jim “Moose” Barrows. A Colorado native, Barrows was speeding his way towards America’s first downhill medal when he lost control two-thirds of the way through the race and tumbled 200 yards down the mountain, suffering a broken hip and a decade-plus of “Wide World of Sports” indignity in the process.
The lasting cultural impact on the games wasn’t Barrows’ fall, however; it was corporate dollars and infrastructure investment in Grenoble. The city edged out the larger city of Lyon for the games, and as a result, benefitted from an influx in capital and infrastructure which reshaped Grenoble from provincial town into the industrial and educational and tourism center it remains today.
The city retains a fiercely independent and gritty spirit today, exemplified by the many students and artists that trek to Grenoble from throughout France to attend one of the city’s many universities or to be inspired by the Alps and the flourishing community of artists the city calls home.
Notre Dame Cathedral, Grenoble.
“There’s an independent, troubadour spirit that lives inside anyone who comes to Grenoble,” Patrick Courtois, a local professor originally from Lille, says sipping coffee Friday morning. “(The city) gets her teeth in you.”
When the Danish manager Kenneth Heiner-Møller took over in 2018, he was determined to build a Canadian team identity separate and apart from the high-scoring teams that defined Canada’s soccer in the Christine Sinclair era.
“We needed to be harder to play against,” Heiner-Møller told TSN last year. “The attacking talent has been a lasting characteristic. We started with defending, making it difficult for others to break us down. That was the foundation.”
In the build-up to the tournament, it worked. In a tuneup for France, Canada beat, frustrated and stymied a pre-tournament favorite in England, who had just won the SheBelieves Cup and scored multiple goals in all three matches in the process. In fact, in 18 matches since the start of 2018, the Canadian defense has conceded multiple goals only twice.
Heiner-Møller’s compact, patient system has aided in solidifying Canada’s defense, but emerging stars like Keisha Buchanan, the 23-year-old Lyon star who anchors Canada’s backline, certainly haven’t hurt.
Buchanan won the Young Players Award at the 2015 World Cup, and has picked up where she left off in 2019, dominating aerially and fearlessly flying into tackles and winning fifty-fifty balls all over the field. “Her very presence adds to our sense of trust,” Fleming said after the New Zealand win.
Still, there’s a difference between performing and defending in a traditional setting and doing it at a World Cup, with the world watching. The good news, according to Heiner-Møller, is that Canada is getting there.
“The World Cup means pressure,” Heiner-Møller said after the win in Grenoble. “It isn’t supposed to be easy. It isn’t a walk in the park. But you have to savor the moment. Hopefully our play reflects that. Embracing the tackles, the runs, the taste of blood in (your) mouth when you’re actually working hard. That’s a part of enjoying it.”
Canada’s players, including attacking talents like West Ham’s Adrian Leon, are buying into that mantra at just the right time.
“(Heiner-Møller) talks about enjoying the moment and we are. We are confident and playing for each other,” Leon said. “We are hard to play against and have a system we believe that there are a number of ways to impose our will on the game. That comes from belief and trust.”
In Grenoble, Canada looked like an underdog finding itself, especially after Jessie Fleming broke the deadlock and Canada seized control of the game.
CANADA TAKE THE LEAD!
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 15, 2019
After a scoreless first half, it's Jessie Fleming who breaks through and puts Canada on ? pic.twitter.com/x9IpPrxf1Y
It was a display of spirit and belief the locals in attendance embraced it.
“It’s hard not to love a team like that,” Desplans said the morning after the game. “You could see they’ve invested in each other, in a system, in a belief structure. They are happy underdogs.”
It helps to have a vocal, boisterous following, which Canada has had on its French journey thus far.
“Having so many Canadians in the crowd (in Grenoble) is another huge thing,” Canadian defender Jayde Riviere, one of the team’s three teenage sensations, said after the win. “It’s so special to play in the FIFA Women’s World Cup, it’s what you’ll remember as the defining time of your career. So to leave your country and then see so many people crossed the ocean to cheer you on, it’s inspiring. It’s pushing us forward.”
A huge match with European champion Holland awaits,but Heiner-Møller believes the Canadians are capable of a deep run.
“We’re getting better and better, which is what good teams do at tournaments,”the manager said. “We aren’t perfect, but we moved the ball better than in the opening match. The (2-0 start) is something to be happy about but I know this team has more, is capable of more. I tell them it’s like when you are hungry and you eat a little bit but you are still really hungry. We can do so much more. And it gets harder now, there’s a step up in class. We will play teams (like European champion Holland) with more experience, more players playing in the bigger leagues,” Heiner-Møller says, only to add, after a brief pause and smile, what he truly thinks.
“I think there’s five or six teams that can win the World Cup and we’re one of them.”
What a story that would be.
Neil W. Blackmon is co-founder of The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.