Canada’s road at Tokyo Olympics got tougher after draw with Britain but next generation in women’s soccer shines

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This article was published 27/07/2021 (1550 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If there was any questions about who will lead the next generation of Canadian women’s national team players, they were answered Tuesday in a 1-1 draw with Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics.

The largely shared sporting past of Ashley Lawrence and Kadeisha Buchanan is well known in Canadian soccer circles. They were childhood and college teammates, they debuted on the Canadian team in 2013, and they headed to France to play professionally — Buchanan at Olympique Lyonnais and Lawrence at Paris Saint-Germain. But that past might not compare to what the pair is doing now for the Canadian team.

Coach Bev Priestman was without Christine Sinclair on Tuesday, the captain having been on the end of a number of tough tackles against Chile in the previous match. And with nearly any result but a blowout loss ensuring the team would advance to the knockout rounds, Priestman chose to prioritize rest over fielding her best 11.

“When you’re in the Olympics with such a tight turnaround — you deal with heat, travel, back-to-back-to-back games — I just went into this game with the bigger picture in mind more than anything,” Priestman said.

So Canada needed others to step up, beginning with Lawrence and Buchanan, who have played more minutes than any other Canadians in the tournament.

And so they did. It was Lawrence who provided Canada’s opening goal in the 55th minute, easily beating a Great Britain defender down the left wing before crossing a low, hard ball through a sea of legs to Adriana Leon, who one-timed it into the top corner. And it was Buchanan, wearing the captain’s arm band with Sinclair out of the squad, who was at the heart of keeping the scoreline 0-0 to that point, joined by a new centre back partner in Vanessa Gilles but showing no signs of disorder without Shelina Zadorsky at her side.

Even when Great Britain scored to secure first place in the group, there was little room to critique Canada. The team conceded late goals in all three of its matches in this tournament, an area Priestman will need to focus on, but the goal conceded to Great Britain was as unlucky as they come, with Caroline Weir’s shot taking a significant deflection off Canada’s Nichelle Prince. It changed the direction of the ball entirely and left Canadian goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé shaking her head. Buchanan let out a scream of frustration, understandably, after Canada had held one of the best teams in the world goalless through 85 minutes.

“It’s a shame that we let it get away from us,” Priestman said.

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Still, it was Canada’s best performance of the tournament.

Things will only get more difficult for the Canadians from here. The second-place finish in the group lands Canada on the tougher side of the knockout draw. The Canadians will face Brazil in the quarterfinal, kicking off on Friday at 4 a.m. ET, with the winner of that match playing either the Netherlands or the United States in the semifinals Monday.

“I definitely think we put out better performances the better the opposition, and so I think our job will be to get through the next game, one game at a time,” Priestman said.

Players like Sinclair are expected to be back for those matches but Lawrence’s speed and ability to get forward, as well as Buchanan’s defensive prowess will be as critical as they’ve ever been going forward, as they make this team this own and write their next chapter.

Laura Armstrong is a Star sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @lauraarmy