Canadian women studying up on Mexico’s tactical changes

John Herdman PHOTO: CANADA SOCCER/BOB FRID

The members of the Canadian women’s team have been opening their laptops and going over footage of Mexico’s performances at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers.

Mexico came into the tournament with a group of new players and a fresh tactical set-up, so some of the scouting the Canadian had from Mexico’s appearances at the Pan Am Games and the Women’s World Cup has gone out the window.

Canada faces Mexico in the CONCACAF semifinal Friday at B.C. Place. Both finalists go to the Olympic games, so the semifinals are actually the most important matches of the tournament.

Canada coach John Herdman has nursed the team through an undefeated opening round, rotating the squad to ensure the players are fresh. And Canada, knowing the United States was always likely to win the other round-robin group, has been gearing for Mexico since before this tourney started.

“We have given the players the opportunity to be the best they can be on this one given night,” said Herdman.

But, Mexico put a wrench in Canada’s planning by coming to B.C. Place with a younger lineup than it put on display in recent international tournaments. And Mexico’s traditional 4-2-1-3 system has been replaced by a 3-4-3. So the Canadians have taken a bit of a crash course on Mexico’s new way of playing. But, with all the new players, Herdman says he can’t really predict how Mexico will handle the semifinal.

“It’s a bit of an unknown — how Mexico will handle the pressure.” T

hat inexperience helped the Americans find their way to a 4-0 win over Mexico in their last group-stage game. But the Mexicans turned more than a few heads with some, shall we say, over-exuberant tackling. Herdman knows that the Mexican team “doesn’t get bossed around,” but that there should be openings for the Canadians. After all, as Herdman pointed out, playing three at the back, with the option to drop it to five, is anything but a new tactical innovation.

“They’ve got some inexperience in that team, which we hope to capitalize on,” he said. “Mexico is a young team, with a lot of technical players. There’s a lot of energy about that team.”

There’s news about Canadian fullback Lauren Sesselmann, who hurt her left knee in the tournament opener. Herdman expects to fill out his game roster on Thursday evening, so Sesselman needs to show some major improvement in the next few hours.

“Lauren’s day-to-day, but she’s running out of days,” said Herdman. “Today is d-day.”