Herdman wants Canadian women to focus on future, not the past, when they face France By Steven Sandor Posted on March 5, 2012 Comments Off on Herdman wants Canadian women to focus on future, not the past, when they face France 0 675 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter John Herdman When the Canadian national women’s team faces France on Tuesday for the Cyprus Cup title, Big Red coach John Herdman wants his charges thinking about the future, not the past. France devastated Canada’s World Cup campaign in 2011, a 4-0 demolition that sent our women’s national program into a death spiral, which eventually saw coach Carolina Morace resign and Herdman brought in to fix the damage. Now, the team has to face arguably its worst demon. But Herdman, who has worked with Dr. Ceri Evans to help rebuild the team’s mental toughness and get it over the anguish of the World Cup, wants his team to be “cold-blooded, not think hot-blooded,” when it tries to win its third consecutive Cyprus Cup. That 4-0 game is in the past. Herdman wants his team to see France as a team that wants to take a podium spot away from Canada at the 2012 Olympics. And he knows it’s a tough ask. France is one of the few women’s teams in the world that can say it’s bigger, faster and more fit than the Canadians. Using a 4-2-1-3 system, Herdman said all of the French forwards can compete as 100-metre runners. “It will be interesting to see physically how close we can get to them.” Herdman saw the French demolish the English in their last group-stage game, and he said it wasn’t even close. “Technically, physically, they were able to close England down, beat them in 50-50 balls,” said Herdman, who wondered if Canada could impose itself on a team that’s more physical and quicker than it. When Herdman speaks about coaching, he’ll talk about using technology. He looks at statistics. He can tell you if a Canadian centre back’s passing percentage is over 80 per cent or not. And he also wants Canada to continue to modify its game. In the previous two Cyprus Cup wins, Canada got winning goals from the back — Robyn Gayle and Emily Zurrer notched match-winners. Herdman said women’s soccer is still lacking the attacking defemder that’s prevalent in the men’s game. There isn’t a female answer to Dani Alves, yet. “The world is crying out for those attacking fullbacks,” said Herdman. And, Zurrer has done well to get back in Herdman’s good books. She was left off the roster for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers. Why? Herdman said it’s impossible for a team to have four centre backs on a roster when it goes to an international tournament, so someone had to accept the fact she wouldn’t be called. And, when he was with New Zealand, when Canada was scouted, the fact that Big Red didn’t have a left-footed centre back was always seen as a weakness. He said both Zurrer and Shannon Woeller have worked hard to develop their left feet — part of Herdman’s philosophy of asking players to develop their skill sets. “Teams don’t win gold medals with players who have big weaknesses in the team,” said Herdman. “Emily has bought into that, as has had a strong performance along with our other centre backs.”