NWSL reveals the names of the 16 Canadian women who made the cut

The new NWSL has announced the names of the 16 Canadian national-team women who will be allocated to the league for the 2013 season.

As per the league’s agreement with the Canadian Soccer Association, the CSA will provide the salaries for the 16 players selected. They were chosen by women’s national-team coach John Herdman, with an eye to prepping the best female players in the country for the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

If you are surprised by the omission of striker Melissa Tancredi, who had a breakout performance at the Olympics, Herdman earlier confirmed that she is taking the next year to focus on her school studies and is taking a bit of a step back from soccer. She’s expected to be back in the mix later on.

Defenders Candace Chapman and Marie-Eve Nault, who were both part of the Olympic team, didn’t see their names on the list.

Meanwhile veteran midfielder Diana Matheson and Rhian Wilkinson will re-establish their careers in North America after playing in Norway.

Maybe the biggest surprise on the list is the inclusion of Bryanna McCarthy, the University of West Virginia product who has played in just four senior national-team matches so far in her career.

“The selection process wasn’t easy; in a perfect world we would be able to offer contracts to all the players in the program,” said Herdman in a CSA release. “Ultimately we have a responsibility towards the future of our game to ensure we prepare the next generation as much as we value our veteran players.

“As part of our planning for Canada’s Women’s National program, we have projected what the team should look like in 2015/2016, and which players could allow us to be successful as a soccer nation. From that, we have identified what we call ‘gold-medal standards,’ 2015/2016 individual and team standards that the players will need to demonstrate or to be tracking towards to be considered for one of the 16 annual contracts. Players will be accountable and with individual performance plans they’ll know what to work towards to obtain or maintain their spot in the league. I think this will create a positive competitive setting that should raise the quality of our performances and benefit the program’s growth overall.”

NWSL is expected to allocate the 16 players to the eight teams within the next couple of days.

THE LIST
D Melanie Booth
D Robyn Gayle
M Kaylyn Kyle
GK Karina LeBlanc
M/F Adriana Leon
M Diana Matheson
D/M Bryanna McCarthy
GK Erin McLeod
D Carmelina Moscato
M/F Jodi-Ann Robinson
M Sophie Schmidt
M Desiree Scott
D Lauren Sesselmann
F Christine Sinclair
D Rhian Wilkinson
D Emily Zurrer