Despite a home-field advantage, it wasn’t Canada but rather South Korea whom developed the majority of the scoring chances in the first half. However, a great save made in the eighth minute by Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod set the tone for what was to come for the rest of the half.

“We can’t say yet what will happen over there (Clarke) one way or the other. Will it be changed in time for next year? I can’t say at this point. People have to be aware that our resources are limited and potholes need to be addressed. Though, I do understand the turf at Clarke has potholes as well.”

“For me, this was definitely a flashback,” said Labbe. “From the Aviators to the Alberta team, I was going back to my roots. Definitely, in 2002, when the under-19 championship was here, that was my first exposure to the national team. I was in the stadium watching them. Now, to be back here, with the national team, it feels like I have come full circle.”

And even though the late autumn/early winter conditions in Edmonton won’t be anything close to the July conditions we’ll see at the 2015 Women’s World Cup, Herdman said that getting a friendly in at the stadium where Canada will open the tournament will be vital to the team’s preparations. And, he said the cold can be a coaching tool, to see “if the players can focus on the task at hand.”

“I was talking to my mom last week, and she told me that John might not be coming back,” said national-team keeper Erin McLeod, who was in Calgary Thursday for the launch of the elite women’s team. “I almost had a heart attack. He’s been so phenomenal for this group. For me, especially, I can’t imagine playing for anyone else.”

But, coming out of her Portland Thorns’ 2-0 win in this past weekend’s NWSL championship, in which Sinclair scored the stoppage-time icing-on-the-cake goal, the question: Is it enough to keep her in the lead for the 2013 award? Sure, there’s still a lot of soccer to be played. Sinclair could score three or four vs. South Korea on a late October night and make this column moot.

The Alberta Soccer Association and FC Edmonton will host a press conference next week at Calgary’s Foothills Athletic Club to announce further details of women’s and youth development teams.

The grass vs. turf debate was a topic of debate once again on Wednesday, during a sponsored conference call with three members of the women’s national team — Rhian Wilkinson, Erin McLeod and Diana Matheson — and Women’s World Cup communications officer Sandra Gage.

"The last 30 minutes of the game really caused us a few problems. The U.S. finally got Morgan released and that was the game plan — to keep Morgan and Wambach quiet," said Herdman.

It used to be that a match against the English was pretty well in the territory of “automatic win” for Canada. But the English beat the Canadians in the Cyprus Cup final and dominated Sunday’s friendly. That’s right — dominated.