"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.

And that opinion? That "minor league" would be overstating just how poor the league’s efforts were in communicating its product to its fans and, more importantly, to its potential fans.

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.

Seven players who have yet to play a senior “A” match for the women’s national team have been named to what has to be called an experimental Canadian roster ahead of the Yongchuan Cup.