Crunch Time In Canada! - The Women’s World Championship Review

As the GB Lions women’s team flew home from Canada they would have the chance to reflect on an exciting seven days of competition. No doubt, there would be mixed emotions across the roster, the pride of knowing that they are now the top ranked European team, tempered with the realisation that they came so close to taking the bronze medals. Competitive athletes that they are, they will be frustrated that they weren’t able to better the Mexicans in the blazing summer sun of Langley, British Columbia. Their fans in the stadium and the many watching the live streams back in the UK were willing them to win, and in several ways, they did.

Let’s get some perspective on what they achieved. The Women’s lions programme has been in place for around four years, the players are all amateurs, playing for their love of the sport. The competition structure for the top women players, is a series of round robin tournaments known as the Sapphire series. It’s a seven a side format with no kick returns. Contrast that with Team USA. They have had a women’s semi-pro league since the 1970s, they play eleven a side and have two high profile leagues (WFA and IWFL). They start playing in school at the age of ten. Their neighbours in Canada have a similar heritage, with a number of their WWC roster currently plying their trade in the American leagues. No surprise then, that the USA and Canada were the favourites to make the final for the third consecutive time, but did the North American programmes have it all their own way?...that’s a no!

The WWC ran over seven days, and featured three gamedays (with two-day breaks in-between) where all the teams played in succession to determine their progress to the next set of fixtures. Let’s look at each gameday then, to see how it all panned out for the Lions.

Gameday 1 – The opening match-up of the whole tournament was a re-match of the 2015 European final between Finland and Great Britain. The Finns had won that encounter by a convincing 50-12 score line, so the Brits were relishing the opportunity to redress the balance. It was evident from the off that Finland’s quarterback, Jonna Hakkarainen, is a baller, early on she connected on a deep pass for the go-ahead score, and with the PAT being good it was 7-0 Finland. GB came right back though with Ruth Matta breaking a 70 yard run all the way to the endzone, again the kick was good and at the end of the first quarter it was all square at 7-7. At the start of the second quarter, defensive tackle Aimee Cottingham racked up two sacks as the Lion’s defence closed down the Finns passing game. Finland decided to go to their ground game with powerback Jenny Linden braking through the GB defence, until Nancy Stone and Robyn Steward forced a fumble. Sydney Green came in at QB for the Lions and found Jessica Anderson, who made the catch on a crossing pattern, before racing 50 yards to the endzone! 13-7. The PAT was missed, so that’s how it sat at the half.

With the Lions receiving the kick to start the second half, they drove down the field. Jo Kilby made good yards on a QB keeper, but despite some solid running by Matta, GB were forced to punt. Lions linebacker Affy Affia was being a nuisance in the Finnish backfield and pressured Hakkarainen to the point where fellow linebacker Lucy Kirk picked off a pass and took it to the house! Matta ran in the two point conversion, and GB now had a two score lead, 21-7. It was end to end action, as Hakkarainen rallied her troops and fought back again, throwing another touchdown pass, the PAT re-set the game to a one score deficit, 21-14 GB, as the final quarter got underway. The travelling Lions fans were roaring the team on, and Oli Davies responded with a big run setting up Kilby to find Anderson for her second TD of the game, making it 27-14 to the Lions, surely that would be enough? But not so fast, despite some big hits by Phoebe Schecter, and Lucy Kirk, and a sack by Rachael Moody, the Finns connected on another deep pass for a score, adding the PAT to narrow the gap to just six points, 27-21 GB. With under two minutes to go Finland were going all out for the win, but were lucky to sustain their drive when what everyone thought was a strip sack, was judged to be an incomplete forward pass by the officials, and the Finns retained possession. Another big completion took the ball to the GB five yard line with less than 30 seconds left. Cottingham crashed through the centre and made a big stop in the backfield! It was all or nothing as Finland got another play off with a single second on the clock, but again Cottingham stuffed the run for a loss, and the game was over. Kirk was awarded the GB MVP for her stand-out performance, but to be fair the whole team were heroes! The Lions could now claim to be the number one nation in Europe!

In the other first day match ups, USA beat Mexico by a somewhat surprisingly low margin of 29-0, as it took the reigning champs a while to get in their groove. The Mexicans showed however, that they would be a match for anyone, despite their low seeding. In the last game of the first day, Canada despatched the Australians 31-6 to the delight of the home crowd. The ladies from down-under fought hard, and it was good to see that none of the teams were going to be push-overs, all was set for a week of very competitive football.

The players would only get two days of rest before they were back in competitive action, and first out on Gameday 2 were the Mexicans and Australians. Exhibiting their latin flair, the Mexican’s utilised some trickeration in their play selection to get the better of the resolute Aussies by a score of 31-10, thereby securing a spot in the bronze medal game. Team USA picked up where they had left off, and got an impressive shut-out victory over a frustrated Finland, 48-0, confirming their place in the gold medal game. The stage was set then, for GB’s biggest ever match, in terms of quality of opponent and importance of the outcome, it had never been greater.

The schedulers, as you would expect, gave the Canadian games the “main-event” evening slots, ensuring that a healthy crowd were in attendance. Despite the home advantage, their fans were matched all the way by the GB faithful in terms of vocal support, creating a great atmosphere for the players. To the game…

The opening quarter saw both teams probing on offence but without sustaining a drive. Canada looked more versatile, but some dogged defending by Kirk and Schecter in particular, helped negate the need for the scoreboard to be fired up. In the dying moments of Q1 Canada’s Kowalski sisters combined for a big completion, and found themselves at the Lion’s ten yard line. As the clock closed off the first quarter of the game it was still 0-0. Canada were now knocking on the door, and got the first points of the encounter with a touchdown pass to the back corner of the endzone, they fluffed the PAT, so it was 6-0. The ensuing kick-off saw Oli Davies make one of a number of big returns. Mel Leng-Adams had a couple of good carries, but the Lions were forced to punt. Linebacker Schecter and Canadian running back Cassey Brick were having a physical contest for supremacy on the ground that the Brit was winning, so Canada took to the air utilising speedster Laurence Pontbriand, who torched the Lions for a score, with the successful PAT it was now 13-0. The Lions persisted with their ground game, but with little success. Lucy Kirk had to leave the game with an elbow injury and the Canadians capitalised. Two big pass completions from Kowalski, to Pontbriand and then Brick for a touchdown, saw the score move to 21-0 Canada at the half. The stats told the story of the first half, Canada had 210 passing yards, Great Britain unfortunately had none.

Despite another big return from Davies, the second half did not start well for the Lions. The Canadians intercepted a wayward GB pass and two plays later were in the endzone again on an option run. They tacked on the PAT, it was now 28-0. The Lions dug deep and started to make some progress on offence, and the defence showed resolve, blocking a Canadian field goal attempt. Sydney Green came in at quarterback for the Lions and completed a quick pass to Jennifer Cooper, giving the Lions some momentum, but two plays later she was picked off. Defensive end Monica Lewinska was causing havoc in Canada’s backfield, and Schecter delighted the crowd when she wiped out an official whilst dropping in coverage. The Brits were hanging in there, but they only had one quarter left to come back. The Lions were now utilising all their options on offence, Gabby Knops and Sian Kersse had some encouraging carries but another pass was picked off, setting Canada up, deep in GB territory. Lacasse was now under centre for the home side and showed good elusiveness to weave her way in for the score, with the PAT it was 35-0. The Lions weren’t about to give up though and drove down the field with purpose. Matta broke a solid run and Green sneaked to the five yard line, but a miscue in the backfield found them back on the eleven with just a few seconds left, their efforts deserved a score, but a Green to Davies completion was stopped at the three, and the game was over. Final score 35-0 Canada. It was a tough loss for GB, they had high hopes going in that they could cause an upset. Canada had scored the majority of their points on a series of big passing plays, lessons would need to be learnt. Do it all defender Schecter took the game MVP award for the Lions. The result meant the gold medal game would be as predicted, USA v Canada. The Lions meantime, would have the opportunity to win the bronze, as they were to meet the tournament dark horses of Mexico.

Onto the final set of games, where the medals and overall rankings would be decided. Gameday 3 would get underway with an intercontinental battle between Finland and Australia. The Finns were anxious to salvage something from a disappointing tournament, and with the excellent Hakkarainen at the helm they set about the Australians, eventually securing the win with a convincing 35-0 result.

Game two on the schedule was the Bronze medal contest between the Brits and the Mexicans. The teams would have 48 minutes (they played 12 minute quarters) of game time to stake their claim for the medals. It was Mexico who got the scoring started with a combination of a running back pass off a lateral, quickly followed by a five yard dash into the endzone, with the PAT converted it was 7-0 to the ladies in green and red. The Lions fought back, Lewinska recovered a fumble, and Kirk got her second interception of the tournament, but neither opportunity was converted into points. The Lions defence were fierce, but the offence were struggling to synch. The Mexicans were in the GB redzone when linebacker Laura Moore sacked the quarterback for a loss, but on the next play following a scramble to the right Lopez found the impressive Mandujano Abrejo and it was 13-0. The PAT was blocked and Schecter ran it back thirty yards before being tackled. That seemed to spark the offence into life, as a combination of runs by Matta and Steph De Haven dovetailed in with a completion by Hannah Pye found the Lions with a third and goal with 58 seconds left in the half. Jo Kilby was engineering the offence with precision, sending Matta on a sweep to the left where she raced in for the score. The PAT snap was bobbled but Kilby recovered it and broke it to the outside to get the two points, moving the score to 13-8 Mexico, it stayed that way into the half.

As the second half started it was game on! After relying heavily on the run in the first half, the Lions were now mixing it up with Pye and Knops making key grabs. Matta was weaving her way through the Mexican defence, but was being stopped before she could breakaway. A thirty yard connection moved Mexico to the GB nine, some good defence from the Brits saw the Mexicans on 4th and goal on the five and they decided to go for it, the result, a touchdown! A missed PAT left it at 19-8 Mexico with 1.58 left in the third quarter. The Lions had to go for it and leave nothing in the jar. Kilby went to the air connecting with Glassborow, but they ultimately turned the ball over on downs. Steward came up with a big hit, forcing Mexico to punt, and on the following GB possession Kilby found Pye again, Leng-Adams ran for a first down, quickly followed by another Pye completion. Clock time was at a premium and the Lions needed big yards quickly, but three incomplete passes in succession saw them turn over the ball with less than two minutes to go. Mexico ran down the clock but had to punt, putting the ball back into Kilby’s hands with just two seconds left. One incomplete hail Mary pass later, it was all over. The Mexicans had surprised everyone with their high tempo play and innovative play calling. The Brits had fought valiantly but would have to settle for a fourth place finish. Ruth Matta was the deserving winner of the Lions MVP award.

In the title game it was the battle of the North American heavyweights, with the USA looking to retain their title and Canada looking to snatch it away. Some elite level ballers were in action, with the intensity level being taken up several notches between the close neighbours. In the previous two finals the Canadians had failed to get on the score board, but this encounter was a closer affair. That being said, the Americans had too much depth, and clinched the Gold medal with a 41-16 performance.

I spoke to some key members of the GB programme to get their thoughts on how it had all gone, first up, Head Coach, Jim Messenger. “We made good progress again this year and achieved our main aim of winning against Finland. Obviously we are disappointed to have lost the Bronze medal game to Mexico but they were the surprise package of the tournament. The signs were there in Round 1 when they held the USA to their lowest ever score in international competition. Either-way, this was always expected to be a very tough competition, and so to finish fourth is a very credible performance. Key now will be to continue development of the domestic game so that there are more players with more experience coming through the ranks every year. It's no surprise that the nations with the most resources and best levels of domestic competition achieve the most international success”.

Quarterback Jo Kilby took a pragmatic view. “The World Championships was a number of things – fun, fantastic, frustrating, but all along, entirely eye-opening. The competition at the highest level was fast, furious and unforgiving and whilst it exposed a number of our flaws, as a young programme it has also provided the team with some invaluable lessons to learn from moving forwards. We can be pleased with how we battled throughout; we were ultimately deserving of our fourth placed finish – those teams that beat a team seeded above them (only GB and Mexico), deserving of their honours – and as such we can now enjoy our new found status, official or otherwise, as the highest ranking team in Europe. GB can be very proud of what it achieved but equally it's OK too to be disappointed. Mexico were very good for their bronze in the end but in hindsight this was also a game that was winnable. Maximising our opportunities and personnel is something we’ll need to capitalize on in order to translate current potential into future performance, that said, I've no doubt that GB will go on to bigger and better things as the team develops and in turn becomes more accustomed to 11 aside football courtesy of continued exposure. Exceptional youngsters, like Sydney Green and Naomi Harryman, will help fortify the team moving forwards and I look onwards with enthusiasm to what they can do with more occasions to shine firmly tucked under their belts”.

Receiver Hannah Pye offered the following. “I feel extremely privileged to have been a part of Team Great Britain within the Women's World Championship 2017. Spending such quality time with team mates, training on a spectacular football field and ultimately creating moments that will be forever cherished. Playing amongst and against the vast calibre of female footballer players has been incredible. It has both tested and developed my skills as a player. The WWC itself was effectively organised and gave every player the unique opportunity to feel as though we could experience a level of professionalism for the duration of the tournament. Despite losing out on the bronze medal, after coming so close, the heart of Team Great Britain will always live strong. We are fourth in the world and it was truly a pleasure, an honour and a stepping stone in history, I can proudly say I was a part of”.

Team captain Phoebe Schecter appreciated what had been achieved. “What an incredible experience WWC17 was. To finish 4th in the World, for a programme that is only 4 years old, is mind blowing. The support that we have had from everyone back home has been incredibly humbling. We have a lot to work on going forward, as the Euros are only 2 years away and our goal is to host and take home the gold. Once again, thank you so much to all the staff, coaches and players who made this a once in a lifetime experience”.

The Championships had been an exciting and compelling advert for Women’s football, expertly crafted and presented by Football Canada, the hosts. It brought together members of “The Football Family” from around the world. As the closing ceremony got underway and the music drifted into the night I reflected back over the week and remembered my favourite moments. The Lions win over Finland, Phoebe Schecter taking out the zebra, Oli Davies’ exciting kick returns, the GB fans exuberant support, and the Canadian commentators attempts at pronouncing the British names! The best thing though, is that in three years’ time, we have the chance to do it all over again.