I have recently returned from
Guatemala where I was an assistant coach with the U17 WNT. The team won a silver medal at the 2012 CONCACAF Women's
Under-17 Championship in Ciudad de Guatemala. We were comprised of the top 1995 born players
in the country and during the tournament we posted four wins and one loss in five matches at the 2012
CONCACAF Women's Under-17 Championship. The wins came over Panama, Jamaica and
host Guatemala in the opening round, then a win over Mexico in the semi-final
which guaranteed Canada’s trip to the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Azerbaijan
2012.
The team had six short camps to prepare for the tournament
including five international games (Germany, Mexico twice and Trinidad &
Tobago twice). They proved that time together and detailed preparation can
provide a platform for success.
Although losing the USA in the final 0:1, Canada
dominated possession and territory through the game played on May 12 at the Estadio
Cementos Progreso. This is probably the best a Canadian team has played
against the USA at this level. We were
able to attack them successfully and control the game in the second half.
Canada had 20 players at the tournament and a staff
of twelve who handled everything from coaching, equipment, medical, management and
media. Competing well at an international tournament now takes a staff who are
willing to work long days to prepare the team with training, presentations,
present training video analysis, scouting reports and video, video analysis, and
grow time (time for homework and for topics focused on the individual player
development). As a reward for the hours you get to work with the top players in
Canada, share ideas with other coaches from across the country, and represent
Canada on a national team staff.
My role as an assistant was to work with the head
coach to prepare and run training, analyze video in several different ways
which included preparation of half time video that would be presented prior to
them returning for the second half.
Coaching at the international level continues to evolve. With technology we can provide more effective
ways of learning opportunities to the players. These are opportunities we can
bring home and share within our own communities.
As a staff we stretched each others limits in what we could do with technology and with the time which we had with the players. It was a fantastic learning and sharing experience.
The FIFA
U-17 Women's World Cup Azerbaijan 2012 runs 22 September to 13 October. USA,
Canada and Mexico have all qualified through the CONCACAF Women's Under-17
Championship. Along with the three CONCACAF teams, the 16-team tournament will
qualify three teams from Asia (China PR, Japan and Korea DPR), three teams from
Africa (Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria), one team from Oceania (New Zealand), three
teams from South America (Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay), host Azerbaijan and
two more teams from Europe (to be determined in late June).
