Canada building momentum toward WC Earlier this week, TSN soccer analyst Luke Wileman had the opportunity to spend some time with the Women's National team as they kicked off the next phase of their World Cup preparations in Vancouver. With less than five months to go until the tournament gets underway, there was an air of confidence around the squad after an impressive start to the year.

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Earlier this week I had the opportunity to spend some time with the Women's National team as they kicked off the next phase of their World Cup preparations in Vancouver. With less than five months to go until the tournament gets underway, there was an air of confidence around the squad after an impressive start to the year.

Three wins and a trophy is an almost perfect way to open 2015, but head coach John Herdman told me there are still many lessons to learn from the team's stay in China.

"We wanted to make sure we got on a good roll this year, and to win something and get that feeling of winning was nice," he said. "We played tier two teams and you would expect us to win those games, but it's always harder than it looks. We had to scrap out a few results and we learned quite a bit and there was definitely resilience there."

Canada opened the Four Nations tournament with a come-from-behind 2-1 win against Korea Republic. They then beat Mexico 2-1 with an 80th minute winning goal and finished with a 2-1 victory against their opening World Cup opponents China, again fighting back from a goal down.

"It's nice to come out with three wins against three pretty good opponents, said forward Melissa Tancredi. "The consistency is very important for us especially now going into some big tournaments coming up. It is good to get some new players in, it is nice to see we can get a good rotation in and get some good minutes in, it was nice to see."

Herdman was happy with the fact he was able to use a wide range of players, and that his team showed an ability to cope with adversity. "We used the full depth of the squad, we were able to rest players and we had different players scoring," he said. "It was just one of those tours where things happened. We had sickness, we had illness, we had people pulling out after 10 minutes, the type of things you are going to experience playing in a World Cup, but the team came through. Our biggest test is going to be against tier one teams. Against tier two teams we have been able to show for many a year that we are above them."

One of the biggest positives to come out of the team's time in China is the performances of Christine Sinclair. Canada's Olympic hero had a quiet 2014 in scoring just once all year, but she is off to a flying start in 2015 after finding the net three times in China and being named tournament MVP.

"For Christine, she works so hard at her game, she deserves everything she gets," said Herdman. "To see her scoring, and scoring different types of goals was great. She had poachers goals, she had a goal where she breaks through, she looked confident in her penalty – all those things are boding well for where we are heading and long may it last. I think finally as well she is getting some of the service that I think has been lacking in the previous years."

As a fellow striker, Tancredi is well aware of the importance of Sinclair getting off to a good start in this World Cup year. "For any forward getting back into the swing of scoring goals again is huge, especially now for her because it's not too early, not too late, it's the perfect time for her to get in the groove again and hopefully she can build on that," she said.

There is still a massive question mark over whether one of the key players from the bronze medal run will recover from injury in time for the World Cup. Matheson was in good spirits when I chatted with her as she continues to step up her recovery from an ACL injury sustained in a late-October friendly. There's still a massive challenge ahead, but Herdman is confident she can be ready.

"If anyone can come back in that timescale it is D," he said. "She is a phenomenal athlete but it is just her mindset. At the Christmas party she was there stretching and icing her knee while people were all there enjoying themselves, she was just totally focused. She's a phenomenal person and I'm sure she can make it back and if she can't someone on this team will step up for her."

So after the success in China, it is back to the training pitch in B.C. for the next five weeks before the team departs for Europe to compete in the Cyprus Cup where it will play group games against Scotland, Italy and Korea Republic.

"There were some lessons from the tournament and we wanted to use that in preparation for Cyprus," added Herdman. "Our technical, tactical work now will focus on in-game changes, things that happen in tournaments – one goal up, one goal down, ten men – we're looking those strategies so players have got absolute clarity when those moments are happening.

"There is also the physical piece. The players are on the last phase of their physical foundation so they are still getting hammered physically and we have to be very careful with how much work we do, so they are going to be working very hard and come February they should be ready for Cyprus."