EDMONTON

They’re up there in the broadcast booths, living the dream again, but in a different way, and hoping to play their own role in inspiring Canadian youth to dream the dream.

They are Andrea Neil, Kara Lang, Clare Rustad and Jason deVos, now listed as talent on the TSN payroll, not a Team Canada roster. And having a chance to be a part of the FIFA Women’s World Cup from coast to coast in Canada is an exceptional experience, in a bunch of different directions, for each of them.

For Neil, working as a colour commentator for TSN’s expanded radio network, it’s her sixth Women’s World Cup — four as a player, one as an assistant coach and now this one in the press box.

Few people have the perspective of Neil, who played in the first game involving Canada in Women’s World Cup history. That was in 1995 in Sweden. Canada lost 3-2 to England. The official attendance was 655.

“June 6, 1995 was our first World Cup match and, 20 years to the day, we went from 655 to 53,058 in Edmonton.

“Women’s soccer was just fighting for existence back then and it shows. On June 6, 20 years ago in Sweden, we played. The second game was on June 8 and the third game on the 10th and Canada was flying home on the 11th. After our first game, we got on an overnight train. It wasn’t that long ago, but it was a completely different time.

“When you consider the length of the career I had and that I ended up with 132 caps and you look at someone like Christine Sinclair, who is in her fourth World Cup with over 250 international appearances, it shows where the game has come. In the last half of my career, I accumulated 100. I accumulated 32 caps in my first nine years.”

Eight years later and the Women’s World Cup had become a bigger deal and Canada made it to the final four of USA 2003.

“That U.S. World Cup was incredibly special,” Neil said. “You look back and we were 11 minutes away from the World Cup final. The veteran players we have now like Sinclair and Erin McLeod were the absolute youngsters we had in 2003.”

Neil, making the flight here to Montreal for Canada’s third and final game of group play against the Netherlands on Monday, says she’s having a blast being a broadcaster.

“It’s a tremendous vantage point to take it all in. It’s just such a different perspective than I’ve been used to. It’s just an amazing opportunity. I’m growing and growing. I’m learning a ton from the pros around me and it’s just amazing to see players I used to play with and coach.”

For Lang, it was all taken away by a blown-out knee, but the TV gig has been a huge help in moving on.

“I think all four of us recognize what a huge opportunity this is to be a part of something so special,” said Lang, who played in two World Cups and an Olympics before she destroyed the knee.

“It made my transition out of sports a lot easier to get selected by the consortium to do this for the London 2012 Olympics.

“For me, I just see it as: ‘I can’t be on the pitch, so this is the next best thing,’ because you couldn’t be more involved,” said the person who sits with James Duthie on the set in the corner of the stadium and caused one fan passing in front to observe “Bob McKenzie is getting a lot better looking.”

Lang, who works the Toronto FC telecasts in MLS, said there are soccer games and then there’s what is happening with these girls in our country this month.

“Oh, my God, this is definitely something special,” she said. “Just like I can’t wait to tell my children about the World Cups and the Olympics I competed in, I can’t wait to tell them about the huge honour of working the telecast on the Olympic consortium and what a huge honour it was to be part of this. This is an enormous event and it’s not lost on me how much of an opportunity this is and how much of a privilege it is to be part of something so huge, especially with TSN putting everything they have into this.”

The thing she treasures most about her role on Canadian television in this World Cup is the opportunity she has, much like the players themselves, to inspire young players to take up the sport.

“One of my proudest moments I’ve had in a while was when my cousin, who came to the opening game in Edmonton on Saturday texting me to tell me her little daughter who has zero interest in sports up to that point now wants to play soccer.

“I’ve always known that it was events like this that really encouraged young girls to play. I knew that from the under-19 tournament in Edmonton when I was 15 was hearing young girls say: ‘Watching you play in that tournament was what made me want to play soccer.’

“This will be an inspiring moment for young girls all over Canada.”

Rustad isn’t on the tour with the team, going from city to city. She’s working the studio in Toronto with Jennifer Hedger on all the games that don’t involve Canada.

Originally from Saltspring Island, B.C., Rustad flew from her last game at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to Toronto to begin orientation for medical school.

She is now Dr. Rustad.

In addition to being a family doctor, she has also been a member of the organizing committee for the past four years.

“I love it,” she said. “And I honestly never thought that I would be lucky enough to get the opportunity to do it, not at all. It brought me back to the sport, so it was a blessing.

“It started with CBC in 2011. It never really occurred to me. The way it came about was that Nigel Reed asked me to be on The Fan 590 in Toronto a couple of times and he put my name forward with CBC when they were considering female options for the World Cup from Germany.

“Then I tried it. And I loved it. It’s one of the few things that makes me feel like I’m playing again, if that makes sense. It’s kind of the same feeling. It’s great. It’s a different way to engage this game.

“What I like best is that it’s another platform for engaging everyone else in the game and get kids excited about playing and watching the game and to see the players on the Canadian team and the other teams in the tournament as role models.”

The most amazing thing in her career from that point of view, said Rustad, was a teenager playing in the under-19 tourney in Canada, when she unexpectedly became a role model herself.

“That was such a phenomenal experience. I think when we first heard that we were going to be playing at Commonwealth Stadium, we were all expecting 30 people to show up and they would all be our parents. And then we walked out and there were 20,000 to 30,000 fans for our first game. We were all looking around like: ‘What just happened?’

“It was such a great, supportive atmosphere and it was great because there were a lot of kids there. I think all of us were pretty grateful for that reception. And it was also cool because we were just a bunch of teenagers. I mean, where else in the world would that happen?

“What that did for women’s soccer in Canada was amazing. And now I feel we’re all part of something like that happening again on a far bigger scale and platform.”

DeVos spent much of his soccer career around Canada’s much-maligned men’s national team. But he says this experience and this tournament takes him back to when he was a kid.

“For me, I think it’s a great opportunity to grow the game in Canada,” he said. “To me, it’s not just to grow female soccer, it’s an opportunity to grow the game in general.

“I looked out at the crowd of 53,000 in Edmonton and a lot of them in that Saturday afternoon crowd were boys and girls who are going to be the next generation. It’s about inspiring a generation.

“It’s been a long time since Mexico 1986. I date myself whenever I say this, but I was 12 years old,” he said of the first World Cup your correspondent covered and the only one Canada ever played in.

“That World Cup in 1986 with Canada switched on a light bulb inside my mind that it was possible for me. Everything that happened for me in my career after that point, including going overseas to play professionally or one day go on to captain my national team, was inspired by that moment.

“I’m hopeful that this event in Canada, from coast to coast, will have that same effect on a generation of youngsters who are out there.

“This is a chance for the women’s team to inspire a country and leave a mark on a generation. The longer Canada can go in this tournament, the farther they can go, the more likely the effect will be incredible.”

terry.jones@sunmedia.ca

@sunterryjones