What was supposed to be a straightforward year began with unexpected heartbreak for the Canadian women’s national soccer team. Longtime coach John Herdman made a surprise jump to the men’s team, leaving his former players reeling.

“Speechless right now,” captain Christine Sinclair, who won Canada’s women’s player of the year award for a record 14th time earlier this month, tweeted after the Herdman news broke.

“Just sad about this one,” veteran midfielder Diana Matheson posted on social media. “Wishing John nothing (but) the best in his next challenge but still just sad.”

The official word from Canada Soccer was that they were looking for long-term development of the ailing men’s program, with one eye on the possibility of co-hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026. Herdman had revolutionized the women’s side in nearly seven years at the helm, and the now 43-year-old Englishman believed he was leaving his former charges in good standing.

“I just feel the (women’s) team is there now. They’ve got the players,” Herdman told The Canadian Press at the time.”They’ve got the players to be successful, and that’s often the hardest thing to do.”

The team was ranked fifth in the world by FIFA in January. Herdman was still getting solid production from such veterans as Sinclair, Matheson, Sophie Schmidt and Desiree Scott. Youngsters like Kadeisha Buchanan, Ashley Lawrence, Janine Beckie and Jessie Fleming were all familiar faces in the lineup despite being 24 years of age or younger. And Herdman had started mixing in even younger players like Jordyn Huitema, one of Canada Soccer’s youth international players of the year.

But the Canadians’ uncomplicated 2018 to-do list — play a couple of friendlies, then qualify for next summer’s Women’s World Cup at the CONCACAF Women’s Championship in the fall — suddenly came with one big question mark: How would the team cope in the wake of Herdman’s departure? Most players credited him with repairing a broken team after a disastrous showing at the Women’s World Cup in 2011. Herdman led the group to back-to-back Olympic bronze medals.

The latest transition went about as flawlessly as can be expected. Kenneth Heiner-Moller, Herdman’s former assistant, was named the team’s new head coach. He knows there are always challenges associated with leadership changes but said it was “remarkable” the way the team and staff adapted in the face of the unexpected change.

Even the admittedly shocked Sinclair told the Star in October that the switch to Heiner-Moller at the helm was the smoothest coaching change she has experienced in her career. Some tactical ideas and approaches to the game are different, but it’s far from the program-altering revolution that was feared in January.

The Canadians held onto their No. 5 ranking in spite of the surprising bump in the road and they hope that resiliency will serve them well as they embark on the road to the Women’s World Cup. The month-long tournament begins in early June in France.

Canada has long expressed its desire to take over the No. 1 spot in the rankings. Heiner-Moller has altered that vision slightly, replacing it with a shorter-term goal: winning the Women’s World Cup, which could catapult the team higher up the chart but wouldn’t necessarily guarantee it top spot.

“It’s a matter of being the best next summer and that’s it, that’s what we want to do,” he said. “We know we’re one of the teams going to the World Cup that will compete for that first spot and bringing a trophy back. There will be definitely five or six other teams that can win that trophy.”

Canada will have to beat the world’s best and, in that regard, there is still work to be done. While Canada went 7-4-0 in 2018, it was 2-4-0 against teams ranked in the top 10. Heiner-Moller is planning on using international windows in January, March and April and a pre-tournament camp starting in mid-May to work on the little things that could make a big difference at the World Cup.

“To be considered the best team, you have to beat a Germany and then the next game you have to beat France, and the next game you have to beat the U.S.,” Sinclair said during the CONCACAF championship, where Canada finished second to the Americans. “Putting those back-to-back performances together is something that we haven’t been able to do completely in a major tournament, and I think that’s the thing we’re looking to change.

“This is by far the deepest team we’ve ever had but I would have said that a year ago. We continue to add world-class players to this roster. You look at some of the players on the bench for us that have been able to be rested throughout the course of this tournament — we’ve never been able to do that before.”

The depth extends beyond the bench, too; the women’s youth teams are also thriving. Canada finished fourth at the under-17 Women’s World Cup this winter, reaching the tournament semifinals for the first time.

And the talent extends to the coaches, too. Former national team member Rhian Wilkinson coached the under-17 team through the tournament in Uruguay and could be the person Canada Soccer looks to when Heiner-Moller’s time with the senior team is up.

Retired goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc was named CONCACAF’s first head of women’s football in July. Former defender Robyn Gayle is a mental and cultural manager working with both the women’s and men’s teams. Former midfielder Carmelina Moscato was recently announced as the technical director at the Kleinberg Nobleton Soccer Club in Vaughan. And former striker Melissa Tancredi, a chiropractor by training, has spent time with the senior team in the role of massage therapist.

Having Wilkinson, Gayle and Tancredi with the team for at least parts of the regional championship in October was “selfishly” amazing for Sinclair, who called her former teammates “three of her best friends.” But she could clearly see they were not just there to pal around.

“It’s definitely something John brought up a few years ago with us,” Sinclair said. “He wanted the future of this staff to be past women’s national team players, and to see the work that all three of them have done is amazing, and the impact they have, especially on the younger players, is remarkable.”

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Canada is unlikely to get much younger, said Heiner-Moller, in spite of the success at Canada’s youth levels. He doesn’t expect much change in the roster between the CONCACAF Women’s Championship in October and the 23 players who will represent their country in the summer.

But he is not ruling anything out, either.

“No door is shut, but it has to be someone who has got some consistency in performing and, if they haven’t been in already, then they need to show it during the next couple of months,” he said.

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