Melissa Tancredi’s trajectory to Canadian soccer star was anything but a traditional path.

Invited to the national team camp by then head coach Even Pellerud more than a decade ago at age 18, the Ancaster native said yes — then changed her mind. Confidence-wise, she wasn’t ready.

Later at the University of Notre Dame, Tancredi, who has made her name as a bullish striker, starred at centre-back. She moved up to midfield after joining the Canadian team in 2004. It wasn’t a comfortable fit. Captain Christine Sinclair then suggested pairing with Tancredi up front.

After a long, successful run including an emotional victory for a bronze medal at the 2010 London Olympics, Tancredi stepped back. She wanted to finish her chiropractic degree — a 3½-year program that took eight years to complete because of international duties. She told new coach John Herdman it was now or never.

“He tried his hardest to convince me not to, but it was just something I had to do or I would have given it up,” she said.

Almost a year after returning to the squad last August, Tancredi is back to full fitness after a series of setbacks: ankle injuries, a torn calf muscle, back injury and broken nose.

On Friday, all of Tancredi’s zigzagging will lead to her 100th international appearance — against England in Canada’s final World Cup tuneup at Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field, a 10-minute drive from where she grew up in Ancaster.

“Its unreal timing, that’s for sure,” the 33-year-old said in April of the homecoming.

It’s been years since Tancredi, who played for the Ancaster Soccer Club and Burlington Sting in her youth, saw action close to home.

Jack Meinen, who coached the up-and-coming star for four seasons with the Sting, said Tancredi arrived a year after the club won a national championship.

It was a big jump, coming from house league soccer, but Tancredi didn’t take long to fit in. Within a year, she was part of the provincial program.

“One thing that she showed at that time as a youngster was that she was very passionate about the game. She brought a certain amount of assertiveness and aggressiveness to the team that I felt was needed,” Meinen said.

Physical play earned Tancredi the appropriate, if not all that inventive, nickname Tank — which began during a bus drive to a tournament in Cincinnati, Meinen recalled. A fellow player asked Tancredi what she liked to do in the summer, outside of soccer. She said she put down sod for her father, who builds homes, and showed off her muscles. The moniker was born.

Tancredi, who will compete in her third World Cup starting June 6, and Team Canada exude confidence with the sport’s showcase just days away.

“That’s what we were lacking in the past,” she said. “I think London surprised a bunch of us. There was an internal belief, but it didn’t happen until the middle of the tournament when we were gaining that momentum. Now we’re going into this tournament with this true vision, a clear vision.”

The Canadian squad counts on Tancredi’s skill and strength and needs her to be a threat in front of the opposing net. The latter would take pressure off Sinclair, with whom Tancredi has developed an instinctual on-field relationship. That partnership was at its best in London, where Tancredi set up two of Sinclair’s three goals in a controversial 4-3 semifinal loss to the U.S. It’s a connection the team hopes will be replicated this summer.

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As for Friday night’s friendly, Canada and England have developed something of a rivalry of their own. Canada knocked host Britain out of the Olympics in a physical quarter-final, while the English defeated the Canadians in the Cyprus Cup final in March. Neither team wants to head into the World Cup on a losing note.

For Tancredi, the 50 or so family and friends in the stands in Hamilton will add incentive: “Despite what’s going to happen in the weeks after (Friday’s game), we know that we have a game to win. We’re not leaving that field unless that’s taken care of.”

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