The Ontario Player Development League is already paying off for Hamilton United Elite. And, in particular, for Maya Ladhani.

The 14-year-old from Guelph is playing for United's U-15 girls team in the OPDL, which was formed three years ago to identify, develop and encourage elite soccer players, of both sexes, in the province.

Hamilton United, which combined the forces of soccer clubs from Mount Hamilton, Saltfleet and Ancaster, is a founding member of the league, but Guelph, where Ladhani lives, and Kitchener, where she played much of her minor soccer, don't have OPDL teams.

So she plays for Hamilton. She's a natural goal scorer, with a dozen in Hamilton's 19 scheduled games for sixth best in the league, and in late August played a significant role for Team Canada, which finished second at the CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean) U-15 championships in Orlando, Fla. Canada didn't surrender a goal until beating Mexico 3-1 in the semifinals, then losing 2-0 to the U.S. in the gold-medal game.

"It was a dream come true," she said of playing for Team Canada, an extremely difficult roster to crack in any of the women's age groups. "It was an amazing experience to see the different levels, and where we stand as a country. There were a lot of good teams, especially the U.S. and Mexico, and I think we are right up there."

Ladhani played 370 of the tournament's 490 minutes and scored a pair of goals, including one in the tournament opener.

"I knew I wanted a goal in my international debut, and at first I started off being a bit of a ball hog," says the midfielder. "When I did score, I played a team game. It was a great experience and I wish it never ended."

Ladhani says that, playing for Hamilton United head coach Kevin Grant, a local soccer legend, and his assistant, Peter Minkiewicz, has improved her game significantly. She also praises her teammates and the OPDL program itself, which provides the very same coaching curriculum to every team, every week.

"The coaches are great and in the OPDL they're teaching more tactical because we're getting older," she says. "It's movement off the ball."

She's still very young, but Ladhani, and others in the program, are doing exactly what national women's coach John Herdman wants at the lower age levels: developing solid technical skills, especially offensive ones. He wants Canada to be more well-rounded on the field, rather than just defensive, our country's stubborn soccer pedigree. That's why 18-year-old Jessie Fleming was so important to the Rio Olympic bronze-medal run.

"Canadian players are renowned for their defensive work, but we've always struggled going forward," says Grant, who earned 26 caps, including the Montreal Olympic tournament, from the men's national team in the 1970s.

"Maya has the ability to add a different dimension to any team. She's a natural in that she's got terrific close control of the ball and terrific dribbling skills. I've coached many girls and boys, and she's the best that I've seen at taking players on and going by them."

Ladhani, who lists Brazil's Marta as her favourite women's player, Argentina's Lionel Messi her favourite among men and Christine Sinclair and Fleming her top Canadians, says she needs to improve her left-foot play and knowing when to pass the ball and when to dribble. On the other side of the ledger, she cites dribbling as her strongest asset.

"I feel I'm a technical player and I don't see a lot of that in Canada," she says.

Grant adds: "She's a natural goal scorer from midfield, and you don't often get that. She's got 12 goals and she's missed, I think, probably a month for the national program."

She'll be back with United again as an underaged player when it moves up to the new U-16 division next year.

And that should continue to have an updraft effect on the rest of the talented players on the elite team.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

"Her being here has been a benefit for all the girls," says Minkiewicz. "They look up to what she's capable of doing, and I think they want to emulate it.

"Her standard is becoming our standard."