Kadeisha Buchanan can track the progression of her career with the Canadian women’s national team based on games she has played at BMO Field.

She was just a rookie for her inaugural game here in June 2013, the first rematch between Canada and the United States after a contentious meeting at the London 2012 Olympics sent the Americans to the gold-medal game and left the Canadians settling for bronze.

By the time Buchanan returned to Toronto FC’s home pitch in 2014 for the under-20 Women’s World Cup, she had graduated to being a veteran player on a young squad.

On Saturday, the Brampton-born defender will once again take to the field at BMO, this time as the cream of the Canadian crop. She has a Women’s World Cup under her belt and is on the verge of becoming an Olympian.

“I think my game has evolved a lot,” the 20-year-old said Thursday at the stadium where she and her teammates will take on Brazil in a friendly this weekend.

“I think these [BMO Field] games are little milestones for me. Now coming back, I can take in how my performance was during those times and compare it to now. It’s cool.”

Buchanan is one of a handful of Canadian players who grew up in the Greater Toronto Area.

The GTA has proven an especially good breeding ground for players around her age. Three other youngsters — midfielder Ashley Lawrence and Rebecca Quinn and forward Nichelle Prince — are locals. Allysha Chapman, 27, is an Oshawa native.

The five players, Buchanan and Lawrence especially, are part of a young core Herdman is trusting to lead the charge to back-to-back podiums at this summer’s Rio Olympics.

He confirmed that pledge earlier this week when he released a roster with an average age of 25.2 years old.

Now that Herdman has largely selected his Olympic team — he still needs to drop two players before this summer’s games — the next two months are all about consistency, starting with Saturday’s friendly.

“It’s about the chemistry on the pitch and the competition off. We have to keep the others hungry, so we’re giving them minutes and when the standards drop . . . if they drop standards, people are getting in,” he said.

In Canada’s toughest games this season — the match against Costa Rica that clinched Olympic qualification, March’s Algarve Cup final and an April friendly against the Netherlands — Herdman used seven of the same players. Another four players participated in two of those three matches.

He expects to rely on that same group in the lead-up to, and throughout, the Olympics.

While Herdman has already cautioned that his team won’t peak this summer, with veterans such as captain Christine Sinclair past their prime and the Buchanan era still a touch too young, he is excited by this roster.

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“There’s depth all over the pitch, and good depth. Depth where you go, ‘Oh, if she comes on, that gives you something different.’”

Canada kicks off against Brazil at BMO Field Saturday at 4 p.m.

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