“I’m not (going to) change,” new head coach of the Canada girls’s nationwide crew (CANWNT) Casey Stoney advised , sprinkled with amusing, which implies Stoney goes to “sit on a cooler.” She goes to take a seat on that cooler with “good coats and good blazers” and a few Doc Martens-esque verve.
“I don’t have a purple (blazer), although,” Stoney stated. “So I must get one.”
For Stoney evangelists and Canada followers, the information is nice. The previous San Diego Wave and England captain is again on the touchline, able to perch pensively on a neon purple drinks cooler in her technical space while sporting a rotating forged of beautiful outerwear and game-day matches. Extra importantly, Stoney is bidding to do what she does greatest: instill a basis of belief and confidence in an area that has misplaced it.
Stoney, 42, was , taking up from interim head coach Andy Spence, who changed Bev Priestman after she was sacked for her position in Canada’s spying scandal final 12 months — an investigation discovered that senior teaching employees requested members of the teaching crew to spy on the opposition utilizing drones forward of the Paris Olympics.
So the circumstances of her appointment usually are not very best, however Stoney, who has been out of soccer since San Diego Wave fired her in June 2024, is assured that she might be the supervisor to guide CANWNT into a brand new period.
“My job is a lot extra than simply being a head coach of the senior crew,” Stoney stated. “It’s about trying on the complete panorama in Canada, and simply with the ability to assist and assist.
“I’ve acquired numerous expertise having been a part of the bidding course of for the WSL (Girls’s Tremendous League) in England, having performed there for thus a few years. I’ve run academies. I’ve labored in laundry. I’ve pushed the minibus and run the primary crew.
“So I need to have the ability to educate myself first, observe, be taught what is basically good in Canada already, after which ask: What can we alter and improve? How can I assist affect? It’s a top-down, bottom-up method.”
In three seasons with the Wave, Stoney received the NWSL Defend in 2023 and the NWSL Problem Cup the next 12 months, whereas she received the NWSL Coach of the 12 months trophy in 2022. With Manchester United, she guided them to promotion to the WSL within the crew’s first-ever season and two fourth-place WSL finishes earlier than stepping down in Could 2021. Stoney’s operation was one in all dichotomies: incorporating defensive grit with attacking fluidity, veteran knowledge with youthful effervescence.
With Canada, Stoney sees a panorama ripe for her type.
“This crew is already laborious to beat. They’ve proven that. They’ve completed some incredible issues during the last 12 months. What they did in the course of the (reaching the quarterfinals), I can solely have admiration for,” Stoney stated.
“It’s my job to construct on that and improve it. What I used to be in a position to present at Manchester United once I went there’s that we may rating objectives. First two seasons at Wave, I feel we have been top-two objective scorers.
“Now, it’s about how do I convey that to Canada too. It’s an enormous remit for me. If you wish to win issues, you’ve acquired to maintain clear sheets. confirmed that within the earlier match, and it’s about how one can now rating objectives in essential moments and create extra alternatives to attain objectives. We’ve acquired an enormous quantity of expertise in our present pool of gamers and the pool coming by way of. It’s about embedding a mode and a philosophy the place we are able to use the ball successfully.”
Belief is a key phrase for Stoney as she embarks on her newest chapter, significantly following final summer time’s occasions and the controversy that clung to Canada within the subsequent months. The territory is acquainted.
“Once I walked within the door (of the Wave), they didn’t belief coaches,” she stated. “I discovered that constructing belief is so vital. In case you say you’re going to do one thing, do it and be accountable for that. Be the one which exhibits vulnerability, be the one which holds your hand up and owns their errors, in order that gamers can do the identical factor. And it’s about profitable video games too. Successful builds belief, confidence, the power to proceed to construct.”
In her first feedback as coach, Stoney stated she wouldn’t have taken the position with Canada if she didn’t belief the route of this system and the management of Canada Soccer CEO and normal secretary Kevin Blue.
“I spoke to the gamers in depth about Kevin, I did my very own analysis,” Stoney stated in her preliminary press convention. “I didn’t take this job with out data, they usually spoke very extremely of the distinction that he’s been in a position to make within the brief time that he’s are available in. I felt like our values have been aligned.”
Stoney’s unveiling has recharged the dialog round Canada Soccer’s tradition, significantly whether or not a reset is required.
“All the pieces I’ve heard about this tradition, it doesn’t want altering,” Stoney says. “It simply wants me to guide it, embrace it and take it in the best route. They’ve acquired a really sturdy unity and tradition of their participant pool. It’s about setting requirements and expectations and having readability round that.”
Stoney underscores the significance of together with former gamers, resembling file goalscorer Christine Sinclair and former worldwide Diana Matheson, into discussions round requirements, whereas not shying away from demarcating between previous and current.
“As a result of my experiences once I performed usually are not going to be the experiences of the England gamers now,” she stated. “And what’s now’s actually vital. As a result of a high-performance setting ought to be led by the gamers. They need to set the requirements and expectations. I assist information and assist that.
“But it surely’s additionally not dropping the legacy of gamers like that, that had such an influence on the sport that was so vital to the followers.”
Growing younger gamers stays a core tenet of Stoney’s. A well-trotted mantra of hers is, “In case you’re ok, you’re sufficiently old.” It’s not with out substance. With United, Stoney performed when simply 16 years previous, offering a launch pad from which the now-Chelsea and England ahead has flourished. With the Wave, Stoney is credited with aiding U.S. worldwide Naomi Girma in turning into one of many world’s greatest younger defenders.
Casting a look on the CANWNT squad, the younger expertise at Stoney’s disposal is tantalising. At point out of Harvard defender Jade Rose, Stoney’s voice rose an octave. “For me, Jade Rose is such an thrilling prospect shifting ahead,” stated Stoney, including that Rose skilled with the Wave throughout her time as supervisor.
Point out of Liverpool ahead Olivia Smith, who has been tipped to be the nation’s subsequent Sinclair, rouses an analogous response.
“I used to be fortunate sufficient as a result of I used to be again within the UK for 4 months, and I watched fairly a little bit of Olivia and can proceed to,” she stated. “With gamers like that, it’s about giving them an understanding of what it’s to carry out at worldwide stage, exposing them to it, holding them accountable, however supporting them and difficult them in equal measures. As a result of Olivia’s an distinctive expertise. What she will be able to do with the ball is incredible.
“She must be taught a bit of bit extra of what to do with out the ball, which is a part of my job. And exposing her to as many caps as I can. If she’s going to play in 2027, she must have a bit extra expertise to have the ability to try this. That comes with the following 12 months of video games.”
Stoney’s appointment makes her the newest high-profile girl assigned to the place of nationwide crew supervisor, alongside former Chelsea supervisor Emma Hayes with the USWNT and Sarina Wiegman with the reigning European champions, England. The sight is encouraging however comes with duty, Stoney stated, particularly because the variety of girls teaching in dwindles.
“It’s additionally a part of my responsibility as a coach to ensure I’m opening the doorways for different feminine coaches to return into the setting,” she defined. “Ultimately, hopefully, this job is held by a Canadian feminine and never me. I’ve been within the recreation a very long time. I’ve seen so many common male coaches come into the sport when females don’t even get the chance. However analysis will present you {that a} man will go for a job that he’s not certified for and suppose he ought to get it. And a feminine received’t even enter the room as a result of she doesn’t suppose she ought to get it and he or she’s certified.
“Would I wish to see extra feminine coaches? Completely. You misplaced one at Wave and gained a person. It’s a kind of conditions the place that occurs. However we are able to solely make it possible for we maintain pushing the agenda for extra females within the recreation in any respect ranges, not simply in teaching, however at government stage, in all roles, to make it possible for it’s accessible to everyone.”
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US Girls’s nationwide crew, Canada, Soccer, UK Girls’s Soccer
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