Even Pellerud's Thoughts

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Thoughts Of A Women's World Cup-Winning Coach

by Jeremy Ruane

New Zealand football has been graced by elite company in the past fortnight, with two former coaches of FIFA Women's World Cup-winning teams having graced our shores.

Anson Dorrance, coach of the University of North Carolina squad, steered the USA to victory in the inaugural competition in 1991. Four years later, it was the turn of Norway, the team the USA defeated in that first final, to claim the most coveted honour in the women's game.

In the 1999 Finals, the Norwegians secured a fourth-placed finish, not the note on which their coach over the course of the decade, Evan Pellerud, wished to bow out. But a new challenge awaited him, in the shape of Canada.

He took charge of the “Canucks” in October 1999, and come the conclusion of the 2003 Women's World Cup Finals, Canada was celebrating a fourth-placed finish under the guidance of their Norwegian mentor, who maintained his record of securing a top-four finish in every Women's World Cup Finals since the competition's inception.

In September this year, he'll look to extend that record by taking the Canadians to the medal matches again. As part of his country's preparations for China 2007, they are currently taking on New Zealand in a two-match series at North Harbour Stadium, a key aspect of both countries' preparations for the 2007 Women's World Cup Finals.

The first game was won 3-0 by the top-ten-ranked visitors, and after the match, Pellerud happily set aside a few minutes with this writer to analyse the match from New Zealand's perspective.

“I think the result reflected the fact that we are a little more experienced, and have played together as a team for more years, and have played more games than New Zealand has done.

“I think I can recognise New Zealand is where we were some years ago. I started in Canada with a very young team, and based my squad on teenagers, and managed to motivate them to stay in the game and play more and more, harder and harder.

“Today we are a stronger team, but there is not a big gap to New Zealand. I think the future for the New Zealand team is great. For them to play at home, it must be very, very stimulating, and they should take advantage of that and prepare an even better programme in the future”.

Canada's preparations for their assault on the Women's World Cup have been of a gradual nature, thus far, as Pellerud outlines. “We have been working very hard throughout winter and spring, basically with soccer every day, but also lots of hours on strength and conditioning. That was a high priority for me in February, March and April.

“Now we are in June, and we will now play more games. We will go to the Pan American Games in Brazil in July, and play six games - play even more soccer with high intensity, because we are not soccer-fit yet.

“My priority now is to play more soccer with high intensity, more speed, more skills, and also more of a tactical approach to the game”.

The matches against New Zealand mark the fourth and fifth games of Canada's campaign, following losses to China (3-1 and 2-1) and the USA (6-2). “In the two games against China, we were quite dominant”, reflects Pellerud.

“I think we deserved to win both those games. That said, they was our first games in six months, so we were not smart enough inside the two penalty areas. We made errors and China punished us.

“Against the USA, I was very optimistic before that game, but I don't know what happened. We were down very early in the game and lost confidence. It was not a good game, but the second half was OK”.

Analysing all three games, in which the Canadians conceded a - by their standards - staggering eleven goals, Pellerud is quite forthright in his judgement. “It's about time for us to understand that skills are OK, but without the real commitment to have a team defence in place, we will lose games”.

With that in mind, he has moulded a squad of youth and experience together for Canada's Women's World Cup quest. In his eyes, they are progressing steadily, both individually and collectively.

“Today we saw Amber Allen coming into the right flank in the second half. She is over 30 and has been out with injuries for a year - she played a very good second half. Candace Chapman, who was sitting behind the strikers, has basically been injured since 2004. She's just getting back in full swing and looks very promising.

“We have a good and healthy situation in the net with three good goalkeepers competing. We have a veteran defender in Martina Franko - over 30 - who seems to get better and better, so overall, we see steady, small steps in the right direction.

“We are not up there yet with the best teams in the world“, declares former Women`s World Cup-winning coach Even Pellerud, “but we are not far away”.

Take the chance to see this high-flying Canadian side take on their similarly ambitious New Zealand counterparts at North Harbour Stadium from 7.30pm on Wednesday evening, in the final game of the two-match series between these 2007 Women's World Cup Finalists.

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