COVENTRY, ENGLAND—This was not the beginning anyone was hoping for — neither Canada’s women’s soccer team nor the Olympics themselves.
The soccer team was hoping to bend over, take their Japanese paddy whacks and still pull out a draw. Instead, it turned into that favourite of my parents — an instructive beating.
London 2012 did just as poorly, but without the underdog pluck.
Unlike the competitors, they don’t get a couple of rest days to figure this thing out. The hurricane is right on top of them now. Strangely, it appears to have taken them by surprise.
On the first day of competition here, Canada did as they habitually do against better teams at big tournaments — they ran themselves ragged and lost.
RECAP: Cathal Kelly’s live game blog
World champion Japan tallied twice in the first half after exhausting their opponents, and then weathered a few brief bursts of Canadian mettle in the second. It had the feeling of a small, lovable creature struggling in the jaws of a snake. The 2-1 scoreline flattered the losers.
Then that old saw — it’s early goin’ yet.
“I thought Canada dominated the game from start to finish,” Canadian manager John Herdman began his press conference. As malicious, overjoyed leers began working their way across the collective face of the press corps, he added: “Just kidding.”
That was fun. But then it was back to the familiar — a big pat on the back for all involved for losing with such class. Herdman also issued an ominous warning about the games ahead: “You have to keep your expectations real.”
You know who’s never said something like that? An Olympic medallist.
Canada will now face very beatable South Africa and finish with their Scandinavian doppelganger, Sweden. They must win that first encounter and pull something from the second to ensure advancement.
“Moral victories aren’t going to get us into the next round,” that rare type on this team — a straight-talking realist — Diana Matheson said afterward. In a very meta way, recognizing that fact was itself a moral victory.
It’s probably unfair to judge this team at this juncture (though this loss feels eerily like their first loss at the World Cup last summer, and that was the high point).
Given the way their press proxies roughed us up in Vancouver, we’re not going to extend that courtesy to London 2012’s party planners.
Wednesday was their first chance to say a real ‘Hello’ to their visitors. Up here in the Midlands, it was the dinner party that started with a full-body pat-down. Then there was no dinner.
At the media entrance, the metal detector was malfunctioning. Frazzled security staff were tossing through bags like cloakroom thieves. At one point, they were poking through wallets. However, once you passed that point, visitors were allowed to wander out onto the pitch to find their seats.
“I’m dealing with a media issue,” the media handler said as he stormed past the confused media. He never came back.
This was princely in comparison to the treatment of the paying customers. Visitors were forced to upend their totes and purses so that they could be rummaged through. Then the contents were transferred to clear, plastic bags for the walk into the stadium. Once inside the doors, families sprawled across the floor, transferring all manner of objects you wouldn’t want everyone in the world to see, much less touch, back into their proper bags.
“Bit of a waste of time, really,” one British teenager shrugged.
Where was that kid when they were coming up with London 2012 mottos?
The IOC won’t care about that. They will care that 90 minutes before kickoff, all of the cash registers at City of Coventry Stadium’s concession stands were malfunctioning. Customers eyed all those delicious pastry-wrapped internal organs, but could not purchase a one. It was tragic. So much congealing. So many heart attacks only delayed.
At kickoff, perhaps only 6,000 or 7,000 of the 14,000 ticketholders were in their seats. Many were surely delayed by the 1984-style security. Many more were doubtless put off by a rail accident that delayed the London-to-Coventry route for hours.
Tragedies on the train line aren’t the fault of organizers. But it has been my experience that bad luck tends to find those most deserving of it.
This is not the time to rehash all the problems in the lead-up — no newspaper has that kind of space and it’s pointless now.
But suddenly those problems aren’t just nominal. They’re happening. And they threaten to drain a lot of the joy out of this enterprise.
Given that, London 2012 might do as an athlete does when faced with a losing game — they change it.
Having foolishly ignored so many well-intentioned warnings beforehand, changing now is probably not something the pride of the organizers of these Games could bear.
Kaylyn Kyle’s soccer career has come full circle
The soccer team was hoping to bend over, take their Japanese paddy whacks and still pull out a draw. Instead, it turned into that favourite of my parents — an instructive beating.
London 2012 did just as poorly, but without the underdog pluck.
Unlike the competitors, they don’t get a couple of rest days to figure this thing out. The hurricane is right on top of them now. Strangely, it appears to have taken them by surprise.
On the first day of competition here, Canada did as they habitually do against better teams at big tournaments — they ran themselves ragged and lost.
RECAP: Cathal Kelly’s live game blog
World champion Japan tallied twice in the first half after exhausting their opponents, and then weathered a few brief bursts of Canadian mettle in the second. It had the feeling of a small, lovable creature struggling in the jaws of a snake. The 2-1 scoreline flattered the losers.
Then that old saw — it’s early goin’ yet.
“I thought Canada dominated the game from start to finish,” Canadian manager John Herdman began his press conference. As malicious, overjoyed leers began working their way across the collective face of the press corps, he added: “Just kidding.”
That was fun. But then it was back to the familiar — a big pat on the back for all involved for losing with such class. Herdman also issued an ominous warning about the games ahead: “You have to keep your expectations real.”
You know who’s never said something like that? An Olympic medallist.
Canada will now face very beatable South Africa and finish with their Scandinavian doppelganger, Sweden. They must win that first encounter and pull something from the second to ensure advancement.
“Moral victories aren’t going to get us into the next round,” that rare type on this team — a straight-talking realist — Diana Matheson said afterward. In a very meta way, recognizing that fact was itself a moral victory.
It’s probably unfair to judge this team at this juncture (though this loss feels eerily like their first loss at the World Cup last summer, and that was the high point).
Given the way their press proxies roughed us up in Vancouver, we’re not going to extend that courtesy to London 2012’s party planners.
Wednesday was their first chance to say a real ‘Hello’ to their visitors. Up here in the Midlands, it was the dinner party that started with a full-body pat-down. Then there was no dinner.
At the media entrance, the metal detector was malfunctioning. Frazzled security staff were tossing through bags like cloakroom thieves. At one point, they were poking through wallets. However, once you passed that point, visitors were allowed to wander out onto the pitch to find their seats.
“I’m dealing with a media issue,” the media handler said as he stormed past the confused media. He never came back.
This was princely in comparison to the treatment of the paying customers. Visitors were forced to upend their totes and purses so that they could be rummaged through. Then the contents were transferred to clear, plastic bags for the walk into the stadium. Once inside the doors, families sprawled across the floor, transferring all manner of objects you wouldn’t want everyone in the world to see, much less touch, back into their proper bags.
“Bit of a waste of time, really,” one British teenager shrugged.
Where was that kid when they were coming up with London 2012 mottos?
The IOC won’t care about that. They will care that 90 minutes before kickoff, all of the cash registers at City of Coventry Stadium’s concession stands were malfunctioning. Customers eyed all those delicious pastry-wrapped internal organs, but could not purchase a one. It was tragic. So much congealing. So many heart attacks only delayed.
At kickoff, perhaps only 6,000 or 7,000 of the 14,000 ticketholders were in their seats. Many were surely delayed by the 1984-style security. Many more were doubtless put off by a rail accident that delayed the London-to-Coventry route for hours.
Tragedies on the train line aren’t the fault of organizers. But it has been my experience that bad luck tends to find those most deserving of it.
This is not the time to rehash all the problems in the lead-up — no newspaper has that kind of space and it’s pointless now.
But suddenly those problems aren’t just nominal. They’re happening. And they threaten to drain a lot of the joy out of this enterprise.
Given that, London 2012 might do as an athlete does when faced with a losing game — they change it.
Having foolishly ignored so many well-intentioned warnings beforehand, changing now is probably not something the pride of the organizers of these Games could bear.
Kaylyn Kyle’s soccer career has come full circle
Growing up in Saskatchewan, Kaylyn Kyle was into tons of sports.
The long list included diving, basketball, gymnastics, volleyball and soccer.
“You name it. I did it,” says the 23-year-old from Saskatoon.
In fact, she was too busy playing to ever think about being an Olympian.
“Oh god, no, I never thought it would actually come true,” the midfielder on the London-bound women’s soccer team says. “To be completely honest, I never thought about being on the national team when I was that young.”
That all changed in the summer of 2002. Canada hosted the Under-19 Women’s World Cup and a then-13-year-old Kyle got her parents to drive her five hours to Edmonton to see a couple of Canadian matches.
“That’s when it first kind of rang a bell that I knew I wanted to play for the team and had to work extremely hard to get there,” recalls Kyle, who at that point had already suited up for her provincial team a couple of times.
That tournament was a seminal moment for Kyle — and many other young Canadian girls playing soccer. Christine Sinclair was MVP and Golden Shoe winner with 10 goals in six matches as the United States won the final 1-0 over the hosts in extra time before 47,784 fans at Commonwealth Stadium.
Kyle still remembers how amazed and motivated she was watching Sinclair and midfielder Carmelina Moscato, who were two of the four Canadians named to that tournament’s all-star team. They are now her teammates.
“It’s was pretty cool,” Kyle recalls. “I’m best friends with them now.
“But, it’s weird to say, I used to have their pictures on my wall and I would cheer for them. And, they both make fun of me for it to this day.
“It’s cool to look back on that as a player and know that now I get to put my boots on with them and play alongside them. I’m extremely fortunate.”
While London is her first Olympics, Kyle is a veteran of international play. She played for Canada’s U-17 and U-20 teams, and in a pair of U-20 World Cups. In her fifth year with the senior national team, she’s appeared at the 2011 World Cup, Pan-Am Games and CONCACAF Olympic qualifying.
It was during that qualifying tournament in Vancouver in January, that Kyle had her international soccer experience come full circle. Just as she had idolized Sinclair, Moscato and the other Canadians at a similar competition on home soil a decade earlier, a new generation of girls was now asking for her autograph and snapping pictures. She appreciated every moment of it.
“I grew up in Saskatchewan where we played in hockey arenas, indoor facilities, because we only get summer for two months a year,” Kyle says. “For me to play in a sold out B.C. Place Stadium and have tons of little girls screaming my name and wearing my jersey, was a humbling experience.
“I wish everyone would feel what I’m feeling right now. It’s tough to put into words some days.”
MORE
FULL OLYMPIC 2012 COVERAGE
The long list included diving, basketball, gymnastics, volleyball and soccer.
“You name it. I did it,” says the 23-year-old from Saskatoon.
In fact, she was too busy playing to ever think about being an Olympian.
“Oh god, no, I never thought it would actually come true,” the midfielder on the London-bound women’s soccer team says. “To be completely honest, I never thought about being on the national team when I was that young.”
That all changed in the summer of 2002. Canada hosted the Under-19 Women’s World Cup and a then-13-year-old Kyle got her parents to drive her five hours to Edmonton to see a couple of Canadian matches.
“That’s when it first kind of rang a bell that I knew I wanted to play for the team and had to work extremely hard to get there,” recalls Kyle, who at that point had already suited up for her provincial team a couple of times.
That tournament was a seminal moment for Kyle — and many other young Canadian girls playing soccer. Christine Sinclair was MVP and Golden Shoe winner with 10 goals in six matches as the United States won the final 1-0 over the hosts in extra time before 47,784 fans at Commonwealth Stadium.
Kyle still remembers how amazed and motivated she was watching Sinclair and midfielder Carmelina Moscato, who were two of the four Canadians named to that tournament’s all-star team. They are now her teammates.
“It’s was pretty cool,” Kyle recalls. “I’m best friends with them now.
“But, it’s weird to say, I used to have their pictures on my wall and I would cheer for them. And, they both make fun of me for it to this day.
“It’s cool to look back on that as a player and know that now I get to put my boots on with them and play alongside them. I’m extremely fortunate.”
While London is her first Olympics, Kyle is a veteran of international play. She played for Canada’s U-17 and U-20 teams, and in a pair of U-20 World Cups. In her fifth year with the senior national team, she’s appeared at the 2011 World Cup, Pan-Am Games and CONCACAF Olympic qualifying.
It was during that qualifying tournament in Vancouver in January, that Kyle had her international soccer experience come full circle. Just as she had idolized Sinclair, Moscato and the other Canadians at a similar competition on home soil a decade earlier, a new generation of girls was now asking for her autograph and snapping pictures. She appreciated every moment of it.
“I grew up in Saskatchewan where we played in hockey arenas, indoor facilities, because we only get summer for two months a year,” Kyle says. “For me to play in a sold out B.C. Place Stadium and have tons of little girls screaming my name and wearing my jersey, was a humbling experience.
“I wish everyone would feel what I’m feeling right now. It’s tough to put into words some days.”
MORE
FULL OLYMPIC 2012 COVERAGE
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