Jordyn Huitema of Canada looks dejected after losing to Germany in the women's soccer quarter-finals on Aug. 3, 2024.Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters
The Canadian women’s soccer team’s hopes of defending their Olympic title ended Saturday, with the team falling 2-4 in penalty kicks to the Germans in the quarter finals.
With the loss, the athletes – who have had to compete under the cloud of the drone spying scandal, last-minute changes to their coaching staff, and a six-point penalty imposed by FIFA – are beginning to process what the last two weeks has been like.
“It’s been a really dark place,” said Janine Beckie. “But in the midst of that we’ve also created some of our best memories as a team. So it’s been a strange, strange couple of weeks.”
She said that since the spying scandal broke just days before the start of the Olympics, the team has had more meetings than she can count, often with only the players present.
“A lot of it was sitting in a room, not saying anything. Sometimes it was anger. Sometimes it was – a lot of times it was a lot of sadness and confusion,” she said. “But I think it was a really galvanizing experience. I’m closer to these 21 players than any teammates I’ve ever played with. This experience will no doubt make us stronger as individuals. As players.”
Despite a series of late-game attacks, the Canadian women weren’t able to find the net during regular or extra time.
Canada’s Vanessa Gilles, who was part of the gold-medal winning team, told reporters that shootouts are always bittersweet. In Tokyo, Canada clinched the gold in penalty kicks against Sweden.
“In the last Olympics we got the better end of that deal,” said the 28-year-old. Gilles said the team shouldn’t have let it come to a shootout.
“I think we had our opportunities. We didn’t capitalize. So we kind of put ourselves in that penalty hole,” she said.
But for Gilles, going down in a shootout after overcoming so much was especially disappointing: “I can’t quite find the tears. I think I’ve shed them all this past week, so, to have gotten this far I think is a testament to our group. To our mentality.”
Saturday’s defeat brings an end to a tumultuous two weeks for the Canadian women.
Heading into Paris, the team was one of the fan favourites in the Canadian delegation, following their storybook run in Tokyo, which came off back-to-back bronze medals at the Games in Rio and London.
But the excitement around the athletes was overshadowed before the Olympics even began, after a Canada Soccer staff member was discovered by police flying a drone over an opponent’s closed-door training match.
In response, FIFA handed the defending Olympic champions a six-point penalty, essentially putting them two-games in the hole to enter the first round. The scandal has since widened, including with the revelation in documents posted to FIFA’s website that Canada Soccer believes the spying scandal dates back to previous head coach John Herdman.
Herdman, who went on to coach the men’s national team and now helms the Toronto FC, declined to comment on the allegations in a statement to The Globe and Mail. Through a Toronto FC spokesperson, he said he will wait for the outcome of Canada Soccer’s own internal review before commenting further.
The spying scandal has also prompted the suspension of three Canada Soccer staffers – Priestman, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi, who had operated the drone.
Mander and Lombardi have not responded to a request for comment.
After the game, Canada’s acting head coach Andy Spence deflected questions about recent revelations that in March 2024, Priestman wrote to a colleague for advice about how to handle an analyst who was refusing to spy on an opponent: “It’s something the analyst has always done and I know there is a whole operation on the men’s side with regards to it.”
“This is an investigation that’s going to be carried through and it’s not for my place to comment on those things while it’s an open investigation,” said Mr. Spence.
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