NextPod Soccer Podcast: Season 2, Episode 1

The boys are back after their holiday break to launch season 2 of the podcast. In today's episode, they are joined by Canadian u20 women's head coach Emma Humphries to talk about the Concacaf qualifying tournament. James and Duane also get into MLS and CanPL training camp news and talk about the need for the CanPL to get young players under contract.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
M hm h m. Welcome tothe Next Pod, your weekly look at

(00:21):
Canadian prospects with the one, theonly, the great, the Wondrous James
GROSSI also me Dwayne. I'm Dwayne. We're back. Welcome to the Next
Pod. I'm Dwayne Rowlands. Joiningus on the line during me on the

(00:43):
line is the Duke of Down's view, mister James Grossy, Duke Duke Grossy.
I guess, Dwayne, how's itgoing. I'm loving the new intro.
There's something about it that makes mefeel uh, you know, particularly
uh particularly you know, and peppedup and then ready to go and talk
about things. Are still still slightlyin pre season forma as you can tell

(01:07):
by my struggling with words there,But yeah, I'm excited to kick off
another year of keeping an eye onthe development scene for Canadian soccer and a
broad should be fun. It shouldbe And we're kicking off season two of
Next Pod with a bit of abanger here. We've got Emma Humphries coming
to join us in a little bit. She is the head coach of the
women's under seventeen national team program forCanada. Former New Zealand international been involved

(01:30):
in the game over here in Canada, off and on for about a decade
now. Certainly she was an interestingconversation we had a little earlier, so
we can we can spoil a littlebit and say it's a pretty good conversation,
if I do say so myself.James James was involved in that.
I had a chance to listen toit after, so I think you're going
to enjoy that. But before weget into that, I mean, we
did probably six weeks off on thisthing. I had a little holiday in

(01:53):
there. I think people call itChristmas. I think is what it's called
anyway. So so how have housethings been? Jas Christmas? New Year's
and then sort of just the Januaryblows, which we're kind of coming out
of right now. I'm looking outmy window. It is suitably gray for
a January, although the temperature isnot quite where I would have expected it
to be, and the lack ofsnow is a little bit disturbing. But

(02:16):
yeah, I mean it's always niceafter a long season, a lot of
things going on, to have alittle bit of quiet time. But you
know, looking ahead to the calendarwe've got lined up this year, it's
it's gonna be anything but slow onthe soccer scene. We've got you know,
a couple of youth tournaments to kickoff the year. Here with the
U seventeen women in Mexico for theircompetition. The You twenty men will be

(02:36):
kicking off their their quest for aWorld Cup later on next or early next
month, and then you know,MLS season starts, CPL season starts,
We've got MLS Next Pro setting upfor another big year. We got Lee's
Cup groups yesterday, and so muchmore to keep an eye on. So
you know, I'm I enjoyed mylittle bit of downtime. It's always good

(02:59):
to to not have a million thingsgoing on for about six weeks. But
yeah, I think I'm ready toget back into the swing of things.
And as you mentioned, this chatwe have with Emma coming up, I
think was an excellent way to kickoff the new year and get everybody ready
for that first big, big eventon the youth calendar. Let's talk about
that a little bit. This isthe qualifying proper. This is not one

(03:22):
of those new pre qualifying tournaments thatCanada has had to go through a couple
of times now. This is theactual qualifying tournament to go to the World
Cup. Now it's a bit morechallenging for Canada than it might have been
in the past. Normally there's threespots for conkor KAP. Because Concap's hosting
this tournament, there's only two,which means they're going to have to get

(03:42):
back past one of the two tiedteams. That'd be Mexico to the US
that typically are on this front.It could be someone else too, of
course, but those are the traditionalyouth one and two now, and I
say that purposely, James, Ithink it's fair to say on the youth
level, Canada has probably slipped athird. So they get's work to do
in this tournament, don't they.Yeah, it's that's going to be the

(04:03):
story of this competition, you knowCanada. Canada had had they had to
go through pre qualification, one ofthose new little tournaments, which you know,
I think in and of itself wasa bit a little bit of a
benefit for a group like this whodoesn't get a chance to play together as
much as possible. And you know, Canada navigated that pretty easily, winning
their two matches there by a combinedscore of thirty to nothing, with a

(04:25):
twenty one nothing win over Dominica anda nine nothing went over Bermuda, So,
you know, not the stiffest ofchallenges for them, but just a
little bit of a reminder that thatat the youth level, Mexico is definitely
you know, sniffing at their heelswhen it when it comes to to who
are the top two big boys inconk cap And yeah, what's the Dominican
Republic hosting of the twenty twenty fourseventeen Women's World Cup this October. It

(04:48):
it is going to be a bitof a fight for Canada to ensure that
that they earn themselves a spot there. Yeah, and it's something we're gonna
have to watch very closely, Ithink, James, I know that's throw
to Emma. We will talk abit about the interview after after ours,
but that's the sort of Amma Humphreysnow head coach of the women's under seventeen

(05:09):
national team program for Canada. Hello, Hello, and welcome back to the
next part. I'm really excited towelcome our first guest of the new season
to the show, head coach ofthe Canadian women's U seventeen national team,

(05:30):
Emma Humphries. Emma, thank youso much for joining us. Hello,
thank you for having me. Youand the squad have been in Mexico now
for a couple of days getting readyfor the upcoming Comcast Women's U seventeen Championship.
Can give us a sense of thesurroundings you guys find yourselves in and
how those preparations are coming along.Yeah, it's coming along really well.

(05:51):
You know, we felt we needto get here quite early because of the
altitude, so the girls have beenworking hard back in the preparation to it.
Then get much of a breakover Christmas. But you know, it's kind
of one thing trying to prep forit, and there is another thing when
you get here. It was funnytrying to walk up the stairs on the

(06:12):
first day, and like, Istill run quite a lot, Like I'm
an okay runner, but man,I was done with the first stairs.
So, but getting getting used tothe climate's being like, you know,
a big part of our pre campand the girls have done really well with
it. It's always tough getting gettingthings started after the holiday season, so
I totally understand that. Uh,you guys were drawn into Group B alongside

(06:34):
Puerto Rico, Panama in the US. What are your thoughts on the challenge
ahead, and you know, theeyes immediately go to that third game against
the US. Is it valuable foryou to have those two matches to sort
of build up into that and getthings going. Yeah, it's it's a
really good group, I think,and it's kind of yeah. I think

(06:55):
we're building nicely into the tournament.No no teams and estimated in Conca CAF,
like you will have seen throughout thepast couple of years, every team's
getting better. You know, wehave a lot of respect for Puerto Rico
and for Panama as well. They'revery good teams. So I know everyone's
eyes go to that US game,but like my mine is still on Puerto

(07:17):
Rico right now and the preparation aheadof it. There's also obviously there's two
spots in conker CAF and when youfor this year seventeen because the Dominicans hoasting,
so as much as you kind ofhave your eyes on the US,
you know, when you're doing yourplanning, it's it's also a bigger picture

(07:39):
in that as well. So yeah, I definitely we've seen the game grow
in conk CAF these past five sixyears and monthly. This is not the
first step for you and these youngladies on this journey. You had qualification
back, you know, on thisyear, the camp in Portugal in November,
a couple of games against European oppositionthat how have you been able to
progress the group over these experience ishow valuable is getting that that sequential time

(08:03):
with them, well, time timetogether is absolutely key. We have our
three centers across the country, asyou know that. You know, we
try and work the same curriculum andfrom our learnings from the past World Cup,
we tried to implement some of thoseinto the curriculum for this time and
I think you know, in thepre qualifiers we started to really embed that

(08:24):
with the partnerships that would be inthis scene. I think that's the thing,
is merging in those three centers together. And the pre qualification tournament was
a good one for that. Youknow, We've got a nice pre camp,
got to start to embed some ofthose habits and then get to feel
a little bit of pressure. Youknow. I think it's one thing doing

(08:45):
it you know in your own environments. Another where like okay, now there's
there's a qualification spot on the line, and then you know, Portugal has
a bit of a different feel toit because it's all about learning. It's
me learning, right, you knowwhat partnerships work, what don't you know
which players send up kind of youknow, big moments where you're play in

(09:07):
the European opposition. That was ourlike, if you're being realistic, that
was our first like tough tests andyou know they've they've played every top team
in the world before we get there, so they've played twenty top internationals or
something like that. It's Spain,France, you know, us, everyone,
Mexico. So to go in there, like I wanted to walk away

(09:31):
from there having some good performances firstlyoutcome second when you're playing a mid season
team, and then but so walkaway with a win was really important to
me too because I had to knowthat the belief of the group was there.
So I think like that the secondgame, you know, but the
first game performance if you weren't purelyon sets. We were in that game

(09:54):
every day. But we lost.And then just two build errors, which
I I told the group, Isaid, I own that if we make
mistakes trying to play the way thatwe've got to learn. Game two,
I said, okay, if wemake those miss sakes, we'll own them
together now because you've got to learnfrom it, you got to get better,
and yeah, you walk away overwhen game two. So pretty happy

(10:18):
with the progress of the group performancebeing number one at that point, and
then you know, progress into thisnext phase super important. I did a
little back of the Napkin analysis inthe squad. It looks like fifteen to
twenty one players. I've been withyou through both those experiences, but there
are two newcomers to this group aswell. How do you go about making

(10:43):
those final squad selections. What aresome of the factors you try to balance.
Yeah, I think a couple ofthings. I think continuity can be
really good as well. Like Isaid, forming partnerships is important, and
if you don't keep a level ofconsistency, then you know you're When you're
competing with teams that have played twentygames together, then you know that can

(11:05):
be downside. At the same time, competition is important within squads, so
I always say to the group,I never picked the same team twice.
I don't think I ever have forthat reason, because no shirt's ever given
for Canada, and that's really reallyimportant. We compete every day to make
sure that we're doing it proud,So yeah, an element of consistency at

(11:28):
the same time, like some competition, and like the two new editions have
done really well. We're also watchingthem, Like I'm not always in Ontario,
but I watch them every week.You know, I spend time and
I look back, I see thegames. I just watched the U seventeens
play two games against our U twentiesover the Christmas period. Sorry, it's

(11:50):
not the full U seventeen national team. It's that we pulled the best from
Ontario and Quebec together and played theU twenties, and it was a great
game, really good match up,and you know, you just kind of
look for who else because we werea massive country. You know, there's
kids out there that are one hundredpercent will have missed, like it's impossible,

(12:13):
not perfect. So I'm sure he'swatching for who else is out there.
And yea a couple of kids stoodup. One kid obviously stood up
in the NDC competition, Alyssa McLeodin the younger group, and like she's
a talented player, so yeah,she's a top, top player. So
I brought her in early. Idid that last secle with Venerbell too.

(12:37):
I just think, you know,if a kid's ready, they're ready.
And yeah, if she's already impactinggames in my older group, then you
know, let's let's start seeing herplay for Kendah. It's it's pre season
time of year for the MLS club, for the CPO clubs. You know,
I follow pretty closely. And oneof the words that sort of come

(12:58):
out is the non gol tables andhow important it is for a team to
have some ethos that they build around. I imagine that's even more so on
the international stage where you aren't seeand everybody too regularly. Is there a
key characteristic that you look for thatyou try to impress upon this group.
Yeah, we we we first cametogether. We just put a couple of

(13:20):
key key things, like just downtogether as a group. I have a
couple of non negotiables like for me, like but I'm pretty simple. Like
it's it's respect, like respect yourteammates, respect yourself. Everyone's working hard
and working towards the same goal effort. Like it's you don't play for Canada

(13:46):
if you're out there walking, youknow. It's every training session we train
out, we play and that's justthe reality like if you're not prepared to
put in the work, then you'renot going to wear the shirt. And
like humble, but like confident,I think is is key, like you
know, humble, and that likewe never underestimate and anyone that it's not

(14:11):
you know, you're you walk inand every game starts nil nil. But
also we're Canada, you know,so we expect to win. And yeah,
I think the players kind of youknow, my last one, this
is my pet peeve, but beyondtime, like the players know if they

(14:31):
walk in late, that they don'twalk in the all. So that what
got put down real quick. Butthat's like for me, that's that's for
me. It's simple. It's likefour things that is key to the group,
and it's like our absolute fundamentals andand this group's really brought into that.

(14:52):
I you know, obviously I'm personallynot Canadian, but I've lived now
in Canada for I think over tenyears, and I a Canadian son both
you know, Bev and I havebeen here quite a while now, so
I hope, like and I feellike my personal values helped reflect Canadian values
or what I need to be aswell. So yeah, punctuality is an

(15:16):
underrated skill instead of the said Mexicois hopefully not the final phase for you
guys. There's a spot at thetwenty twenty four Women's U seventeen World Cup
on the line. I think that'sin the Dominican as well, coming up
later this year. You sampled thatlevel before leaving the group to twenty twenty
two in India. What's the valueof these experiences for these young players.

(15:37):
Yeah, it's playing in a youthWorld Cup, Like yeah, I think
football is about the memories you createtoo, you know, Like I was
lucky I played in one you twentyWorld Cup, and I actually enjoyed my
youth World Cup more than my seniorworldcome played. And I was pretty young
when I went to a senior WorldCups. Made you didn't take it all

(15:58):
in, but that oh, likethe memories we made with our teammates without
like we had a couple of goodresults for New Zealand and how you fold
cup and like you just those bondingmoments. There'll be players that they go
on to play with their senior teamone day, Like in this group.
There's so much talent this U seventeenteam. I'm sure a couple of these

(16:21):
are going to go, if notmore go on and play for Canada.
And this is kind of like whenyou get to get to that U seventeen
World Cup. It's it's a greattest of where that first group's at.
So we're pretty determined to try andget this group there because we know we
have enough talent. In addition toyour role with the U seventeens, you're
also the director of women's football development, thank of all white Caps. I

(16:44):
seen can give some insight into whatthat larger role is is for you.
Yeah, So, like when Iwas first living in Canada, actually at
a couple of jobs, like locallyin the community, working for club teams,
and then pretty quick when I waslike twenty five years old at the
time, pretty quickly I started workingfor the white Caps and in the girls

(17:10):
elite program. I became the headcoach a couple of years later of that
group that I was lucky that Igot Julie Grocer's Your Night. We ended
up with Jade Rivera in there too, So like at quite a young age,
got to really challenge myself and acoach to try and really make these
top kids better. I think JuliaGrocer was twelve years old when she was

(17:33):
first in program, So it's funnynow I'm watching a move. But so
my like my role now when Icame back to Canada sort of it's a
tough one because Bev and I neverwant to work together where it will cause
way too many fights. So weit's really important to us that we have

(17:55):
different sides to do our working balance. And yeah, I saw myself coming
in in that director role to helplike support Clubland and make sure we're really
in bed for local b secrets,what that pathway is, and make sure
we're producing the best we possibly canfrom you know, like right from when

(18:17):
they come into our academies up intoo. Well at the moment it's our
girls elite program and obviously bigger picturewe've now got professional football coming in the
next year too, So like myrole is really the technical lead, so
I embid the curriculum into the kidsand then to obviously train up our coaches
to play the way that you know, I believe it is the best for

(18:40):
producing players. I imagine by havingboth that local footprint and the national perspective
that you have, you have apretty unique lens onto the future. Of
the women's game in this country.We've got Project eight on the horizon right
now. What do you see inthe next few years. It's exciting,
isn't it. It's so needed Projectdate, Like, uh, what do

(19:07):
I see? I see like kidsbeing able to actually like dream to play
in Canada. It's you know thatI have so many kids in our academy
and like I talk about our whiteCaps academy because that's obviously the one I'm
on the grass with the most,but all over the country, Like I

(19:29):
say this to people all the time, I'm like, the best kids here,
Like and I'm not even talking twoor three. I'm talking like seven
or eight each each center, ifnot more, would all be pros in
any other country. Like, sowe're doing the best weekend and make sure
we push them and you know,we're getting innovative. We play boys.
We we have actual resource and idp'sall you can do, but you can't

(19:52):
replicate, like like they need tobe playing pro and you know, having
a pathway that's ours. No othercountry cares about Canadians, Like that's just
a fact. Like they might usethem to make the team beitter. They
might, you know, use themto push other kids within their system.
But like in Canada, is wherewe're going to produce our next best players

(20:17):
and become pro And I think thatleague what I love about is the aiming
big. They're not going, oh, we're going to be a B league
or a C league. Like we'reCanada and we're a massive women's football country
and we're going to aim to bea top five team in the world.
And it's a sorry league in theworld. It might take time to get
there, but for our standards andour quality of our kids, why not.

(20:41):
Yeah, it's exciting times. Youknow, the ten plus years that
I've sort of been doing, thesteps forward that we've taken. It hasn't
always been you know, sequential stepsforward, but the steps that we're taking
forward as a country is just fascinatingto watch it and much needed. You
mentioned a couple of these name surethat I'm going to list off what across
your roles you work with a lotof young women are making these waves in

(21:03):
the game of these days hid thema Grosser Jabrivier, Amanda Alan, Olivia
Smith. What's it like seeing playersthat you've worked with succeed on these bigger
and bigger stages so cool, isn'tit. Yeah, like you just feel
a little bit proud, you knowthat you've had a little part in helping
them come along their way. Ithink, yeah, I mean, they're

(21:29):
so talented, those kids, Istill call them kids. I can't help
it, because like Julia Goso comedown to the park now and she's I
think she's twenty three or something.That's definitely not a kid, but I
still see her as twelve year yearsold when she's walked into our academy.
Yeah, I like, it's justso much potential. And then I think,

(21:52):
you know, they're only getting statted, you know, like sometimes because
some of these kids have been inthe senior team for quite a while,
or like because we don't have profootball, the youth kids get quite scrutinized
early in Canada because there's no leagueto sort of which would usually hold that
place. And sometimes I get alittle bit protective, you know, because

(22:15):
I'm like, oh, people saythis this kid or that kid's not performing
on and I'm like, she's twentytwo, you know. Like, but
because we've seen them for so long, people expect them to be at their
peak, you know, which istwenty seven, twenty eight, and I'm
like, she letting them, letthem grow, like, let them make
mistakes, let them kind of livetheir own journey. Like all those players

(22:36):
you mentioned are top, top players, and you know they'll come right and
they're going to have huge careers.But it is the side of it right
now, even I never coached,yes, blaming baby, she's still so
young. That's what's exciting is iswhat's going to come in Canada and then

(22:56):
you know, having the support formore of these players to come, developed
them in our way with different styleswithin Canada. You know, right now
it's like Canada Soccer's way. ButI can't wait till it's like many different
clubs styles and clubs value different typesof players, and you know, like
that's going to be such a goodthing for Canada over time. Yeah.

(23:17):
Every time I look at every timethere's a new roster that comes out and
you see the ages and the numberof caps, it's so many of these
ladies are just getting started. There'sa lot of football ahead of them.
In some background research for this conversation, I came across a team called the
Coco Experts. Well, can youtell me about the Coco Experts? Do
you know what I stopped. Istopped playing pretty young, actually, like

(23:41):
I I sort of I was oneof those that I went to university,
played for my university, and thenI was playing on obviously the national team
for New Zealand, but there wasno pro football really in my well,
there wasn't any pro football in NewZealand is now. But I yeah,

(24:03):
I ended up playing like on semipro team in between in between seasons and
things like that, and that wasone of the teams that I ended up
playing on, which was a prettypretty cool experience. That it's pretty hot
in Florida that time of year,so like just getting used to different conditions
and like playing against some top proswhen you know, when they're out of

(24:26):
season or whatever it is, waswas pretty cool to do. But yeah,
I didn't I actually didn't play muchlonger than that. I think I
was like twenty four to twenty fivewhen I stopped playing. And I think
that's why I'm so passionate about Iprobably weren't good enough anyway, It's all
right, but but you know,I'm so passionate about, like heaven this

(24:48):
league because you know, it wasthe same for me, like in New
Zealand. Nobody else cares about whathappens to you when you're and someone else's
country. But when you have yourleague, if things don't work out for
you in the the country you knowall you want to play in your own
country, then you have that optiontoo. The logo of the crest of
that team was was pretty sensational.I don't suppose you still have a jersey

(25:11):
kicking around you, do, youknow what? I I don't think I
do, Actually I don't. Yeah, it was a pretty cool team.
It was a lot of fun.I found another good piece out of New
Zealand where you were talking about,you know, falling out of love with
the game, refining that sparking yourtime with Wellington as a coach suffering relegation

(25:32):
with Liverpool, Jurgen Clop popping upon a zoom call him and Steven Gerrard
speaking at the end of the seasonto the group. Is there a lesson
from your experiences as a player asa coach that that guides you that you
really try to pass on to theplayers under your under your charge. Yeah,
I am. I think I thinkthe you know a lot came to

(25:55):
me quite quickly when I was akid, Like I said, I think
I was twenty one when I playedin the Senior World Cup and I just
got done by U twenty World Cup. And I think which is you know,
I was living a pretty cool journey, but then like it all became
a little bit too serious for me, Like I don't know, the people

(26:15):
who know me know I am aserious person and that I'm determined and a
bit of a fighter, but likeI also have to have a life along
the way too, you know,like I can't be I can't be all
serious twenty four to seven, andI think the game just became a little
bit too serious for me. Likesaid, I just stopped stopped enjoying it.

(26:37):
I stopped and like I couldn't rememberwhy I used to love getting up
on a Saturday morning or sleeping withmy boots on the night before. You
know, when you when you're sixor seven years old, and if you
can't remember that anymore, then thenyou may as well stop playing. So
yeah, I just stopped playing forabout two years, and and then I

(27:00):
did a degree in teaching. Ithought I was going to be a teacher,
which I actually loved, and thennow my master's in teaching now,
which is pretty cool with And thenyeah, I just came back to New
Zealand and I found a little bitabout what I loved in the game again.
Someone wrote me in and said,well, what are you doing,
just like, you know, justhanging about. I couldn't. I don't

(27:22):
even know if I had a jobat And yeah, then, like I've
never looked back. I think Ijust love being you know, I just
needed maybe that little bit of timeout to find what it was I loved
in the game again. And thenanyway, what that you know does for
me with these kids, Like Ihope if one day, you know,

(27:44):
they'll probably say what I say now, but like I would hope in like
six seven years time, if theylook back at this experience, that they
would say that they had a lotof fun and a long way too.
Thank you so much for joining us. Best of luck at these matches in
Mexico. Will I'll be watching yearlycheering you guys on. Thank you really

(28:06):
appreciate it. Quick editor's note afterwe were done recording, of course,
minutes after One Soccer announced that theywould in fact be covering the games,
so you can watch the Canadian women'sunder twenty team compete on one soccer and

(28:32):
welcome back. Thanks again, Jamesfor doing that. I thought that was
a pretty good interview, a reallygood interview actually, and Emma seems like
a very articulate and passionate person aboutthe job. Having had an opportunity to
talk to her, what was yourtakeaway? Yeah, you know, going
in, going in, I sortof knew that that she brought a lot
of energy to the role. I'vebeen I've spoken to a couple of colleges

(28:56):
she talked to her before, soI was excited and there were so many
good that she brought up. Andthat's that's what I think is the value
in getting time with some of thesepeople who who have these these vital roles
for our country is that you know, they've they live this day to day
and they've had so many experiences thatare relevant to the situation they find themselves

(29:18):
in. And you know, thethings that stood out for me, there's
two things that I think were mybig takeaways, and it was, you
know, Emma's position as both youknow, somebody who works regionally for the
white Caps out in BC and hasa national role with the national team,
she has a pretty unique view ofthe landscape of women's soccer at that U
seventeen U twenty sort of area,And so that gives you a good chance

(29:42):
to maybe forecast what's going to comeor what's needed for the girls that she
sees and who either you know,maybe go to college route or go to
European route or whatever it is.But I'm sure a lot of them don't
find that next step in the game. So I thought she kind of lit
up when when I talked about whatthe future landscape is going to look like

(30:02):
and what the what the potential projectete coming onto this onto the scene is
going to do for the women's gamein this country. You know, her
point that that other countries don't careabout developing Canadians, you know, whether
it's the college system or NWSL oroverseas. You know, teams have a
financial interest in developing players, andwe've seen the women's game, you know,

(30:26):
start to slowly develop that side ofthings, you know, Jesse Fleming
moving from Chelsea to Portland. Uh, We're starting to see some of the
financial ramifications of the game globalizing onthe women's side. But the benefit of
the relationship of developing a local playerand urging them on for the national team

(30:48):
is just something that no other countryis going to take responsibility for when it
comes to Canada taking the next stepsthat we need to take in this country.
You know that that'll work for guyslike Alfonso Davies, that will work
for players like Jesse Fleming, theupper crust of players, those ones who
are going to make it regardless,they will get the benefit of those moves
and those chances and those those opportunitiesto flourish. But for the rest of

(31:11):
those players, you need to havesomewhere for them to go to continue developing
themselves. And you know, rightnow, Canada has a weird system.
You know, in most places,the clubs do most of the development.
The NBC is a little bit likeyou know, the Bradenton residency system that
the US had in place for solong. And on the men's side,
we've seen that shift over to theclub side in the last five ten years,

(31:34):
I want to say. So tohave professional women's teams on location here
in Canada, to have these opportunitiesfor these young girls to continue pursuing their
dreams is just something that you knowis desperately needed. I think we've seen
on the CPL side that it's goingto take a lot of time to build
those systems and to interlace them withthe existing infrastructure at the local youth levels.

(31:57):
So I don't expect Project AID tocome in and emerge as this fully
fleshed out system, but it's thestart of something, and it's something that
you can build around and something thatwill strengthen those pathways that that is so
needed in this country as one ofthe running themes that we talk about all
the time. And I think theother thing that I took away was,

(32:19):
you know, the need to havefun. You know, Emmas somebody who
was involved at the highest level ofa game from as a very young player,
and I think she said it herselfin the interview that she sort of
fell out of love with the gameand went away for a couple of years.
And you know, I think somethingthat we forget in this world of
transfers and salary caps and roster spotsand statistical analysis is that, you know,

(32:42):
these are human beings and there's alwaysgoing to be that emotional component to
things, and for these young playersin particular, it goes from you know,
having fun with your buddies in thepark as a thirteen year old to
really serious business really quickly for alot of these young players, and so
having somebody in her possian that remindsthese these young ladies pushing on to be

(33:04):
professionals that it's still important to findto find that joy and to find the
reason why you fell in love withthe game in the first place. I
think that's another super valuable element thatshe brings into the mix. Yeah,
she sort of said it in passing, but I found it interesting when she
mentioned that she has a master's ineducation, and I think that really fits
with her role on on a youseventeen level and kind of speaks to her

(33:24):
personality. She seems like a teacher, someone that really is interested in developing
these young women, and I'm onthe young to get to that next stage.
Talked with great pride about Julie Grossoand players like that that she's she's
moved up. Jaye Rivera is theother player that she mentioned by name in
there, that that she's moved tohigher levels, and that clearly was every

(33:45):
bit is prideful for as wins andlosses at the youth level. So that's
great to hear. Yeah, Imean, one last thought on what you
said there. You mentioned the JesseFleming transfer, and that is a record
breaking transfer, but look at themoney attached to that, it's just not
at the same level as you'd seeon the men's side of the game.

(34:05):
And there's a whole lot of conversationwe could have about that, but in
terms of what it means pragmatically,it exactly underlines what Emma was saying there
that you're just not going to prioritizethe development of a player from not around
your local area. Forget about thenational team stuff, just not a local
club person because there's just not thefinancial incentive that you would get on the

(34:25):
men's side of the game there yet, so particularly on the women's side,
it is vital that you have thosepathways developed, that you're developing your own
players, you're taking care of yourown I think it's just just underlines that
completely. And look, when itcomes to project date, that's kind of
a bit outside the scope of thisshow, but we certainly hope to see
that continue to progress forward. Wesee with the Women's Hockey League how successful

(34:47):
women's sport can be in this country. I think it's blowing people's minds away.
It shouldn't have. It's so well, so long overdue, and hopefully
that is opening some eyes and theyare able to use that. By they,
I mean dynam Mathison and her teamare able to use that when they're
approaching folks for financial backing for ProjectDay, because we do absolutely need that

(35:10):
to get moving and to get movingsoon. James, any final thoughts on
the interview before we go and theshow with some news bets. Yeah,
just one last one, and youbrought this up in our little pre show
meeting to sort of peel the curtainback was you know, Emma also noted
that, you know, being acountry as big as it is, with

(35:30):
the lack of infrastructure that we dohave, she was cognizant of the fact
that putting together the squad, sheknew that there were going to be players
that she missed. And you know, this group has benefited from having two
build up camps. They had thepre qualification tournament that we mentioned, and
they also had a little camp anda couple of matches in Portugal where they
split the two games against the Portuguesenational team. And as Emma mentioned,

(35:52):
that's a team that has competed againstsome of the best some of the best
teams around the world at this agegroup, and so you know her ability
to look at the three NDC systemsand to pull all the players that are
there and put together aside. Youknow, all twenty one players on this
roster come from the three NDC programsand the squad's been pretty consistent from those

(36:14):
two previous groups that she's had.I think I have it listed as fifteen
to the twenty one players were involvedin both of them. But there are
two new faces in this group aswell who had not been involved in either
of those two camps. So it'sit's tricky as a Canadian coach to keep
an eye on everything that's happening.And you know, something that will come

(36:34):
up a little bit in our newsin our news items here is that there's
always going to be players that slipthrough the cracks that don't get recognized at
the time, and having that openmind to know that there are those players
out there, but also making thebest of what you have. And so
I'm excited for this tournament. It'sthe first sort of big mark on my
calendar. It should be a fascinatingone, assuming Canada can navigate those two

(36:58):
games against Portao Go in Panama.That game against the US is likely to
be the poole position one to determinehow things are shaping up heading into the
knockout round, and you know,a second place finish in the group,
like he sets up a semi finalclash against Mexico and that will determine who
gets that World Cup birth coming up. And in addition to the team as

(37:19):
a whole, there's a lot ofnames that we've started to get familiar with
if you keep an eye on women'sfootball at this level. The Truclu sisters
Annabelle and Isabella I and Gannabella madeher at our first national team call up
the end of last year. KayleeHunter and Kira Martin from the white Caps
are a couple of names that havepopped up on my raidar once or twice
before. And Juliette Perrot from Montreal. So once we start getting to this

(37:40):
U seventeen level on the women's side, at least these are players that we
were fairly familiar with from a coupleof appearances previously. So yeah, I'm
excited to see what Emma and thesegirls can do on this stage. Yeah,
and this is a very very finalthought before we move into the newsbits.
I've for one, welcome the opportunityto not have that that cushion of

(38:02):
that third place spot or for thisthis team, I think that they need
to be able to win at thislevel and they need to start beating the
US. So you know, there'sno better, no better time to start
than the seventeen level. Not toput too much pressure on them going to
win lost perspective, because we havetalked about that in this show, but
you know, turning to win issomething in the development side as well.

(38:24):
All Right, James, before wewrap the show up of the week,
let's go through the world of NewAfford of development. Out there, world
of development. There's a word thatI'm spent preseason, folks, preseason.
What kind of news do you have, James, Yeah, just a couple
of little items that have come acrossmy desk in the last couple of weeks.
We've we've got MLS preseasons kicking off, and we've got a good smattering

(38:45):
of young players across the three CanadianMLS sides who are invited to their to
their preseason camps. Montreal has goteight academy players, six from the CF
Montreal Academy and two from the BolognaFC Academy and Alessandra Yellow young man we
saw with the U seventeens, andwe've seen quite a bit of Canada.
Guy al de Montaigni another young guythat we've talked about a lot over the

(39:09):
past year. But a bunch ofother names that are slightly newer to my
raider Jude Well and Michelle nineteen yearold goalkeeper has been doing good things with
the Montreal Academy. A fifteen yearold left footed center back named Sir Guy
Kozlovsky. He was with the CanadianYou fifteens last year, so he's putting
his name out there. Jesse Saputoanother familiar last name, sixteen year old

(39:31):
midfielder, Emrick fo Singer sixteen yearold midfielder as well, and then a
couple of a couple of guys fromfrom the Bologna partnership as well, mateos
Skiavoni and eighteen year old midfielder.So Montreal's given these young guys a chance
to integrate with that first team andsort of see if maybe anybody can can

(39:52):
earn one of those bottom end supplementalroster spots. So that's something to keep
an eye on as Montreal's preseason continues. Vancouver have been at it for quite
a while now with their CONCACAF ChampionsCup match coming up next week, so
their preseason is a little bit disrupted. But you know, they've had guys
like Jeevan Badwell and now the youngmen that we kept an eye on a

(40:14):
fair bit involved with the first team. Jay Herdman, Malcolm Simmons, a
twenty year old from Montreal who wason loan with Benfica's U twenty threes before
coming over to white Caps FC twoat the end of last year. Antoine
Copeland Lowell Wright a couple of formerCPL guys who have been with white Caps
two in the last little while.So it's good for them to get that

(40:35):
first team experience as they prepare forthat crucial Counker Calf match. And you
know, on the TFC front,we've got their first overall draft pick,
Tyres Spicer has been involved, JoeyMahair, another early round draft pick from
this year's Super draft, and CharlieSharp, the third rounder from the twenty
twenty three Super Draft, has beenin camp with the TFC first team and

(40:55):
you know, one of the interestingthings that came out of our early comer
stations with John Herman was that giventhe amount of work that TFC needed to
do heading into this year, hewanted to keep that group small. It's
pretty traditional at Toronto for the firstpart part of preseason at least to be
a much larger group any of theTFC two guys that are signed to contracts

(41:19):
generally go along in that way.For the physical fitness part, you have
a bigger group of guys to workwith and they're all getting that work done
at the same time. But Herbmanwanted to keep the group a little bit
more intimate because he felt like thatteam building stuff was going to be that
much more important for a team thatfinds itself in that small group situation versus
a team like Vancouver who's pretty muchconstructed the way that their coach wants with

(41:44):
Vanni Sartini in his second or thirdyear in charge of the club. And
so, you know, Vancouver hadthirty five guys in their camp. Montreal
had thirty two and they've made someadditions since then, and TFC started theirs
out with twenty eight players, soit doesn't seem like it's the biggest difference
in the world. With that littleadded little bit of intimacy, is is
something that comes into play here.So it's it's great to see so many

(42:06):
young guys getting this chance to experiencea preseason with the first team. And
you know, there were there werea headful of Canadians who were selected in
the MLS Super Draft as well,and some of them are with their their
various teams that preseason as well.Kamani Stuart Bains is with Colorado, and
there's Nicholas Fleury and Shure toe Iswith Vancouver. In their preseason, Minnesota

(42:29):
selected Marcus Caldera twentieth overall and heannounced that he'd be going back to school.
My la and Ree, who Montrealselected, decided that he'd rather be
with the Cavalry and the CPL asthey prepare for their calf adventure. And
the only player that I couldn't findany information on was was O Suckted by
Chicago, who is not part oftheir preseason less, so we'll have to

(42:51):
keep an eye on on where heends up. But yeah, it's good
to see that some young Canadians aregetting a chance to test themselves in an
MLS preseason. Yeah, interesting tosee a player choose to forgo an MLS
camp to go to Calvaries camp.But there has to be a decision there
for playing time versus maybe long shotsat an MLS contract. But yeah,

(43:16):
James, any any further thought.Yeah, just the next other news item
that I had on my desk wasa little bit of CPL news or keeping
an eye on it. Thinse areearly days for CPL, aside from the
clubs that are going to be involvedin COCCAF with forging cavalry. But you
know another we've got another fifteen yearold on the radar. Vancouver FC continues

(43:37):
to push the limits even younger andyounger with their signings. They signed the
young man named Grady McDonald from thewhite Caps Academy. He's a box to
box midfielder. He'll be sixteen inFebruary. Rob Friend in the introductory piece,
we're going to jump into everyone's favoritesession of James reading a quote.

(43:58):
Is what impressed me most about himis not only his on field ability,
but he's got a fantastic mentality,great character, who's got the ambition.
Obviously he's still young. He stillhas to prove himself, but we believe
that he's got the character to makeit at the highest level and now it's
our responsibility to nurture it. Youknow, Vancouver FC had a lot of
success last year with some of theyoung guys that brought in TJ to He

(44:21):
did very well in the CPL andimpressed with Canada at the New seventeen World
Cup. He had a little trainingstint with Fine Order in the offseason,
and his teammate James Cameron had abit of training time in England with a
bunch of different clubs. So it'sgood to see Vancouver continue to give these
young men a chance, and youknow McDonald will be curious to see how

(44:43):
this year goes along for him.Another one of the young guys in the
Canadian Premier League, Cavon Tavernier,also impressed with the Canadian U seventeen.
He was one of the two CPLcall ups that were a little bit unexpected
with that group. He's on ashort term contract for Forge at the moment
into Cats, so we'll have tosee what the future holds for him.
Matteo de Brienne a young man wekept an eye on pretty closely last year

(45:07):
made a big move moving from Valorto Athletico Ottawa, so it'll be interesting
to see how the fairs, youknow, back in his hometown. And
tir Walker, also a twenty yearold defender, re signed with Athletico Ottawa
as well. He was on adevelopmental contract last season, but at the
end of the year he had atwo year professional deal with the team.

(45:27):
So it's it's always good to seeyoung guys who come on at that early
stage get that chance to prove themselvesand to do enough to earn themselves a
contract proper. So those are acouple of CPO names that I'm keeping an
eye on. And then, youknow, just in keeping with what we
were talking about with Emma about thecountry being so big and players getting missed
and as much as we are workingsuper hard to fill in all those gaps,

(45:52):
there's always going to be players onboth the men's and women's sides who
are not going to make it.And Forges is holding some tryouts, they're
holding combines for players eighteen and olderat the end of at the end of
March, and the pole quote fromBobby on that is that exceptional footballers are
waiting to be found and this eventprovides us with a unique chance to uncover

(46:12):
hidden gems that we might have missedotherwise. And if you know football in
Ontario, you know that Bobby swannionisis a guy who's gonna have his finger
on the pulse and hearing about playersleft and right who are showing themselves.
And if even a guy like thatknows that there are our players who are
not getting seen and need these opportunities, then you know that it's something that's
going on. And so they'll beThey'll be representatives from Forge, from the

(46:35):
NCUBA, from U Sports and fromLeague One Ontario. At that three day
combine, there will be a seriesof structured sessions leading into a match on
the last day. So you know, I don't know if we're going to
cover this too in depth, butI thought it was something that was in
keeping with that conversation we had withMSL Worthy of mention. Yeah, I
mean, open tryouts are what theyare, but they do occasionally, you

(46:57):
know, snag some people in thenaparticularly when you think about that Forge news
of having the opening trave This isthe most successful team in the campl They
have lots of talent, they're reallynot desperate for roster spots there. They're
going to be playing in the ChampionsLeague. You know, one can make
an argument that they're the third bestteam in Canada right now. I'm looking
at UTFC at fourth right, soyou know, we have to keep that

(47:21):
in mind. But I think whenyou look at what they're doing there,
it's more about trying to get playersin their system, and it sort of
has an eye to the more playersyou have going through the system, the
more chance that you're going to findthose gems. You're going to have these
players emerge and you potentially could makesome windfall off them in terms of not
just wins and losses, but dollarsand cents. With the sail down the

(47:42):
line, you go to the VancouverFC News signing another fifteen year old I
don't know. My notes in frontof you remind me of the name James
Grady McDonald. Grady McDonald, soyoung Grady there at fifteen, that is
very young. And if you lookat the history of signings of that age,
they not only do they not allwork out, say most of them
don't, but if they're good enoughduring the contract, they're good enough to

(48:04):
have it, and it is anopportunity to try and develop a young player.
And if you're going to truly makeone of those those big sales down
the line talking about transfers today,then you need to have them at that
age and you need to move themup and if they truly find that talent,
then then away you go. Youknow. It's also interesting I talked
about this a couple of times nowthat Grady would choose to and his family
I'm sure would choose Vankaftc over theopportunity to go to the white Caps academy.

(48:29):
You would have to think that ifhe's good enough for a pro contract,
the white Caps would have had himon his radar as well. That
speaks to, you know, thepotential of the campe all to be used
in a different kind of way thanthe MLS academies and perhaps get this kid
moving through quicker, getting pro minutes, squipper, maybe getting to move to
Europe if that's what he wants faster. Maybe he wants to go to MLS.

(48:50):
But you think we wanted to goto MLS, he would have went
to the white Caps academy. Soit's just good to have these pathways.
It's good to have different opportunities outthere. Yeah, definitely, I think
you know the more one of thethemes that were we've hit a million dimes
on this show and we'll we'll hitit a million more is that you know,
every player's path is different and havingoptions instead of having to just go

(49:13):
through the three MLS clubs. AndGrady was involved with the white Caps academy
before going to Vancouver, but Vancouveralso inked him to a three year deal,
and that's been one of the criticismsof the CPL is that too often
guys were on year to year contractsand so a player does something and he
moves on a free afterwards because youdidn't you didn't invest enough in him to

(49:34):
ensure that on the back end ofthat deal you were benefiting yourself. And
now Grady is an interesting case becauseyou know, he has had some international
exposure with the Republic of Ireland.I believe he was with their youth fifteens
previously and turned some heads out ofcompetition over in Europe. So it's it's
just another example of how at thisyouth level there there are so many potential

(49:57):
players who have yet to turn intoJai that could be Sorry, I've got
a busy streak going on outside.But there are so many potential players,
and the more avenues we have,the more decisions, the more opportunities,
the better. And so you know, Vancouver showed some success with tjc he
last year, and so I'll bewatching eagerly to see what the next crop

(50:21):
of fifteen year olds does on theCPL seed. Yeah, it's not the
most obvious mistake that the CAMPIL made, but their decisions on contract length in
the early years probably left some moneyon the table in terms of sales,
you know, for those if maybeyou don't know, I assume most people
that are listening to show would knowthis. But in case you don't,

(50:44):
if you players not in a contract, they're able to walk, They're able
to get a contract anywhere in theworld on a free transfer. If they
are under contract, then you needto negotiate and pay transfer fee for that
player. That is a potential revenuesource for the CAMPL that really has not
been fully utilized, even utilized atall. Really, there's been a couple
of transfers out for money, butnot a ton in the five year history

(51:05):
of this league. And you know, again not in the subject matter of
the show, but you're seeing someof the you know, issues with one
Soccer and things like that happening recently, which makes people fighten for the campl's
future. One way they can securethat future without worrying about TV contracts and
things like that, or to developplayers consistently and develop players that you can
sell, and that means signing youngerplayers, taking bigger risks with these young

(51:28):
folks. And it's not that they'renot a huge risks. Really, you're
probably not signing them for a milliondollars a year, are you. It's
just a normal middle class kind ofcontract the kid's probably on. And with
that you can potentially either get agood player that's gonna grow with your team
and maybe be a five to sixyear long player that gets better and better
and helps your team win or maybemakes your team some money down the road.

(51:51):
And it sounds like this kid.Sounds like this kid's gonna have some
conversation and voyager circles of well gettingthem on the Canadian national team set up.
But beyond that, it has somesome real potential. So we'll look
forward to watching that season, lookforward to watching and play for vankrub Repc
assuming we can watch them play forVancouver Reps different topics. Yeah, yeah,
that actually spurred me to remember somethingthat I should have mentioned earlier.

(52:14):
The women's U seventeen matches that arecoming up. They'll be playing against Puerto
Rico in their first game, Ithink that's on Friday, and then they'll
be playing Panama in their second gamethat I believe is on Sunday, and
then the big game against the USis on Tuesday. That's February sixth,

(52:35):
And we don't have broadcast details.There actually aren't kickoff times at the moment,
or since the last time I checked, there haven't been kickoff times announced,
and we don't know what the broadcastdeals are going to be with that.
Normally they will be aired on onesoccer and so the most likely,
the most likely scenario is that itwill be either on Conka Kaf Go or
on the Conka kaf YouTube channel.As a way to keep an eye on

(52:59):
those games. Meant to mention thatearlier in the show, But just in
case anybody wants to tune in,I know you and I'll be doing our
darnness to be on those streams whereverthey may be. And it might be
a little bit retro retro Canadian socceraction, but you and I have experienced
that many times over the years,so it's nothing but water off the ducks
back. Yeah. Look, we'llend it with this. The one soccer

(53:23):
news is not great, and that'sunderstatement. We don't really have anything more
to add. I wrote about iton my sub stock in twenty fourth minute.
That was based on information that Ihad, mostly older information, to
be honest. But there's not muchreally to add there other than to sort
of lament the fact that this consistentplatform that we knew that these games will

(53:45):
be placed on just is gone now, suddenly and instantly. It seems although
you kind of could have guessed somethingmight have been coming based on the business
model, but it just shows howdifficult it can be. And we do
hope that the folks that work thereand worked hard to put a great product
out land on their feet. It'stough being a media, it's even tougher
being in Canadian soccer media. Solet's hope that we find platforms soon for

(54:08):
these folks. You know, thenational team, the women's national team,
the men's national team. They're goingto be fine. They're going to find
place to show those games likely tous and I suspect, but it's that
these youth games and the campl gamesthat we worry about and we hope that
they can get them somewhere for peopleto watch. James, Yeah, yeah,

(54:30):
it's it's in my long time ofcovering the game in this country,
it's it's been a series of youknow, peaks and troughs. You know,
they'll be there'll be a little bitof momentum and it'll look like things
are turning, and all of asudden, there'll be some industry news that
sort of comes along and levels youa little bit and throws everything into the

(54:50):
wind and you start, I haveto start anew and figure out what's what
the next thing is going to be. How we're going to keep all these
people who put their time and aftera into covering the game and into bringing
us these stories, how they're goingto make a living doing it. And
yeah, it's been anything but easyover the past decade. And you know,
the World Cup is right on thehorizon and and you would hope that

(55:14):
that would be the sort of thingto be a catalyst to us finding some
stability on this side of the ofthe ball. As well. But you
know, if there's any one thingthat's consistent in Canadian soccer, it's the
inconsistencies of it. And so we'llsee what the future holds, but you
know, for now, at leastyou and I will be here talking about
it and finding sketchy online streams towatch the games. Indeed, sketchy online

(55:38):
screen streams to watch the games ishow I got into Canadian soccer. Well,
actually it's not. It was morelike watching tape delay games on CBC
Sports Saturday. But that that justtells you that I'm old, all right,
James. On that note, I'mgoing to say goodbye. You say
goodbye to James. Goodbye. Thanksfor joining us, and we'll be back

(55:59):
next week with another interesting show.Thanks for listening. To support the podcast,
go to Patreon dot com. Slashtwenty fourth minute