Canada shifts focus to Cyprus Cup

Following Saturday’s season opening win over Poland, Canada’s women’s national team has turned its attention to the 2010 Cyprus Women’s Cup. The tournament will provide the Canadian coaching staff and players with a series of competitive matches enabling the team to implement and experiment with new tactics and personnel ahead of what is expected to be a busy 2010 season. For Canada, the Cyprus camp and international matches are the beginning of its year-long preparation for the 2010 CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup.



“For us, the Cyprus Cup is the most important time in our preparations as we have the opportunity to play several matches and the day after to correct our mistakes” said head coach Morace. “When you play just one game before the players disperse you don’t have time to review, to enforce what we did well or to correct where we made mistakes. Here the team is together for a longer period of time. Also, in this tournament format we get to see how the players react under different kinds of pressure.”



The Canadian players returned to training on Monday after enjoying a day off following their victory over Poland on Saturday. Since arriving at its Larnaka based camp Coach Morace has wasted little time in introducing several new playing formations to the team including the 4-3-3 formation utilised in the match against Poland. On Monday, Morace led the team through a lengthy training session which focused mainly on tactical formation and positional strategy. The team has now completed the first full week of its Cyprus camp after arriving in Larnaka on Monday 15 February.



This year’s edition of the Cyprus Women’s Cup runs 24 February to 3 March. Canada will open the group stage against Switzerland on Wednesday 24 February before facing England in a rematch of last year’s final two days later on 26 February. Canada will complete the group stage with a match against South Africa on 1 March. From the group phase, the first-place team advances to the final, the second-place team advances to the match for third place, the third-place team advances to the match for fifth place, and the fourth-place team advances to the match for seventh place. The final day of competition is 3 March. Group 1 opponents are Italy, Scotland, New Zealand and Netherlands.



Canadian soccer fans can follow all the matches live via Twitter in English at www.twitter.com/CanadaSoccerEN and French at www.twitter.com/CanadaSoccerFR. Full fixture reports will be available on CanadaSoccer.com following the completion of each match. As well, CanadaSoccer.com’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/CanadianSoccerAssoc will feature pre and post match interviews as well as other video of the Canadian squad captured while in Cyprus.



The 2010 Cyprus Women’s Cup will mark Canada’s third consecutive year of participation in the competition. The team won on its inaugural visit to the tournament in 2008, winning all three of its matches in the then six team format. In 2009, the field expanded to eight teams where Canada finished 2nd. Canada’s all-time record at the Cyprus Women’s Cup is five wins, one draw, and one loss.



In the 2010 season opener with Poland (CAN 3:0 POL), Canadian captain Christine Sinclair notched two milestones, scoring her 100th international goal and recording her 133rd appearance for Canada, a new national team record. With the goal Sinclair became just the tenth player in women’s international football to achieve this accomplishment.



Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners, will be looking to qualify for their fifth straight FIFA Women’s World Cup this fall at the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup.



For more information on Cyprus, please visit www.visitcyprus.com.