The Players: Carmelina Moscato

If you are going to live on the road as a team, then you had better bring along someone with the talent and personality of a Carmelina Moscato. One of the country’s top defensive midfielders, Moscato is also a valuable teammate that will keep the spirits high when the Canadian women’s national team trains and operates away from home.



Starting 1 May, Canada will spend eight weeks together in Europe in the buildup to the opening match of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011. That opener is 26 June against the host and two-time defending champion Germany, with an expected crowd of 80,000 strong at the Olympiastadion Berlin. Canada’s other group matches are 30 June against France (in Bochum) and 5 July against Nigeria (in Dresden).



“I definitely have lots of energy on and off the field and try to use,” said Moscato of Mississauga, ON. “I try to have a positive outlook on things at the end of the day.”



With players like Moscato in the group, the Canadian team has maintained that family approach, especially when living on the road for different competitions and training camps. The team’s time together will be a testament, rather than a test, when the official matches are played in June and July in Germany.



“It is one of those x-factors that we really do know each other so well,” said Moscato. “The family environment really helps us.”



Over the last two years, Canada not only returned in the top-10 ranking amongst women’s football programs, but also made a significant jump up to sixth place. That sixth place ranking in March 2011 was Canada’s highest position ever since the ranking were first introduced in 2003.



Moscato has been a part of the national program since 2002 when she played her first eight games with the national team under then-head coach Even Pellerud. Still only a teenager one year later, she took part in her first FIFA Women’s World Cup, seeing action in one of Canada’s six matches en route to a fourth-place finish at USA 2003.



In her early 20s, Moscato won the 2004 W-League championship with Vancouver Whitecaps, then lost in the 2006 final when she played for the Ottawa Fury (an 0:3 loss in the final to the Whitecaps). While she was called in from time to time to the national team, she made a true return in 2009 and 2010 with the arrival of new head coach Carolina Morace.



In 2010, Moscato played in a team-high 17 matches. In November, she helped Canada qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and then win the CONCACAF Women’s World Cup Qualifier. It was Canada’s second CONCACAF championship.



Now in 2011, Moscato turns 27 on 2 May and is ready to compete in her second FIFA Women’s World Cup. She feels that not only has she developed as a much better player over the last two years, but the entire team has grown both on and off the pitch.



With all the hard work and notable improvements over the past two years, Moscato expects the team will show well in Germany, no matter what the results in a tough opening group (with three of four teams ranked amongst the top-10 in the world).



“We want to show the country that all our hard work is paying off, that everything we are doing helps progress the game,” said Moscato. “We want to set the standards in the country (for women’s football) higher, so the final product of how we play needs to reflect that.”







Every few days in the lead up to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011™, CanadaSoccer.com will highlight a prospective player that will take part in this summer’s big tournament. The series will run in the two-month lead up to Canada’s opening match on 26 June against host Germany. Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners and presenting sponsor is Teck, will take part in its fifth FIFA Women’s World Cup™ from 26 June to 17 July. Canada has also already qualified for a sixth time as host of the next FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in 2015.





Vacation in Sweden



So what did Carmelina Moscato do for her final break before the 1 May camp? Her and teammates Marie-Eve Nault and Kaylyn Kyle went north to Piteå, Sweden to visit teammate Stephanie Labbé in her club settings.



“We went there for six days,” said Moscato. “It is a super small town, but women’s soccer is very popular there.”



Labbé’s club Piteå IF plays in the Damallsvenskan (Swedish women’s league). While the trio were visiting, Piteå IF had a match against Tyresö FF, an 0:2 loss in which “Labbé stopped it from being a 7-0 loss.”



After the visit, Moscato, Nault and Kyle traveled a bit in Europe before returning to camp for the 1 May re-start.