Canadians in the quarter-finals | “We just lived five years in nine days”

(Nice, France) “This is one of the greatest emotions of my life – and I’ve already won a gold medal!”

In the past week, Gabrielle Carle and her teammates on the Canadian soccer team lost their coach. They were labeled cheaters. They were punished by the international federation, which deducted six points for acts of espionage committed by their coaches. The negative attention and pressure could have destroyed them.

But no.

On Wednesday night, in the oven of the Stade de Nice, they channeled all the rage, exasperation and anger, then used it as a source of motivation to beat the Colombians 1-0. They thus secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament, a result that seemed very unlikely last weekend.

“We just lived five years in nine days,” commented forward Evelyne Viens after the match. “It was a crazy week. I’ve never experienced so many emotions in my life. [Notre qualification]it’s not so much a miracle on the field as an emotional miracle. We deserve respect. I’m proud of our team, the way we stood up and fought.”

This victory will obviously not please everyone. In the corridors of the Nice stadium, a Swedish journalist piqued Viens by questioning her on the value of the gold medal won by the Canadians against the Swedes at the Tokyo Games, after the revelations of “potentially systemic” spying.

Even in Canada, many believe that the team should have been disqualified. In a report published in the last hours, FIFA also had very harsh words for Canada Soccer to justify its six-point penalty, which required the Canadians to win all three of their first-round games to advance to the quarterfinals.

The argument of the detractors is that we win as a team, we lose as a team. So if we cheat as a team, we must be punished as a team. A logic that I understand, but do not share. The important thing is that light be shed on the culture of cheating, and that those responsible be punished. Not that the entire national program be destroyed for the stupid and selfish acts of a handful of leaders with unacceptable ethics.

This story reminds me of another espionage case, which involved the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals. No, not the stolen signals scandal. About ten years ago, a Cardinals employee hacked into the Astros’ computer system to steal the scouting database. A goldmine of information. Of course, the Cards profited from this operation. The team was punished. It lost two draft picks, and had to give $2 million to the Astros. The hacker was sentenced to 46 months in prison. But the players suffered no harm.

While here, the Canadian players were punished even though there was no evidence to incriminate them. You can doubt their testimonies. Refuse to take their word for it. Except that the reality is that no one has yet managed to prove their involvement in spying on the New Zealand team’s training sessions. If one day, someone proves otherwise, believe me, we will review.

Let’s get back on the pitch. This victory against the Colombians was hard-won. In the first half, the Canadians lacked legs. Their attacks died one after the other in the penalty area.

“Following our victory against France, we felt extra pressure,” Evelyne Viens explained to me. “We told ourselves that we hadn’t done all that to finish our tournament with a draw and be eliminated.”

Coming back from the break, the Canadians had four chances in the first five minutes. However, the ball still didn’t go in the net. Nervousness was getting to the bench. “The Colombians were looking for stoppages a lot,” says Gabrielle Carle. “They were often on the ground. That’s normal, they were trying to take the rhythm out of the game. They only needed a draw to go through. So we had to go get a goal, and quickly. It was really important.”

At 61^e minute, Canada took advantage of a well-placed free kick on the left flank. That was the moment that substitute coach Andy Spence chose to bring Evelyne Viens into the game. The Quebecer, one of the team’s tallest players, would be able to provide a physical presence in the scrum, and who knows, maybe jump higher than her opponents to redirect the ball into the back of the goal.

Captain Jessie Fleming decided to kick the ball quite short and high. “I was ready to go get the ball,” Viens recalls. “Except Vanessa Gilles came and told me: move aside, I’m going!”

The two are roommates and best friends. “We can talk like that,” Gilles said, amused. [Sinon]I know Jessie. The spaces she finds, the services she can provide. And there, I saw [bien] space.” The tall defender slipped between two players and headed the ball out of reach of the Colombian goalkeeper. It was the decisive play of the match.

“When I saw Vanessa score, I knew we were going to win,” Gabrielle Carle enthused. “It’s incredible. We were put against the wall. We got through it. It shows the character of this team. We are a united group. We have experienced a lot of turbulence and adversity in the last week. This victory shows that as a team, we can overcome anything.”

“We are a team that fights,” added Evelyne Viens. “Everyone who is in this locker room now shares the same values ​​and the same goal. I know that the whole country supports us.”

The whole country is debatable, but the two big bosses of the Canadian Olympic Committee, David Shoemaker and Eric Myles, certainly. They made the trip to Nice to support the women’s footballers in their ordeal. Again Wednesday, a few hours before their match against the Colombians, the players learned that the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the COC’s appeal, which wanted to overturn the six-point deduction.

“With everything they’ve been through, they deserve our support and encouragement,” Eric Myles said as he left the stadium. “When we talk about our slogan, invincible courage, this team is a great example of that.”

Next match: Canada-Germany in the quarter-finals in Marseille, Saturday, 1 p.m. (Eastern time)