New Canada women's coach Casey Stoney has vivid memories of facing Canada on the football pitch.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Stoney experienced the high of captaining Britain to a 1-0 win over Brazil before a crowd of 70,584 at Wembley Stadium.
"I remember waking up the day after we beat Brazil in front of 70,000 fans at Wembley and asking my Great Britain teammates if it was real," Stoney wrote in a 2013 column for the BBC. "It all felt like a dream that you didn't want to end."
Three days later, Canada turned that dream into a nightmare by beating Britain 2-0 in the quarterfinal in Coventry.
"After the match, I was so gutted that I couldn't return to the Olympic Village so I drove straight home to Lincoln (her club team), sat on the sofa and cried and cried," Stoney wrote. "I couldn't even watch the Olympics on TV. The next day I drove straight to France for 12 days to get my head clear. It was almost like a hibernation period and it got me back on track, thankfully."
Jonelle Foligno and captain Christine Sinclair scored the goals that bundled Britain out of the tournament.
"It's quite ironic, really, to be honest," Stoney, speaking in an interview, said of her past tussles with Canada. "But at the same time. we've always knew when I was playing for England that when we were playing Canada, it was going to be an extremely hard game and it could go either way. And we had to be on our top because they've always had an exceptional program. And I think they've always produced exceptional players
"So coming here and being able to work this team was an exciting prospect."
England had the last laugh at the 2015 Women's World Cup, eliminating host Canada 2-1 in the quarterfinal before 54,027 at Vancouver's B.C. Place Stadium with Stoney coming in off the bench in stoppage time.
Sinclair scored her 155th international goal in a losing cause.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2025
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
