Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
AMSTERDAM – Dean Cordeiro is taking stock in the moments after his MacEwan Griffins women's soccer team wrapped up its final match of a Reading Week exhibition tour against three top Dutch squads.
You could imagine he had a smile on his face on the other side of the phone conversation.
His team beat Ajax affiliate Ter Leede 3-2 in its opening match before losing 4-1 and 1-0 to top division women's pro teams ADO Den Haag and PEC Zwolle, respectively.
Certainly those are respectable results for the Griffins, who use an annual overseas trip as both a sporting and cultural experience aimed at helping the program grow at the Canada West level.
"Honestly, a 1-0 match against a professional side with a mixture of their first and second division players felt like a victory today for sure," said the head coach after the PEC Zwolle match wrapped up on Thursday night Netherlands time.
"Obviously, there were some tired legs settling in for the last match, so we weren't at our optimal peak performance, but with that all in mind, the girls really rose to the occasion," he added. "At the 11th minute mark, they scored a quality goal on a ball up the line and they cut it back. We thought 'oh no, that's a quick early goal and may set the tone.' But then we battled hard for the next 80 minutes of that match. We were in it all the way to the final whistle."
That's a great way to wrap up the tour, which ends when the team flies back home from Amsterdam on Friday afternoon.
How they started the trip will be the highlight. Against Ter Leede, which plays at a division below the other two teams, MacEwan somehow jumped out to a 3-0 lead and then overcame a furious Dutch rally to post an upset win.
"We were up against it as they had many ex-pros and key professionals who were really dictating the tempo of the match early on. We had to hold on for the first 20 minutes," said Cordeiro, who credited goalkeeper Emily Burns with keeping them in the game early.
But, against the run of play, the Griffins took advantage of a free kick on an offside call and Burns sent Raeghan McCarthy in alone.
"In our first look at goal, she put it in the back of the net," said Cordeiro. "From there, the girls started to believe and gain confidence."
About 10 minutes later, Suekiana Choucair's sublime corner kick was headed in by Samantha Gouveia. Jamie Erickson buried another Choucair corner for an unlikely 3-0 MacEwan lead at the half.
"Ter Leede had a little bit more of the possession and was dictating the tempo," explained Cordeiro. "We somehow found ourselves ahead 3-0 at the half just by being very efficient and executing on our opportunities, which was great to see.
"Typically in season for us, we needed a lot of opportunities to get one. We were basically 3-for-3 in the first half, which was brilliant. Our execution was spot on."
The Dutch side scored twice in the second half, but the Griffins hung on for the win.
MacEwan's second match of the tour came a day later and a few hours after a busy morning sightseeing in Amsterdam.
"It was another one with some tired legs," said Cordeiro. "I think we walked about 6 or 8 km earlier in the day."
That affected the Griffins late in the match. They were tied 0-0 at the half, but conceded four goals in the final 30 minutes – also scoring one of their own on a great McCarthy pass to Meghan Oram – and fell 4-1.
"The nice thing was, we got all of our players into the matches," said Cordeiro. "In this ADO game, we had 22 players get involved, three keepers. So, it was a lot of changes and sometimes it disrupts the flow a little bit, but obviously going on a trip like this we want everybody to have that experience playing against these professional sides.
"It gives us as a staff a great indication where some of these players have grown since the fall season came to an end and where they are currently in the winter season."
Emily Burns, Sophie Robertson and Bianca Castillo were the Griffins' players of the game, respectively for the three matches, which was part of an unforgettable experience for the Griffins.
"The three games were absolutely first class and it was an experience of a lifetime for our group," said Cordeiro. "We're going on these trips on a yearly basis and they just continue to get better and better. We're looking forward to next year already."
