THE BREAKDOWN: Diving into how Casey Stoney has laid the blueprint for a new-look CanWNT
The Casey Stoney era is well and truly underway for the Canadian Women’s National Team.
Now, after a pair of friendlies this month in British Columbia, Canada have played five games under their new head coach, picking up three wins, one draw and one loss.
Across those games, they’ve shown a lot of positive signs, too, offering glimpses of what to expect going forward under Stoney, who was brought in to establish a clear style of play that relies on swift, direct and entertaining attacking play combined with solid defensive work. As is often the case in the early games under a new coach, there have also been growing pains as this team onboards this new system, which is a good reminder that the transition isn’t always seamless.
Yet, that’s far from a bad thing. In fact, for this Canadian team, it’s a positive - one advantage Stoney has with her arrival is the timing of it all, as she’ll have no competitive games to play until 2026.
While that’s less ideal for the players, who will be itching to play in those matches, Stoney won’t mind that, as it’ll give her more time to implement her methods and properly assess the player pool.
Instead of balancing that with a focus on results, she can fully focus on the process, and not get caught up in results.
Therefore, while some might look at a result like Canada’s loss to Argentina in this window, which snapped an undefeated streak spanning back to 2023, a span of 23 games, Stoney can look at that match and be confident that she learned some important lessons from that match.
A game where she used a rotated squad, it was a reminder of the other important thing Stoney has to do with this team - expand the player pool, helping widen the net of players Canada can rely upon.
If this Canadian team is to do well at the 2026 World Cup, they’ll want a deeper player pool at their disposal, helping make the battle for roster spots and minutes more competitive, which hasn’t always been the case in recent years. 
Returning to the pitch, however, it leads to a big question - what have been some of the big tweaks under Stoney?
To begin, there’s the main one - what Canada looks to do on the ball.
There, Canada has tweaked their approach significantly. Now, the team has one big goal - they want to get the ball to the final third in quick and direct fashion, and then they have the license to be creative once they get there.
At the same time, they don’t want to rush their attacks, either - one big reason for their recent loss against Argentina was that they rushed to try and get the ball up the field at the wrong moments, forcing a lot of long balls that they didn’t need to - they completed just 40% of their 43 long ball attempts after completing 56% of their 55 long ball attempts in game #1 against Argentina.
The key to their on-ball success comes down to timing, and execution, which they had in that first game against Argentina. If they win the ball high up the field, or if the opponent is vulnerable, then they can attack that space right away - if not, they have to be comfortable being patient in possession, drawing out the opponent to create that space naturally.
As a result, Canada has slightly tweaked their formation on the ball - now, they build up in a 3-2-5/3-2-2-3, either asking a full back or midfielder to tuck in to help form the back three. 
An example of what the CanWNT looked like in possession from their 1st friendly vs. Argentina
From there, a lot of the possessions will start with the back three, who will swing the ball around in search of an opening higher up the field. In front of them, the midfielders will try and find pockets centrally, while their wide players and striker will stretch the field, leaving the attacking midfielders to drop underneath in search of space (hence the split between a 3-2-5 and 3-2-2-3, which depends on where the attacking midfielders are deployed, which has varied).
In particular, the midfielders are crucial in this build-up, as they get on the ball a lot and are usually the ones who find the other attackers, either spraying it out to the wide players or finding the attacking midfielders with line-splitting passes. 
A great example of what the CanWNT's build-up looks like - they play the ball between their back three, wait for a gap in the middle, and then pounce when it opens up, which leads to a good chance.
Otherwise, another key piece to this build-up are those attacking midfielders, who have the freedom to find space and make things happen. Specifically, Marie-Yasmine Alidou has thrived in this role, featuring in every game under Stoney, starting four of them, looking dangerous every time she’s on the pitch.
GOAL 🇨🇦
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) February 25, 2025
Well that was quick! #CanWNT go up 1-0 over Chinese Taipei as Marie-Yasmine Alidou drives toward goal and finishes with the cheeky toe-poke finish 🎯
🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/RiskuoRElr
Now, for Canada, the next step will be to improve their execution in the final third. Against Argentina, for example, they generated 11 big chances across both games, but scored just three times, as they did a great job of getting the ball into the final third, especially in the first game, where they had seven big chances.
Where they struggled, was on the final ball, where one could tell that they were still working on certain patterns of play. They got into the right areas, and most of the time got the shots to show for it (hence the high number of big chances), but there’s no doubt that they could’ve executed those moments better. 
Another example of Canada patiently building from the back, and this one helps create a goal, coming from a nice low cross into the box.
What stood out, however, was that they’ve been adding cutbacks to their arsenal, which helped them create a few of those chances. They’re still a team that loves to get it wide and whip in a cross, a hallmark of their game before, but they’re trying to vary their approach more - now, they’re attempting to deliver more early crosses, and are otherwise trying to get to the byline and attempting more cutbacks.
This is one Canada will want back - they did a great cutback, but their runs into the box were all wrong. They still created a big chance out of it, but they'll want these sequences to become automatic.
By doing both, those can be good ways to unlock set defences - early crosses are a great way of catching a backline before they’re set, while cutbacks can be a good way of creating space at the penalty spot and edge of the box for late runs into the box.
They find a way to sharpen their execution in those moments, and that’s key, as they’ve done a great job of getting to the right areas in Stoney’s first five games, but haven’t clicked as much as they’ve hoped yet in terms of the finishing, aside from a 7-0 drubbing of Chinese Taipei.
Moving down the pitch, however, Canada has picked up where they left off defensively, as Stoney has done a good job of tapping into what worked well for this team before. At the same time, she’s made some subtle tweaks - more specifically, she’s asking them to defend much more aggressively. 
A sight to get used to - Canada winning the ball back from the press, and then setting up a chance (fittingly via a cutback).
They’ve stuck with the 4-4-2 that they’ve used in recent years, but press higher up the field - they had 26 recoveries in the final third in Stoney’s first game in charge vs. China, following that up with 13 and Mexico and 38 against Chinese Taipei (all per WyScout).
The first part of clip misses it, but Canada does a great job of squeezing Argentina in their build-up, helping create a dangerous attack.
There’s no data on how many they had vs. Argentina, but they continued to press in those games, too, forcing Argentina to go long and direct on several occasions, while catching them out on a few others. 
Here's what the CanWNT's defensive shape looked like in their 1st friendly vs. Argentina
Yet, that’s going to be a key part of their system going forward. Not only will it add another layer to their defensive game, but it’ll also help them with their attack, helping create the transition moments that Canada can thrive in. 
A sign of how Canada wants to press, from their first game under Stoney, as they squeee China's build-up with some great pressure.
Now, the big challenge will be to figure out who fits where in this system. For the most part, most players' roles are clearly defined, but there are some questions still to be answered, especially in the attack.
For example, should Jessie Fleming play in the midfield, or push up and play as an attacking midfielder? Is Adriana Leon’s best fit as a wide player, striker or attacking midfielder? Where will Olivia Smith play given that she can play both out wide and centrally? Who will Canada’s starting striker be?
Then, at the back, the questions are simpler, but they exist regardless - who starts at centre back and full back given the logjam of players at both positions? Who fits best on both sides of the ball? What are the combinations that’ll work?
Those will be just some of the questions that Stoney will now have to answer going forward, however. Now that she’s set her system in place, now she’ll need to find who fits it the best, giving an idea of what her best starting eleven is.
From there, she’ll need to keep competition high, ensuring that those who are on the outside looking in still have a chance to compete for minutes. 
Given that Stoney noted this window that she believes in rotating her squad and using certain players for certain games, there’s also the reality that each player will have a role to play depending on the opponent and style of game, which is a further reason why Canada needs to elevate their depth.
“I’ve definitely got some questions answered,” Stoney said after the first friendly vs. Argentina. “Over the last four games, I've been looking at different players with different skill sets. I’m a big believer in ‘horses for courses’, there are horses for different courses based on the opponents. I know this squad has been quite stable and hard to break into, but I’ll always analyze the opponent and say, ‘Who do we need in this game, who can utilize the spaces that they are going to give us?’ And that might not always be the same players, so I want there to be competition, I want to set players up to be successful.”
Yet, all of that ties into the work that Stoney has done, and will continue to do, as she puts the pieces together.
So far, we’ve gotten a good glimpse of what the future holds for this team - now, it’ll be all about trying to accelerate that process as much as possible in the next couple of years, pushing Canada forward ahead of the 2027 World Cup, which remains their long-term focus.
At the end of the day, Stoney was brought in with that tournament in mind, and she’ll look to continue to push her team forward towards that with every camp, continuing into this summer and beyond.
“I want to try and remove the fear of making mistakes and the fear of giving the ball away because if we want to score more goals, we need to take more risks,” Stoney said earlier this month. “We need to be more creative. I want to see people try and have a go at what we’re trying to do, knowing that we’re going to fail sometimes. We’ve got a whole year now to try and develop a playing style, identity and philosophy that suits the players.”
