TO A GREATER GOAL.
The official slogan for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup was omnipresent at the Opening Match in Edmonton on Saturday. It’s a great slogan, I love it.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup is more than just a soccer tournament. It will hopefully have a profound impact on women’s sports around the globe. It is a celebration of how far women’s soccer has come in this country and internationally, as the 2015 event represents an expanded field of twenty-four teams. In less than twenty years the tournament has doubled in size to keep pace with the global growth of the women’s game.
Ironically the slogan has an even greater meaning given the unfortunate timing of the FIFA corruption allegations. But even in darkness there is light, as the amazing opening round crowds in Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Vancouver have demonstrated.
For the 53,000 Canadian fans filling grand Commonwealth Stadium on a picture perfect prairie Saturday, the slogan probably meant even more than the tournament organizers intended. In the stadium, the slogan was more than a piece of signage, it was the preoccupation of all of us. For the opening match just wasn’t about our Canadian women taking on China. It was the kickoff to the summit of a very long journey. A journey that last witnessed, had featured the triumph of an amazing Olympic bronze medal, a first in so many decades for a Canadian summer Olympic team in any sport. Yet a moment so emotionally charged, if only we hadn’t been seemingly robbed of a gold medal opportunity, by a devastating officiating call.
So Saturday marked the first step of pent-up redemption. Canada’s own coach had suggested that nothing less than making the Final was acceptable. Oh what a tall order. Oh what a lofty goal. But wait. First there is the task at hand of winning a single round robin game. Something we did not accomplish at the 20111 Cup.
I was very fortunate to be in attendance.
With the cooperation of Soccer Canada, we had staged the 2015 Canadian Sponsorship Forum in Edmonton, and purchased tickets for all 250 delegates to attend the match. The match was the closing component of three days of workshops, keynotes, research presentations, networking, information sharing, and inspiration. Speakers from the WTA, Mondelez, IMI, FC Barcelona, VISA, X Prize, Canadian Tire, Lagarde, UNICEF and many more, satiated our delegates quest for knowledge. A street soccer tournament with TSN and a Canadian celebration hosted by Canada Place created new business relationships and new friendships for life. Unique sessions, such as Stacey Allaster’s Building the Road to success: The Power of Women in Sport, struck a deeply personal chord with all of those who leaned in. So the stage was set for a dramatic finish to a dramatic conference.
Unfortunately Team China had not received the “memo.”
Didn’t they know the role of the host’s opening opponent is to cooperate? Couldn’t they read the world ranking that said we are #8 and they are # 16? How come they decided to outrun us in the hot Alberta sun? Press the play in our end? Hit a free kick off not one, but both posts?
At halftime they had the crowd concerned. By the 75th minute the tension was palatable. As game time crept through the eighties, sheer panic had silenced us.
Majestically Captain Canada, Christine Sinclair, scored the great goal to win the game 1-0. Majestic. In the 90th minute. One great goal. Canada seems destined for a greater goal.
No Team Canada fan, player, coach, administrator, booster could leave that stadium uninspired. Yes it was just one game, one goal. But I will remember it for a long, long time. It was a goal that rewarded the perseverance of a true superstar. It’s a lesson for us on the pitch and off the pitch.
If Soccer Canada doesn’t mind, I would like to borrow their beautiful slogan. I would like to use it to help motivate me and my team, because it elevates what we do everyday. We don’t just create marketing properties. We are doing something of a higher order. Something greater.
I hope Business Leaders in Canada pay close attention to the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Not just to Team Canada, but to all of the teams and athletes. If you watched the Swiss play on Monday night, not only would Ramona Bachmann wow you, but her entire team left me in awe at their relentlessness in a close defeat to the powerhouse Japanese team. It was their first ever appearance for them in the Cup and they deserved a better outcome. But still they achieved so much. I am sure today they are moving on and pursuing their next goal, motivated by the knowledge of how they have already inspired their country and recruited new fans, such as me.
Sport inspires people. I believe Businesses can as well. Much like Sport, Business has a mandate to do more than win. It can’t be all about profit. Like Sport, Business can create an impact. Business needs to have greater goals.
Go Canada Go.