KEY TAKEAWAYS: Defenders shine at both ends as Jessie Fleming returns to her best in CanWNT's win vs. Colombia

 

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As it turns out, a new year was exactly what the doctor ordered for the CanWNT, who have finally returned to winning ways. 

After ending 2025 on a five-game losing streak, this Canadian team quickly put that all behind them in their first game of 2026, as they cruised to a 4-1 victory over Colombia in their opening game of the SheBelieves Cup in Nashville on Sunday. 

More importantly, they got there thanks to one of their best and most complete performances under head coach Casey Stoney, too, as they were excellent on both sides of the ball en route to victory against Colombia. 

Having struggled to find their identity during their losing streak last year, they looked a lot more like the team Stoney has long talked about one day becoming down the road, doing well to remain organized, disciplined, but aggressive defensively, while also striking a balance between being patient and front-footed offensively. 

Now, they’ll need to build off this in a big way, as a matchup with their rivals, the United States, awaits in Columbus on Wednesday, but they’ll head into that match a lot more confident now that they’ve put their losing streak behind them. 

Before looking too far ahead, here are three KEY takeaways from this match.

Canada’s back four gets it done at both ends of the pitch:

For a team that entered this match on a run of five games without a goal, it’s fitting that it’d be a pair of defenders who would help them put an end to that scoreless streak in pretty emphatic fashion against Colombia. 

31 minutes into the match, right back Janine Sonis stepped up to take a corner, and she ended up whipping in the perfect ball towards the near post, one that centre back Vanessa Gilles managed to reach first, nodding it home to give her team the lead. 

GOAL 🇨🇦

VANESSA GILLES HEADER OFF A CORNER ALERT 🚨

The CanWNT 🇨🇦 go up 1-0 over Colombia 🇨🇴 from this signature goal routine – and that's more like it! 😎

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 1, 2026

All of a sudden, that goal seemed to lift Canada, who had started the game well, but hadn’t quite grabbed control of proceedings despite that. Once that goal went in, though, they seemed to unlock another level, and that allowed them to cruise from there, especially once they found a second goal, which also came at the feet of Sonis, who this time stepped up to curl in an excellent free kick from distance. 

GOAL 🇨🇦🇨🇦

It's JANINE SONIS with the PERFECT free-kick strike! 🎯

CanWNT go up 2-0 on Colombia 🇨🇴 at the 2026 SheBelieves Cup! 🏆

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Yet, those were just a few of many positive contributions made by Canada’s starting back four, which consisted of Sonis at right back, Gilles alongside Jade Rose at centre back, and Gabrielle Carle at left back. Sonis ended up stealing the show, as she put in a player of the match performance with her goal and assist, along with one tackle, one interception, two clearances, one block and three recoveries, but the rest put in big shifts, as well.

Here's Sonis's heatmap from this game, showing what sort of ground she covered at right back in possession, bringing an extra layer to Canada's attack (SofaScore)

For example, along with her goal (which is her ninth for Canada, and sixth since the start of 2024), Gilles won six out of seven of her duels, made three clearances, one tackle, one block and recovered three balls, as she was back to her usual best defensively. 

Here are all of Gilles' defensive actions from this game (with tackles in orange, clearances in teal, blocks in red and recoveries in green), showing the work she put in to protect her box (SofaScore). 

Then, alongside her, Jade Rose had a solid but unassuming performance, one that was only spoiled by her giving away a penalty, as she had four recoveries, and made several big tackles and blocks that kept her team in a good position when the game was only 1-0 and 2-0. 

Lastly, at left back, while Carle had a pretty quiet performance by her standards, especially on the ball, she still managed to win six out of eight duels, also making three tackles, three interceptions, one block and two recoveries in an engaged defensive showing. 

That’s encouraging, because one area of struggle for Canada at the end of last year was at the back, as they ended the year without a clean sheet in nine games, which is quite uncharacteristic for a team known for being solid defensively. 

Unfortunately, with the penalty that Rose conceded, which was converted by Leicy Santos, they’re now up to 10 games without a clean sheet, but they can at least look at this performance and see an improvement on their last few matches, which saw them concede nine goals across their five-game losing streak. 

What that shows, though, is that if anything, the offensive contributions Canada got from their defenders were a bonus, as they’ll be just as pleased with a return to defensive solidity.

Here's the attack momentum from this game, showing that while Colombia scored, they were essentially kept quiet by Canada's defenders for most of the game (SofaScore)

On paper, this is arguably Canada’s best back four right now - an injured Jayde Riviere aside - so it’s encouraging to see them have a good performance together, as this could set the table for them to build some chemistry going forward.

With the uncertainty around Ashley Lawrence’s performances over the last year, and Kadeisha Buchanan’s overall level after returning from a major knee injury, that opened the door for a bit of a shift in personnel at the back going forward, and this was a glimpse of what that might look like. 

Jessie Fleming’s role:  

It’s been a long-standing debate - what’s Jessie Fleming’s best position for Canada? 

For those who have seen her play at her best offensively, the answer is usually to play her as more of a #10, but for those who know what she can do defensively, they’ll suggest that a deeper role suits her better, however. 

That debate has also raged internally within this Canadian team, as reflected in Fleming’s role for Canada, which has seen her play everywhere in midfield over the past few years. 

In this game, though, she slotted in a bit of a deeper position, starting alongside Emma Regan in the double-pivot of Canada’s 4-2-3-1. Something Canada did in their previous two games against Japan at the end of last year, this move ended up being a lot more impactful than it was in those matches, though, and Fleming’s performance from this game shows that. 

Given the freedom to push up and down the pitch, Fleming did a lot of good work on both sides of the ball, especially defensively, and Canada benefited from that quite significantly. Just look at her defensive numbers as an example of that, as she finished with four tackles, six recoveries and seven out of 10 duels won, showing the sort of ground she covered without the ball.

Here's Fleming's defensive actions from this game(with tackles in orange, clearances in teal, blocks in red and recoveries in green), showing how much ground she covered defensively (SofaScore)

At the same time, she was pretty impactful on the ball, too, completing 24 of 27 passes, creating one chance, taking one shot, and completing one dribble, doing well to progress the ball forward whenever possible.

Here's Fleming's pass map from this game, as she did a good job of progressing the ball, even if she wasn't in the final third as much, which is the one trade-off you get with her playing deeper (SofaScore)

Yet, that’s the exact sort of play Fleming can provide, as she has the motor to be so impactful in all areas of the game when deployed in the right role. Now, the challenge for Canada will be to build on this, as it’s not as if the solution to get the most out of Fleming going forward will be to pair her in a system like this and then leave her to be. 

The flipside of Fleming in a role like this is that she can sometimes do too much if not offered the right support, which takes away from the best parts of her game. 

That’s where two players played key roles in helping keep Fleming in the areas you want her in - Regan and Marie-Yasmine Alidou. 

Firstly, Regan did exactly what she needed to do as a defensive midfielder, which is to win the ball (she had two interceptions and three recoveries), and then progress it (she completed 24 out of 26 passes), slotting in perfectly as the deeper-lying midfielder in Canada’s double-pivot. 

Then, Alidou proved to be excellent between the lines as a #10, which gave Fleming and Regan a player to target in possession, and that allowed Alidou to threaten Colombia’s defenders, finishing with four shots and two chances created.

Here's Canada's average positions from their starting XI, showing how much balance they had in midfield, with Fleming (#17) and Regan (#25) right beside each other, and Alidou (#26) offering good support up front (SofaScore)

From there, that opened the door for Fleming to have a bit more freedom to get on the ball centrally, and she made the most of it. 

Now, the goal will be to find a similar balance going forward, but this trio showed that there could be a benefit to letting them grow more chemistry together, as they all seemed to complement each other quite nicely. 

Substitutes step up:

It’s no small detail, but for a Canadian team looking to score more goals, and still without a key leader offensively (although a healthy Olivia Smith seems ready to assume such a mantle when she returns to this Canadian team), it’s important to highlight the contributions they got off the bench in this game. 

Of their six substitutions, three of them found goal contributions, as Nichelle Prince and Sydney Collins both scored goals, while Cloé Lacasse had an assist. 

GOAL 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

CanWNT are now up 3-0 over Colombia 🇨🇴 as Sydney Collins taps home a crossbar hit to tidy things up 🧹

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 1, 2026

That ended up helping Canada see out this game, as they were able to withstand Colombia’s second-half push, one that saw them generate eight shots, with all of them coming inside of the box, after having generated just five first-half shots, with only one of them coming in the box. 

While that also further highlights the work Canada did as a team defensively, as they had to roll up their sleeves and do a lot of tough defending at the end of the game to keep Colombia quiet, that also shows the importance that some of their substitutes had when it came to closing out the game at a time of need. 

GOAL 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

And that's 4-1 for the CanWNT vs. Colombia 🇨🇴 as Nichelle Prince gets on the scoresheet with this first-time finish 😎

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 1, 2026

Because of that, look for Canada to get more contributions like this from depth players going forward. Since her arrival, Stoney has pushed this team to be deeper and more competitive, and it feels like having a better and more prolific bench could be a prime example of an area where she would hope her team benefits from creating better internal competition. 

Strong and deep teams typically get contributions from across their squad, so Canada will hope that they can rely on that sort of depth in 2026 - even if they wouldn’t mind if a few of their players stepped up and led the way with some big numbers, either.