Canada's Sydney Collins, 2, battles Jamaica's Kameron Simmonds for the ball during first half CONCACAF women's championship soccer series match in Toronto on Tuesday Sept. 26, 2023. Defender Collins will not compete for the Canadian women's soccer team at the Paris Olympics after fracturing her left leg during a closed-door match against Nigeria on Wednesday.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

By The Canadian Press

Canada coach Casey Stoney looks for Canadian women to rebound from U.S. loss

Oct 13, 2025 | 9:06 AM

After being seeing her team outclassed by the U.S. in a 3-0 loss last time out, Canada coach Casey Stoney had a message for her players as they reconvene in Europe for friendlies against Switzerland and the Netherlands.

“It was to come in and have no expectations, thinking you’re going to play,” Stoney told a virtual media availability Monday. “It’s about coming in, competing in training, making sure that we’re at the (right) levels mentally, making sure that we are ready to play against top opponents.”

Stoney had called the July 2 loss to the second-ranked Americans “a reality check for everybody.”

“We still want to be hard-working, we still want to be hard to beat but we need to be better with the ball,” Stoney said. “It was very disappointing against America how many unopposed turnovers there were, how many times we gave the ball away and then how susceptible we were in transition because we didn’t have close connections around the ball.”

Canada Soccer can also do a better job in scheduling opponents, to set the team up by playing better opponents before facing teams at the top of the rankings, she added.

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The ninth-ranked Canadian women are 6-2-1 under Stoney, a former England captain.

Stoney has named a 24-player roster to face No. 24 Switzerland on Oct. 24 at the Swissporarena in Lucerne before taking on the 11th-ranked Netherlands on Oct. 28 at Goffertstadion in Nijmegen.

Defender Sydney Collins returns from injury while goalkeeper Emily Burns, midfielder Florianne Jourde and teenage forward Kaylee Hunter get their first senior call-ups.

Collins, who collected the last of her six Canada caps in December 2023 against Australia, has been injury-plagued in recent times.

The versatile defender fractured her ankle in February 2024 in camp with Canada ahead of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup. She returned in time to be called up for the 2024 Olympics but had to withdraw from the squad after breaking her left leg in the buildup to the tournament.

Healthy again, Collins is starting at centre back for the NWSL”s Bay FC.

Burns, who plays for FC Nantes in France, was a nominee for the French league’s top goalkeeper and twice won top honours in the French second tier. The 28-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., previously played for Dijon and Saint-Etienne in France and Calgary’s Foothills FC.

The 20-year-old Jourde, a Canadian youth international from Montreal, signed with Paris Saint-Germain in July after playing collegiate soccer at USC following a stint with for AS Laval.

The 17-year-old Hunter has 14 goals and three assists this season for AFC Toronto of the Northern Super League. The Calgary-born forward has been a scoring sensation at youth level, making her international debut at 15.

Stoney said Hunter was brought into the senior camp after AFC Toronto refused to release her for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, which kicks off Friday in Morocco.

“And I felt it was the right time. We’re a little positionally short in the kind of (No.) 10 role, so it was a great opportunity to bring her in and give her experience for the senior team,” said Stoney.

While clubs have to release players for the full national team during international windows, FIFA does not require them to do so for youth championships.

Star forward Olivia Smith, who moved from England’s Liverpool to Arsenal in July for a then-women’s transfer record of one million pounds ($1.87 million), returns after missing the last international window through injury

Unavailable this time through injury are goalkeeper Lysianne Proulx (Juventus), defenders Kadeisha Buchanan (Chelsea) and Vanessa Gilles (Bayern Munich) and midfielder Simi Awujo (Manchester United).

The news is not good for Buchanan, a veteran centre back who suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury last November with England’s Chelsea.

Asked when Buchanan might be back, Stoney replied: “Not any time soon, unfortunately. She’s had a setback.”

Canada Soccer said midfielder Kayla Briggs (Michigan State) and forward Annabelle Chukwu (Notre Dame) were “unavailable for selection by mutual agreement with their colleges.”

There was no place for Ottawa Rapid forward D.B. Pridham, who leads the Northern Super League with 18 goals, four more than Hunter.

Stoney said while Pridham has performed “very well in the NSL, she has strikers making their mark in more established leagues around the world.

“I still think the NSL is a growing league,” she said. “It’s not a top league, it’s not a top-five league. I would want the forwards doing that in the top-five leagues in the world and I’ve got forwards in this squad that are doing that. It doesn’t mean she’s not in contention. it doesn’t mean she’s not being tracked. She absolutely is.”

“Kaylee Hunter is different because she’s coming in in a (No.) 10 role not in a forward position for us,” she added.

Forward Cloe Lacasse was originally picked for the squad but was not called in after discussions with the Utah Royals, who did not want her making the long trip to Europe having just come back from a long-term injury.

The average age of the Canadian squad is 25.2, ranging from the 17-year-old Hunter to the 33-year-old Adriana Leon.

Canada is unbeaten in five career meetings (4-0-1) with Switzerland and has won the last three matches, most recently in a 1-0 victory in round-of-16 play in Vancouver at the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

Canada has lost just once in 14 games (9-1-4 edge) against the Netherlands. The teams played to a scoreless draw the last time they met in March 2020 at the Tournoi de France in Calais. The Dutch scored their lone win over the Canadian women in group play at the 2019 World Cup in France, prevailing 2-1 in Reims, France.

The Canadians are slated to face No. 8 Japan twice during the November FIFA window.

Canada Roster

Goalkeepers: Sabrina D’Angelo, Aston Villa (England); Kailen Sheridan, San Diego Wave (NWSL); Emily Burns, FC Nantes (France).

Defenders: Ashley Lawrence, Olympique Lyonnais; Shelina Zadorsky, West Ham (England); Jade Rose, Manchester City (England); Sydney Collins, Bay FC (NWSL); Gabrielle Carle, Washington Spirit (NWSL); Jayde Riviere, Manchester United (England); Zara Chavoshi, Orlando Pride (NWSL); Marie Levasseur, Montpellier HSC.

Midfielders: Jessie Fleming, Portland Thorns (NWSL); Marie-Yasmine Alidou, Portland Thorns (NWSL); Julia Grosso, Chicago Red Stars (NWSL); Emma Regan, AFC Toronto (NSL); Florianne Jourde, Paris Saint-Germain (France); Kaylee Hunter, AFC Toronto (NSL).

Forwards: Jordyn Huitema, Seattle Reign (NWSL); Adriana Leon, San Diego Wave (NWSL); Nichelle Prince, Kansas City Current (NWSL); Olivia Smith, Arsenal (England); Janine Sonis, Racing Louisville (NWSL); Evelyne Viens, AS Roma (Italy); Holly Ward, Vancouver Rise (NSL).

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2025.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press