After Canada’s women soccer coach, John Herdeman expressed his dissatisfaction with the team’s slacking reputation. The Canadian women team seems to have bounced back against all odds and public criticisms.

Herdeman had said in an interview: “Let’s stop pretending we’re the old Canada that wins the odd game.”

With little expectation set for the team by fans, the coach said he was tired of showing up at tournaments and matches as the underdog, Herdeman wanted a new label. It should come as no surprise then that the women’s team was voted as postmedia’s 2016 team of the year.

No doubt, not a lot was expected from the team at the just concluded Olympic Games in Rio where the team had performed beautifully and won the bronze medal. Ironically, other Canadian teams like the Calgary stampeders, Toronto FC and the Toronto Blue Jays had garnered a lot of attention and expectations from fans and the general public, but unfortunately none of them won a cup or even qualified for the World Series tournament.

The women’s team had been written off about two months before the Olympic Games were they had lost at the BMO field in a sad 2-0 game to Brazil. Reflecting back on the attention their defeat had gathered, Herdeman said:

“It’s almost at times like this, the country will tune in when it’s relevant, it was never as bad as it looked. It was just a 2-nil defeat which you take sometimes. Over the four years period the team had been progressing, adding new players, and new strengths.

“I don’t think we were ever worried. From my perspective it was frustrating because in Toronto, we didn’t deliver.”

What was even more surprising was that the team had won the bronze medal at the last Olympics in London four years ago yet there was little hope as to what the team could do. However all that changed when the team made its way up out of the group stages in the semi final where they lost to France and stunned he host country to emerge with the bronze medal.