It’s hard to pinpoint the starts of dreams, or why they come when they come, but Diana Matheson’s vision for a professional women’s soccer league in Canada first shimmered through the tears of defeat.
At the 2012 Olympics in London, Matheson and her devastated teammates watched the Americans celebrate an improbable 4-3 semifinal victory after extra time. The Canadians had been ahead, 3-2, after a hat trick from captain Christine Sinclair. A dubious Abby Wambach penalty and Alex Morgan’s stunning winner felt, to the women on the field at least, like the end of something beautiful.
Instead, it was the beginning. The Canadians rallied to claim bronze over France two days later, thanks to a late goal from Matheson, and through happier tears, women’s soccer came into our collective field of view. The quality of that improbable run — its intensity, its controversy, its passion, its charm — made the unequivocal case that women’s soccer was worthy of more than our occasional attention.
It demanded following.
By the end of the year, the National Women’s Soccer League had been founded in the U.S., and Matheson, who began her professional career in Norway, joined the Washington Spirit, a little closer to home. Over the next eight seasons, which included a stretch in Utah and injury-marred visits to Seattle and Kansas City, Matheson found herself staring into stadium lights, hearing the noise of steadily growing crowds, dreaming some more.
Those dreams will become an overdue reality on April 16, when the Vancouver Rise host the Calgary Wild at BC Place, kicking off the inaugural season of the Northern Super League, Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league.
“I’m a big believer in knowing what the end in mind is,” Matheson said in a recent interview, a few frantic days before the NSL’s opening night. John Herdman, her former coach for the national team, had taught her the value of a specific imagination: What does it feel like? What does it sound like? What does it look like to other people?
