Canada lost to the U.S. on January 29 in the final of the North American portion of qualifying for the London Olympics football tournament in the summer. Both finalists qualified, but the final still meant a last tune-up against a world-class opponent in the United States. The final ended in a 4-0 loss for Canada, as there were some major tactical lapses to take note of.

Tactically, Head Coach John Herdman seems to be a little naïve at times. First of all, he runs a midfield diamond formation (4-1-2-1- 2). Not only has no one used these kind of tactics in years, it really didn't work against the strong U.S. team they faced.

With that formation, you need to have a good offensive core to keep rotating the ball and keep it forward. Forward Christine Sinclair is a super player and she helps keep the ball up, but once the defensive midfielder comes up to support the attack, you get exposed. When you have a player like Sinclair playing in the top part of the diamond, they will always commit forward. This leaves the defensive midfielder as a player who could not only disrupt oncoming threats, but also be a connecting piece to the attack. And this Canadian team tried to play it out of the back way too often in that match. Many times they would lose possession in the midfield.

Once they got a dozen yards in front of the box, they looked like a strong team. Good attacking movement and passing is what this team is known for, but it was in those instances when the Canucks would get burned by the U.S. counterattack. The defenders went up too high too often, which led to at least two of those goals. Not to say it was Canada's intention to play a high line, but the defenders needed to be aware of the speed the Americans had. Defending is all about compensating. It's when you don't give your line a little bit more space to act that fast players burn you.

Perhaps Herdman should be considering a different way to play. If they looked to play some longer passes with some more emphasis on receiving the passes and playing them off to attackers, they might have had more chances to score. While their defenders and defensive midfielder sit back more and mark players out of attacking movement, the other midfielders should have compressed in the midfield, trying to stop the pass and run plays the U.S. were installing. Having three bands of midfielders can work, as long as they come one after another, so to speak. Compressing would have allowed fewer hit and runs by shutting down the next 10 yards or so by using a defensive player.

All in all, with the right systems, Canada can still be one of the favourites heading into London in 2012.