Vancouver defender Shannon Woeller savours second chance with national team

Canadian defender Shannon Woeller has played her club soccer in Norway, Iceland and Germany. But Canada coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller says Woeller’s roots always shine through.

Call it the hockey mentality.

“She always comes to camp with some bruises. Like she has knocks on her eye or she has a finger that’s broken,” said Heiner-Moller. “That’s her defending. She is a body-on-the-line kind of defender.”

The 28-year-old from Vancouver has shown her grit and determination in other ways.

Woeller made her debut for Canada in 2009 at age 19 and went in to win 16 caps. But in 2012 the call-ups eventually dried up. Then-coach John Herdman encouraged her to go overseas and “let her career tell the story.”

Five years of plying her trade abroad and Woeller was summoned again. It helped that the Canadian team was staying in Jena, where Woeller was playing her club soccer, to prepare for a friendly against Germany. But Herdman said she had earned her way back into the squad.

“It’s a nice story and it’s great to have Shannon back,” he said at the time.

With Canada for Sunday’s friendly against Olympic champion Germany at Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field, Woeller joins Kadeisha Buchanan, Shelina Zadorsky and the versatile Rebecca Quinn in giving Heiner-Moller a choice of talent at centre back. It hasn’t always been that way in recent years.

Woeller, who is on 19 caps now, appreciates every game with Canada given the hard work it took to get back in the fold.

“It was very very special,” she said of returning to the national team. “In those years in between I definitely wondered whether that would ever happen again. And so it was pretty amazing to pull the shirt on again. I think I just have so much more appreciation for this opportunity and these experiences that it’s been really cool. I just enjoy every second of it.”

She has also appreciated the journey that has brought her here.

“I have had quite an adventure,” she said. “It’s been pretty cool. Every country you learn something different, see something new. There’s definitely a lot of challenges with it but I think the experience that you gain by playing in these different environments is pretty invaluable.”

Norway, as her first destination overseas, was beautiful but came with some growing pains in learning the ways of her new team. She loved Iceland, saying the landscape was gorgeous, the people fun and the soccer culture enjoyable.

The Icelandic language proved to be a tough nut, however. “It sounds a little bit like alien to me,” she said with a chuckle.

She enjoyed her time with FF USV Jena, where she got to develop her game in arguably the best women’s league in the world considering the talent in teams from top to bottom.

Woeller’s tenacious defending explains the bumps and bruises. But she is more than that, according to Heiner-Moller.

“She can set our game up, she’s very good at that,” he said of her ball-handling skills.

Woeller had plenty to do this season at Jena, which was relegated after a 2-16-4 campaign that saw it outscored 56-12.

Canadian forwards Amelia Pietrangelo and Tiffany Cameron also played for Jena.

“That part was quite fun,” Woeller said of the Canadian contingent.

Because of relegation, Woeller is looking for another team. Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod, a Jena teammate and one of two ‘keepers summoned for the Germany game, has already found one in Germany’s SC Sand.

Woeller, who played for the Vancouver Whitecaps in the W-League and Rutgers in the NCAA, hopes to find another German first division side. Down the road, she believes she may come back to North America to play in the NWSL.

Woeller’s pre-game routine since the age of 13 has included listening to the same three songs. While her mental preparation has evolved over the years, the songs have never changed.

Woeller is not divulging them, however.

———

Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter