Canada, OL Reign's Jordyn Huitema breaks down three recent plays (2024)

In thisMy Game In My Words series,The Athleticbuilds towards theWomen’s World Cupby talking to leading players around the world to find out how they think about football, why they play the way they do and to reflect — through looking back at their key career moments — on their achievements so far.

Jordyn Huitema has just come from training; so fresh off the field that her OL Reign teammates and head coach Laura Harvey walk by with a greeting for her as the interview rolls on.

Having her speak on her game right after putting work into it seems appropriate.

“I hold myself to being able to do and be more than one thing.” she says. “Whether that’s being very dynamic behind or off the front, I think I try to be a well-rounded player overall.”

Huitema wanted to be a striker when she first started playing; she enjoyed being closer to goal and in position to either help with the build-up to a goal or score goals herself. But at 5-foot-11, she could easily have been in the most opposite position possible.

“Honestly I’d be such a good goalkeeper, I’d be so good at it.” she states when I bring up her potential in a different position. “I’ve made a fighting argument that I’d be the backup backup backup for the national team and they’ve made me the backup backup. Like I have my job for that, I’ve been recruited.”

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At only 22 years old, Huitema already has four and half seasons of professional football under her belt, and it all began when Paris Saint-Germain saw her play by accident when she was 16 years old with Canada at the 2017 Algarve Cup.

“One of my teammates, Ashley Lawrence, played for PSG at the time so the GM of PSG was coming out to watch her,” she recalls. “During one of the games he showed up to, I just happened to get a lot of minutes and played well…It was really just luck of timing and being in the right place at the right time.”

A move to France and to Paris was a big decision for someone at her age, especially as it would take her away from her family and friends for such an extended period of time.

“For me, at that time, I was trying to figure out if I wanted to go to university or not.” Huitema says. “I just wanted to make sure I was making the right decision for me and I had conversations with players in the NWSL at the time, and with my family, just tons of conversations for sure because it was not a simple decision.”

Ultimately, she decided to head over to France and in May 2019, signed her first professional contract. The adjustment wasn’t easy, particularly when she realized how lacking she was compared to her teammates in certain aspects of her game, especially her vision.

“I was definitely behind,” Huitema says. “I think technically (my PSG teammates are) so good. They’re able to escape pressure and play so quickly because their touches are so perfect. They’re able to also get out of spaces really well, evading pressure because of that, because of their technique so that was something that was really pushed, especially at the beginning when I was learning everything.”

The training in France helped her elevate her overall game, including fairly straightforward technique drills which she admits with a laugh that she was easily the worst one at.

“Expanding on that was really hard for me,” she explains. “After years of training with them though, I got that whole aspect of my game….I wouldn’t say down pat but it definitely improved from where I started from which was really nice.”

Huitema says she knew that getting better technically would help should she decide to return to North America to continue her professional career – and it has, as she transferred to NWSL side OL Reign last year. The Seattle side, led by Laura Harvey and featuring stalwarts such as Jess Fishlock, Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Barnes, was a huge draw for Huitema when she decided to leave PSG.

“For me it just felt like a perfect fit. I don’t think there were many places that I would’ve even made the journey for and many teams I would’ve come for,” she explains. “I think that the players seemed amazing, the staff were amazing.”

The proximity of the team and Seattle to her friends and family across the border definitely made the decision easier for her,too.

“It was definitely nice to be able to come back close to home and have the connections again with my friends and family,” she says. “And I just really love the west coast, the weather, the general feeling of being here [in Seattle] just feels very homey.”

OL Reign also gave her the opportunity to play more regularly as a starter, in a system she felt suited her strengths.

“As a team, we really want to play football, play on the ground, work from back to front, keep possession of the ball, and then pick our moments in transition,” she says. “We’re not a very direct team which was really nice coming from European football because it’s not direct at all.”

In her second season stateside, Huitema has noted how her game has developed.

“My speed of play has increased. You have no choice in this league but to pick up your speed of play,” she notes with a smile. “Everything’s so fast, people are moving so quickly, the ground people cover at high speeds and defending for their lives.”

With that, we move on to looking at what Jordyn Huitema excels at, scoring goals and helping her teammates do the same.

Goal vs. Angel City FC, April 19, 2023

This goal not only exemplifies Huitema’s understanding of the game but how quickly she converts that understanding of the game in front of her to help her time.

The clip sees OL Reign press the Angel City backline, hoping to win the ball high up the pitch. Huitema wasn’t always as front-footed as this clip shows but at some point, the switch went off in her head and she realized she could find a lot of success playing that way.

“When I was younger I definitely enjoyed putting pressure on.” she says. “I did go through a phase where I wasn’t as front-footed as I am now but I think that since coming to this club, I’ve really put emphasis on that for myself to just be that forward that’s in your face, offensively and defensively, and just be a menace to deal with on both sides of the game. I pushed my fitness a lot to be able to do that too. To be able to handle pressing that long, that front-footed and that hard, that intense and still be able to make runs offensively and score goals for the team. It was also a fitness journey in order to be able to maintain both.”

As we slow things down to examine what is going on in this sequence, Huitema notes that for every game, OL Reign likes to come in with a strategy of how they will press and the style of press that they will use on their opponents.

“I think the instincts as well are just built into the players naturally over time,” she says. “We all have our own instincts. Wven in this clip, Veronica Latsko is about to fly out to the center back and…is it exactly planned? I can’t say yes or no but the pass called for her to do that. That was an action that triggered her to do that. This all started because she did add pressure to that center back and forced her to create a bad ball.

“We come in with a strategy but at the end of the day, it’s what you see and how you’re feeling that triggers the pressing. Once one of us goes, we all get on our front foot. And you’ll see later in the clip I use my arms to say ‘let’s go, let’s go’. Olivia Athens also does a great job to force (Angel City defender Sarah Gorden) back and keep her back from the ball.”

Huitema didn’t start this game, instead coming on in the second half and breaking the deadlock because of what she had observed from the bench.

“I had kinda seen in the first half that the goalkeeper was a little bit slower to move the ball from her feet. So I knew that once it went back to her feet that I was going to press no matter what to see if I can nick it or get something on it.” she explains. “When I was running forward, I was just saying ‘let’s go, let’s go’ and that’s a big thing for us; as soon as a teammate goes, even if it’s the wrong decision or the right decision, we all go together as a team.”

The team’s press and Huitema’s insistence on using what she had seen for the bench paid off as OL Reign would score the opening goal of the game and go on to win it.

“I got lucky,” she says with a smile.

Goal vs. Orlando Pride, Oct. 2, 2022

When the clip starts, Huitema is making a run wide left but then changes as the ball is brought forward. She had seen something in how Orlando was lined up in transition and decided to make the most of it.

“I knew that Quinn enjoys traveling on the ball and I wanted to give them their space, so originally my run wasn’t a movement to receive the ball,” she explains. “I was just trying to hold my own space and keep the central space open which is where I really wanted to end up.”

Huietma continues on as the clip keeps playing.

“So here I’m kinda just drifting on the shoulder of that left center back to not allow to her to see me and the ball (at the same time). Then when I feel like we’re in a good position, and Quinn has got close enough to me, that’s when I dip between (the center backs). That was always the run that I wanted to make from the beginning. I just needed to hold my space and leave (the central space) open for myself to penetrate later.”

With the defenders’ backs turned, Huitema knew there was a chance to sneak through on goal. “As a forward you always try to stay on blind sides, you always try to stay on back shoulders so right there, neither one of them can see me unless they really turn their head and now it’s very difficult for them to communicate that I’m coming between them.”

“For the ball-side center back, it’s very tough for her to even adjust to me coming across so yeah, this was just holding my space, knowing exactly where I wanted to go and then having the timing with Quinny to make the movement.”

OL Reign would come out as 3-0 victors and win the NWSL Shield due to this result, cementing a home game for the NWSL playoffs as well.

It can take time to develop connections on a new team, but in this case, with Quinn also playing with Huitema on the national team, the understanding was already there for them to capitalize on the opportunity.

“I don’t know if there’s a timeframe on (developing chemistry with new teammates),” Huitema says. “For me, even in the beginning I felt like I was connecting with them. There’s little pieces of your game that they need time to adjust to and see, and it’s harder for midfielders because they don’t always see those movements all the time with a new striker, but it didn’t take too long with them.”

Assist vs. Trinidad & Tobago, July 5, 2022

In the next clip, we look at a connection that Huitema has with another Canadian teammate, Julia Grosso. The two have been playing together for Canada from the youth teams up until now where they feature regularly together for the senior national team. The understanding they’ve developed throughout those years is evident in this clip.

“I think (Grosso) knowing my tendencies and my abilities helps her movement here because she knows that I can see her and I can get her the ball.” Huitema says. “So instead of coming in to a normal vision area, she knows that I’ve already seen her and I’m just drawing (players away) to open up the space to give it to her.”

Huitema didn’t need a call from Grosso in this sequence because she had checked her back shoulder, something she says she always does, to see who was around her and who was joining in late. It was then an easy call for her to create the movement and the pass that allows Grosso to score from inside the penalty area with no one else around her.

Those connections with players like Quinn and Grosso will be huge for Canada at the upcoming World Cup, where managers don’t have as much time to instill patterns of play.

“The push is happening now within the club environment,” Huitema explains. “So we’ve definitely had conversations where they’ve explained what they want to see from me based on what I’ve done with my club team.”

In Canada’s current setup, Huitema either plays alongside Christine Sinclair up top, or Sinclair drops behind Huitema and plays off of her. Either positioning works for Huitema who has confidence in her ability to play either role.

“I’m quite good at adapting for whatever the game strategy is and I think that it depends on who we’re playing, what formation we’re playing. It just changes things. Whether it’s two up top or one, you just have to be able to do both,” she says.

The aim for Canada is to follow up their Olympic gold medal from Tokyo 2020 with a World Cup trophy; the biggest prize there is in this sport. Huitema is well aware of what she wants to achieve personally at this World Cup but her foremost goal is to win it with her team.

“I want to make the biggest impact I can for the team on the field and be the player I want to be on the world stage. To make a name for myself,” she says. “Pretty soccer is pretty soccer but we want to win so that is what I want to achieve. I want to feel that I did everything in my power to make us win.”

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(Top photo: Erin Chang/ISI Photos/Getty Images)