Roses FC came out flat on Saturday on their fifth matchup against the Calgary Wild FC of the season. Simple as that. As a matter of fact, in the post-game presser, one of the Calgary players said that she felt they were the team “that wanted it more” and it was evident once Noemie Paquin exited the game because of injury. There was a lack of creativity and energy which led to a loss that left many at Stade Boreale confused as to what they had just witnessed.
This is an issue that has been haunting the Roses FC for some time now as they continue having some questionable performances after some victories. This inconsistency leads to a lack of understanding as to what this team’s identity is. Last week I praised coach Robert Rositoiu and his staff’s ability to find a new tactic that worked better for the team and lead to resounding victories. But my problem with Saturday’s game was the lack of adaptation and flexibility once Paquin left the game in the 25th minute. The team fell flat and we saw past issues come up again. I don’t think this team is built to come from behind. As a matter of fact, they have only managed to come back once when the opponent scored first this season, and it was against Ottawa on May 3. Last week, I praised the performance of the team, but I also expressed concern about their bench because I did not find that there was the same level of intensity once the starters were replaced. On Saturday, we started seeing the result of that lack of depth as the injuries started piling up with the notable absences of Gabrielle Lambert and Lara Schenk. Charlotte Bilbault also started on the bench because she was feeling a bit under the weather which meant another replacement on the field. The team lacked that competitive edge to fend off a hungry and, some would say, desperate Calgary side for a win. They never seemed to be comfortable in their game and instead felt like they were chasing the game the whole time. In my opinion, it was the worse performance by Roses FC this year. Luckily, it comes a week after they clinched the playoffs. The biggest challenge this team will face going forward, as they look to close the season, is to define what kind of team they want to be heading into the playoffs and how they will be able to overcome the inevitable absentees.
It was a beautiful day at Stade Boreale and the crowd showed up for the show with an unfortunate end result, but it doesn’t take away from the great job the club has done of attracting crowds week after week. You can see that the crowds enjoy the music, food, and entertainment in the stands. People talk when they enjoy experiences, and I wouldn’t be surprised if word is spreading fast about what’s going on at Roses FC game.
Let’s break down the game:
Goalkeeping and Defense
Anna Karpenko was back in the starting lineup after Gabriele Lambert felt some discomfort during the week. Karpenko had a very Karpenko game except that this time I can truly say that the goals were not her fault. She was close to saving the first one, but an unlucky bounce gave Calgary a second chance which led to the first score. I did have a problem with the second goal though, (even though I 100% think it should have been called back because of a foul), I felt Karpenko was once again caught too high off her line which allowed for Jorian Baucom to get her first goal in the NSL. There were a lot of moments where she seemed shaky with the ball at her feet. I will say that I saw an improvement with her passing to her defenders under pressure, but her body language shows an incertitude when the ball is turned over and I find her slow to react when there’s a quick turnover. Her change from offense to defense puts the team in vulnerable position to be scored on. Again, this is not all her fault because there was a lot of sloppy play by her defenders, but her position and timing of switching off solely relies on her reading of the game. She’s a young keeper that will learn with time, but when heading into the playoffs I would prefer to see Lambert start because she gives her backline a lot more comfort and she’s very communicative throughout the game. After the game, I asked coach Rositoiu if he had settled on his starting keeper at this point of the season or if he was still testing them out and he responded by saying that Karpenko is his starter, but Lambert also does a great job when she is the starter. Not a very reassuring message.
On defense we had Lucy Cappadona back from her rest and Stephanie Hill to complement the back line. When Paquin was still in the game, Cappadona clearly kept trying to cross the ball to the left side with mild success, but once Paquin was subbed out there was no real option to attack on that side. Both Cappadonna and Hill were forced to try to bring the ball up field and create something but there wasn’t a lot of movement from the forwards or midfield, which was clearly making their choices difficult on Saturday. I thought that Hill struggled tremendously against Calgary and their physicality. She turned over the ball a few times high up the field which gave opportunities to Calgary to go on the breakaway and threaten to score. Cappadona has been my personal MVP of the season for her performances and consistency, but this game felt a bit off by her. Again, not all their fault but it’s still worrisome how much they struggled with the high press and physicality that Calgary played with.
Hailey Whittaker continues being a problem in my opinion. She’s not a bad player but I don’t think she’s a natural fullback. She seems to struggle the moment she needs to switch into defense. I think she’s an extremely interesting profile offensively with her quickness and agility that allows her to do some runs with a lot of potential to create offense. However, the problem is when there’s a turnover (which happened a lot against Calgary), Whittaker isn’t able to switch off and leaves the centerbacks in a vulnerable position to give up goals in transition. When you see this kind of difficulty, it’s up to the coach to maybe change to a back three and have Whittaker play more of a wingback position to alleviate her defensive duties. To me the biggest question for next season becomes: is Hailey Whittaker the right profile for what coach Rositoiu wants to do in 2026? Teams around the NSL seem to have figured out that Roses FC’s right side is vulnerable to the transition and seem to want to exploit it and overload it.
On the other side you had Megane Sauve who also had an off night. Sauve’s recent improved performances had a lot to do with the revelation of Paquin, but it seems that after the injury occurred, we were back to square one. With Claire Monyard on the wing, Sauve had to be more involved in the offense and even made some important runs in the final third, but I found her shots to predictable for the Calgary goalie and with a lack of power which made it for easy saves. You like to see Sauve get in the offensive end, but only if it’s as a second option with Paquin carrying the bulk of the offensive responsibility. Defensively, Sauve did a decent job of shutting down her side, but on the fist goal during the initial shot came from the Calgary player, her defense was very lackluster (watch the replay). It was a rough night for the backline so the blame doesn’t solely fall on her, that would be unfair, but she didn’t necessarily contribute anything impactful.
Midfield
In the middle we had Allie Hess and Chloe Minas with Charlotte Bilbault. Last week and the week before that, we saw a very interesting set up by having one of the three midfielders high up the field at the level of the striker helping out with the press and it seemed to surprised Calgary and Halifax. This time around, Calgary was much better at handling Montreal’s high press which forced them to play lower.
Individually, Minas continues to impress me with her technical ability and the way she finds to get away from tough spots. She’s a quick and agile midfielder that could do very interesting things offensively if she has the space. I find that she has a very interesting vision on offense, and her passing is surprisingly accurate. My only issue is Minas’ defense, last week I shared how concerned I was about her inability to box out bigger midfielders making her nearly ineffective as a defender. Normally this would be okay assuming you complement her with a pure defensive midfielder, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday which made for a lot of breakaways from the middle for Calgary.
Allie Hess had a quiet game with little to no impact. She had a few chances to shoot the ball on goal but preferred to pass it off which brought the threat to an end. Hess is a big physical midfielder that can dominate the middle but I’m not sure I fully understand what her upside or downside is. She seems to do her job and that’s it. I don’t think she’s the kind of playmaking midfielder that will change the game, and that’s okay. Every team needs this kind of player in their team. My only issue is that, on games like last night, Roses FC need playmakers in her position to push the team forward and change the momentum of the game and she wasn’t able to do it. Do the Roses FC have any game changers in midfield?
Charlotte Bilbault came in at the 25th minute for the injured Paquin but was clearly not at the top of her game. She brought the same intensity we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from her, but she spent most of the game chasing Calgary players instead of creating opportunities for the Roses. The coach told us she had been feeling a bit under the weather, so it’s hard to tell how many minutes she had original planned to play on Saturday, but she was forced back on duty quickly and it was a bad game to have her play at less than 100%. Bilbault creates plays and has an elite passing ability from deep but, similar to Minas, she needs space and yesterday, the Calgary Wild were simply suffocating Montreal’s midfield.
Attack
On the right side, Roses FC once again deployed Chaerim Kang. Chaerim, as I mentioned last week, is a very interesting with her speed and engine to run the whole right flank. But as we saw on Saturday, she continues to struggle with the physical teams like Calgary as they pushed her off the ball very frequently or found ways to isolate her. Chaerim has been scoreless since August 23rd where she scored a brace against none other but the Wild. However, on Saturday we could start to see her growing frustrated at the physicality of the game and her inability to stride forward freely. Her body language was very telling as she seems to be pushing a few Wild players after being tackled to the ground. It’s also hard to tell if her teammates understand where she wants the ball placed as most of the passes her way seemed out of reach or not where she was intending to do her run. I think Chaerim could be a very interesting player for Roses FC moving forward next season but there’s a lot of kinks to work out from both the team and her. I’m not saying work isn’t being done by Rositoiu and Co. but if this team wants to have any success going into the playoffs, Chaerim and her teammates will quickly need to get in the same page.
Tanya Boychuk’s performances have faltered in the past few games, and it feels like she might be overthinking her actions in front of the goal. It happens to all strikers at some point during their careers, especially the youngers one. Josef Martinez put it best last year with CF Montreal when he said, “My job is to score goals, and when I don’t I start to worry”, yes, it’s a simple statement but an important one nonetheless. You might say “yeah, but Tanya scored 2 games ago, what’s the big deal?” And you would be right; it might not be a big deal. But in the case of Boychuk it’s how sparingly the scoring has come throughout the season. On Saturday, she had a wide-open shot in front of the net on a corner kick by Paquin and she kicked it way over the goal. For the rest of the game, Boychuk spent most of it trying to connect with those around her to no avail. There was a lack of clarity and cohesion between the team against Calgary, and it fell on Boychuk’s ability to produce results. I still think that she is a very capable striker that can be impactful for this team and in this league, but the disconnect with her wingers and midfield has clearly put her in a tougher position to have to create something out of nothing. I think Boychuk will need to quickly reconnect with her teammates as they make their push into the playoffs. This disconnect can only get you so far.
We only go to see 25 minutes of Noemie Paquin, but during that time she was a threat on the left side keeping the Calgary defenders on their heels. She is clearly Roses FC’s most potent threat which alleviates pressure on Boychuk and Chaerim, but with her gone, the game simply stalled. Claire Monyard took her spot and showed flashes here and there of being able to attack the goal, but she also showed that there’s still some gaps to her game. She’s not your fastest or most creative winger 1 v 1, but she can find the runs being done by her teammates and positions herself well in transition. Her ability to high press and put the Calgary backline under pressure was incredible and gave Roses FC a fighting chance but it’s the other phase of her game that she needs work on. Given Paquin’s impending absence, Monyard will need to quickly add some layers to her game to continue to balance the attack and not put the whole offense on the shoulders of Boychuk and Chaerim.
The subs
None of the subs really impacted the game beyond Bilbault as they only played the final minutes of the game. There was something that stood out to me though. How did Jodi Smith go from being a starting left back for Roses FC to being an after thought and only getting a few minutes here and there? I remember her first performances in the season were decent, not spectacular, but decent enough to merit more chances. Why not give her a shot a right back? Julia Leas is clearly a backup to Stephanie Hill at this point and it’s not necessarily her fault; she’s still a very talented center back. Which makes me wonder, why doesn’t Rositoiu give the back three formation a shot with three very talented defenders?
In conclusion, Roses FC are not a bad team, but they need to find their identity. It seems that after every victory the team feels like they are back and found their true identity, but when they lose or draw, its back to square one. The players seem lost and play as individuals instead of a cohesive team. Saturday was the first time I felt coach Rositoiu being a bit defensive in the press conference, he was clearly unhappy about the result and the refereeing, which, of course, has every right to be. But I have to say, the product on the field on Saturday night was disappointing. Roses FC came out flat and the Calgary Wild wanted the win it more at Stade Boreale. Roses FC needs to pick themselves back up quickly and react because the playoffs are fast approaching and teams are starting to figure them out.
Andy's Impact Zone 
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