Former soccer player Diana Matheson seeing the other side of life in camp with Canada

Former Canadian international Diana Matheson is getting a taste of how the other half lives.

The 40-year-old Matheson, who won 206 caps for Canada from 2003 to 2020, is part of the Canadian coaching staff for Friday's international women's friendly against World Cup champion Spain in Almendralejo, Spain.

"It's been really interesting just to live on the staff side — in the black hoodie, as they say. The dark side, as the players call it," Matheson said Thursday in a virtual availability from Spain.

"Imagine you did a job for 18 years and then you took five years off and you came back and did a slightly different job in that same environment," she added.

It hasn't been all new. Matheson said she joined training briefly on Wednesday. "So I'm also very sore," she said.

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Matheson, no fan of early-morning starts, is adjusting to the hours of a coach.

"You're looking at 12 to 16-hour days. As a player, your job part of the time is to rest and recover. So that's been a transition as well, but I was expecting it."

Matheson, co-founder and chief growth officer of the fledgling Northern Super League, is serving in an interim team support role with Canada, "providing leadership and serving as a resource for both staff and players." The camp staff also includes Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite head coach Katie Collar, as an interim technical assistant, andinterim performance analyst Maryse Bard-Martel.

They join returning assistant coaches Andy Spence, Jen Herst and Neil Wood in the coaching ensemble.

"It really has been kind of a group effort in terms of