Soccer legend in Pickering

PICKERING -- Soccer royalty was on the field in the City on Monday afternoon.

Carolina Morace, arguably the finest women's soccer player of her generation in the world, was putting a group of mainly teenager female players through their paces at her high-performance soccer camp at Kinsmen Park this week.

According to Pickering Soccer Club head coach Tony La Ferrara, having Morace, who starred for Italy's national women's team for 21 years, starting in 1978 at age 14, for the one-week camp was a major coup for the club.

"Are you kidding?" said La Ferrara, when asked how excited he was to have someone of her stature instructing the club's female players. "It's like having Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan in Pickering. In Europe, she's like that. Am I excited? Of course I am."

For her part, Morace, who's joined by fellow Italian soccer coaches Antonio Belli, a goalkeeper coach, and Elizabeth Bavagnoli for the camp, said she's impressed with the work ethic and attitude of the Canadian players, but says their technical abilities must improve.

"I think the girls should work more on technical concepts and co-ordination. I think their coaches should work on these abilities in soccer," says Morace in a brief interview following her lunch break. "They're not used to doing certain things, but once you show them, they understand quite easily.

"The girls do things (on the soccer pitch) because they have to do it. They don't understand the reasons they have to do this or that."

Morace said she served as the head instructor for a soccer camp in Ontario in March and, because it went well, she decided to return to Ontario for a camp in Woodbridge earlier this summer. She's also spent some time giving instruction in Miami this year.

Morace has been active in all facets of the game in Europe. Born in Venice, she played 153 matches for Italy's national women's squad, scoring 105 goals. Playing in the Italian national women's league, she scored more than 500 goals. She's, perhaps, best known in Italy for being the one and only woman to coach a men's professional team, Viterbese of Italian Serie C1 in 1999. She resigned two seasons later, having won a state championship.

Morace says she's especially proud of being the first player ever to score four goals in a single contest at London's Wembly Stadium.

She continues to serve as a soccer commentator on Italian television.

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