⁍ The Canada women’s national team confirmed Bev Priestman as head coach on Wednesday.

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⁍ Priestman spent the past two years as an assistant to Phil Neville with the England women’s squad.

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⁍ The 34-year-old becomes the first woman to lead the Canadian team since Carolina Morace (2009-11

– Canada has named Bev Priestman as its new head coach for the women’s national team, making her the first woman to lead the team since 2011. The 34-year-old Briton, who worked as an assistant coach for the England women’s team for the past two years, replaces Kenneth Heiner-Moller, who announced in June he was returning home to work with the Danish soccer association, Reuters reports. Priestman, who has worked as an assistant coach for Canada’s national team for five years, says she wants the players to be brave on the pitch. “On the pitch I would ask the players to be brave,” she says. “If we give the ball away 10 times and going forward the 11th do something really brave with or without the ball. I just think you will see this group of women, as you have in the past, when they have been successful, they will put everything they have on the pitch. I think that is all I have ever asked of the group that put on the Canadian shirt is to do that, be brave when you do that and trust in yourself.” Canada, which has won bronze at the last two Olympics, will compete at the next Games in Tokyo in July.