“As the leader of the team on the field, I want to take accountability.” These were the words that Bev Priestman was forced to swear after the Canada Women’s team was caught in the drone spying scandal during the Olympics. While it directed a sense of responsibility from Priestman’s side, Gabrielle Carle thinks otherwise and claims things ‘kept getting worse.’

The defender broke her silence on the matter in the latest episode of Footy Prime alongside fellow teammate Evelyne Viens. “She was completely front and center. She’s the one that broke the news to us that Joey [Lombardi] was in jail. She told us she was going to take all responsibility. You want candid [view]. In my opinion, she didn’t. She kind of went around and I don’t think that was okay,” said Carle.

The 25-year-old believes the British tactician didn’t keep her word at all. Rather, the players continued to become the subject of scrutiny. “At the end of the day, whatever happened to her happened, but initially, we just thought, ‘Okay, this is being handled. We have our coaches dealing with this. It’s under control.’ Then the very next day, we see the press release and we realize, ‘Oh, accountability is not being taken’ and then it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.”

Notably, Bev Priestman herself stepped down from the coaching position before the opening group-stage match against New Zealand. Later, the Canadian Olympic Committee eventually suspended her from managerial duties with assistant coach Andy Spence leading the Canucks for the remainder of the summer games.

Likewise, technical coach Joey Lombardi was sentenced to 8 months of jail time after being held by Paris officials as the guilty face of the incident. Another assistant coach, Jasmine Mander, received suspension like Bev Priestman from all soccer-related activities. The Canadian ladies were handed a 6-point deduction, furthering their challenge. Yet, Gabrielle Carle believes the entire group took good care of the issue.

Despite Bev Priestman’s drone problem, Canada gave a brilliant response to the spying scandal!

Heavy loss in points did make CanWNT’s knockout stage qualification difficult. It was the ‘worst crisis‘ according to Gabby Carle, even though they have been in weird situations. There was a feeling within the team that “all of a sudden your path just becomes so uncertain.” Yet, the defender feels the group managed to rise for the occasion.

“I think for a few hours, all of us were a bit lost. But I think that’s the power of this team. Once we realized we had a chance to still go through if we won all our games, we kind of regrouped and decided that we were going to do this together,” said Carle, who was called up for the Summer Games as an alternate player in Bev Priestman’s 22-player roster.

She also gave a shoutout to the coaching staff, who remained and felt lucky to have experienced players who know how to navigate testing waters. Surprisingly, CanWNT did clear all the tests, winning all three Group A matches to finish second behind France and ahead of Colombia and New Zealand. But they got knocked out by Germany in the quarter-finals by losing 4-2 in the penalty shootout.

Kudos to all the CanWNT stars, who, despite such obstacles, gave their all in the Olympics. As for Bev Priestman, it’s unclear how would she feel about the latest heartbreaking assertion from her own disciple.