MARSEILLE, France – Andy Spence pushed a lot of the right buttons in his four games as stand-in manager of the Canadian women’s soccer team at the Olympics.

But in this country, we do love second-guessing the skipper for a shootout gone wrong. That last bit is where the dissection of the quarter-final loss to Germany on Saturday must start.

There were some uncontrollable circumstances, of course. Obviously, current captain Jessie Fleming was critical in Tokyo, but she wasn’t available for the penalties because of a knock to the head that kept her out since halftime.