A team is a collective, and can have a collective intent.  
Have you never participated in team sports?  :-)  
  
I am surprised to see that you are in Canada.  
In the USA a team is usually grammatically singular:  
Chicago beats Houston.  But in the UK  
it is more often plural: Manchester win again.  
I would have thought that Canada would follow the UK in this.  
Either way, "team" is grammatically a "collective noun."  
  
(My examples are dubious but I stand by my point.)  
  
In any event the last thing I would call a football team  
is an abstraction.  
  
Martin C. Tangora