England is at a World Cup Final
In the park this week, doused in the August evening sunshine, I saw a little girl wearing an England shirt joyfully playing football with what I assume were her father and grandmother. Who knows whether she will grow up wanting to play football seriously, or at all? But if she does, she will not be short of role models: Laurens James and Hemp, Alessia Russo, Ella Toone, Millie Bright - these are names that will be etched in a history her big sisters (and brothers) will tell her about with big smiles: because tomorrow they will be part of the first senior England team to play in a football World Cup Final since before women were allowed to play football1.
The Lionesses go into the match probably as favourites: England are unbeaten in the tournament, having conceded only three goals in their six games. And they have only lost one game (out of 38) played under Sarina Wiegman, who as a manager has herself only ever lost one game at a major tournament: the last World Cup Final, in 2019, when she managed the Netherlands. Tomorrow’s opponents Spain, also featuring in a Women’s World Cup Final for the first time, have conceded more goals in this tournament than England (indeed, more in just their 4-0 defeat to Japan), though they have scored more goals too.
At their best and most memorable, international tournaments create storylines that have us gripped and intrigued - we get to know (or think we do) something about the players, and watch as they develop and evolve their approach in the weeks they are thrown together. This England team, like their male counterparts, come across as eminently likeable, with a great togetherness among the squad, as they experience a level of fame and achievement that none of them could have dreamt of when they first kicked a football around a park.
It is rare that the winner of a tournament sails through playing great football throughout (though England came closer than many in winning Euro 2022 last year). More often, winning teams are good at defending and at finding ways to score the odd goal or two they need to for victory - particularly in the knockout stages, when the weaker teams have been eliminated, and - given the winner-takes-all stakes - the imperative is not to lose. There is a paradox in football that, even though it is supposed to be an entertainment, the most successful football is not often the most enjoyable to watch, at least until we are able to watch the highlights knowing what happened.
And successful teams often have to overcome setbacks on the path to victory - injuries and poor performances - and learn to adapt; the resilience and mentality needed to get through difficult knock-out matches can be hardened and glazed in earlier adversity. Whoever wins on Sunday, that will be the case for this World Cup: Spain came into the tournament troubled by a row between their players and federation particularly about their manager, Jorge Vilda, and as a result several of their best players refused to play. And no doubt they have learnt much from that defeat to Japan (as, in the opposite way, will England).
Meanwhile, although England started the tournament as one of the favourites (behind the USA, who in the event went out with a whimper), many pundits questioned whether they had the depth and experience to compete: last year’s Euros win ought to have given England that intangible ‘experience’ that is hard for those of us who are not elite sportspeople to understand. But since that glorious Wembley victory last summer, Ellen White and Jill Scott have retired, and three of the starting XI from the final (including captain Leah Williamson) have picked up injuries that have kept them out of this year’s tournament altogether. I remember a few weeks ago watching the start of the first match against Haiti (who were playing in their first Women’s World Cup, and were an unexpectedly tough first opponent), which felt like the slow start of a long novel or an epic film: uncertainty about what would happen or which plot points or telling details would prove significant, but confidence that - once things got going - it would be an unforgettable drama, however it ended.
Wiegman was able to start the same XI for all of England’s six matches at the Euros (the first manager to do that in the history of both the women’s and men’s European Championships), but any hope of doing the same this time was stamped upon by Keira Walsh’s injury in the first half of the second Group match, against Denmark; and the two-game ban that followed the petulant red card that Lauren James - who up to that point looked like she could go on to dominate the tournament - picked up in the knockout game against Nigeria. That dismissal showed James’s frustration and inexperience, and we can hope that - like Beckham against Argentina in 1998 - it makes her stronger and more resilient for what should be a glittering England career, probably eventually as captain. Walsh’s injury was less serious than it first appeared, and she was able to return after missing just one game - as it happened, the most one-sided game England have played in the tournament, the fun though not terribly informative swatting-aside of a disappointing China. Ten-woman England had to rely on penalties to get past Nigeria after James’s dismissal, a backs-to-the-wall experience that can only have helped build the team’s confidence.
Those disruptions meant that Wiegman has had to evolve the team’s structure and tactics as the tournament has progressed. The goalkeeper, Mary Earps (as far as I know the only player with a Leicester connection - she started her career there, though only briefly) is a permanent fixture, but the change to play three in front of her (Alex Greenwood, captain Millie Bright and Jess Carter) allows the attacking wing-backs (Lucy Bronze and Rachel Daly, who won the WSL golden boot last season as a striker - indeed, she appears in the official squad list as a forward) to push forward. Walsh (or for the game she was absent, Katie Zelem) and Georgia Stanway play in midfield, and Ella Toone is the 10 behind a strike partnership of Alessia Russo and Lauren Hemp, who seem to complement each other well; Hemp has more typically played as a wide forward for both club (Manchester City) and country. (Delightfully, that most traditional of English formations, a contrasting pair of strikers up-front, is now a tactical innovation: plus ça change.) All of the front three scored against Australia on Wednesday, and although none of the England goals was as stunning as Sam Kerr’s long-distance strike for the Matildas, it’s quantity not quality that counts.
As always in a tournament, several members of the squad of 23 are unlikely to play, and must have known that from the start. We’re often told that the whole squad is important, and I’m sure that’s true, though it’s hard from the outside to know what it really means. But looking at Wiegman’s calm demeanour, you sense she is naturally good at the people-management skills necessary to keep everyone feeling part of the story, and looking at the way the whole squad have celebrated each win together, whatever she’s doing is working.
I have surprised myself by being able to name and describe England’s evolved XI without looking it up, even though I’ve not been able to watch most of the games (which have mostly been on weekday mornings in the UK). That says something about the intensity and shared drama of a tournament, as niche selection dilemmas become part of the national conversation. The big question for the final is whether Lauren James, her two-match ban completed, will return to the starting XI in place of Toone: I suspect she won’t, because the XI that has played in her absence feels settled, and because James has the potential to make a great impact coming off the bench - as I’m sure she will - running at tired Spanish defences towards the end of the game. But either way, whatever judgement Wiegman makes in the coming hours will probably turn out alright. Indeed, I am quietly confident for tomorrow: this England feels like a team with everything it needs in its armoury to win, one way or another.
But whatever happens, I hope that little girl playing with the football in the sunshine in the park - and the thousands like her across the country - will be inspired by it, or at least by the long memories it will carve in our national story, whether of unforgettable triumph or gut-wrenching disappointment. England’s women have a chapter to finish this weekend, and the pen is hovering in anticipation above the page to write the denouement. Get ready.