By Samindra Kunti in Sydney
August 20 – In an enthralling final of the Women’s World Cup, Spain were deserved first time winners over European Champions England who ran out of ideas and steam in their bid to find an equaliser as they fell a step short of the ultimate prize in the women’s game.
The Lionesses met a Spanish side that will undoubtedly be the team to beat in the coming years – if they weren’t already.
After winning the Women’s World Cup at U-17 and U-20 level last year, Spain secured a maiden senior title, despite going into the finals with 15 players refusing to play for coach Jorge Vilda, such is the depth of the women’s game in Spain.
The Spanish were a superior side in possession, though England had their moments, in particular through Lauren Hemp. Flourishing in her new role as striker, Hemp rattled the crossbar in the 16th minute, but it would turn out to be a miss to rue. England stood on the brink of history, inches away from taking the lead in the World Cup final in a tournament where the margin between success and failure has often been a case of millimeters.
“Everything we’ve done, how we have grown into the tournament, the challenges we’ve had before the tournament, how we have adapted to situations and we have given everything that we could in this tournament and in this game as well,” said England manager Sarina Wiegman.
“Everyone was very disappointed that we didn’t win the game. We can be very proud of ourselves though it doesn’t feel that way at this moment, that takes a little bit of time.”
Instead, it was Spanish captain Olga Carmona who delivered once more with a suave strike that would prove the match-winner. Her side capitalized on Lucy Bronze’s infield drive that left her woefully out of position allowing the Spanish to attack the space on the left.
Bronze flapped her arms in despair and slumped to the ground as Carmona scored, but Spain were deserving of their lead.
With England trailing to Carmona’s 29th-minute strike, Wiegma introduced both Lauren James, back from suspension, and Chloe Kelly at half-time and the substitutions resulted in a change of shape and greater cohesion as well as more momentum for England.
“We thought we needed to go back to 4-3-3,” said Wiegman. “We wanted to keep Lauren Hemp in the centre with her speed and she was very tight on the ball. Then we have Lauren James and Chloe Kelly in and we had to take out one of the defenders, which was Rachel (Daly).”
In the second half, just as England seemed to get a foothold, Keira Walsh handled the ball in the box. Spain’s all-time goalscorer Jennifer Hermoso’s precision abandoned her and Mary Earps saved the penalty to keep England in the game. The English goalkeeper was superb and with this performance secured the tournament’s Golden Gloves award for best goalkeeper.
The Spanish remained dominant even in the 13 minutes of extra time. All night, their passing, pressing and positioning had been majestic.
“Spain are so good with possession, playing behind the ball, very tight, very technical,” said Wiegman.
“They’re the team with the best possession game [in the tournament], we knew that before the tournament, but they were even better. They had a good tournament and to be really honest, they deserve this. Well if we could’ve got the goal, it’d been different. We were very close.”
The match was also a showcase of how far European football has come, catching up and now overtaking the United States who have dominated the last two World Cups and the FIFA rankings. For the European champions England, it was heartache at the end of a fantastic tournament.
Spain cried tears of joy though it was not without the controversy of Vilda who was iced out of much of the team’s celebrations. Vilda’s was booed twice by the crowd of 75,000 in Sydney, first when the starting lineups and coaches’ names were announced, and later when he received his medal. Spain’s players initially celebrated the win amongst themselves with the coaching staff on the other side of the pitch.
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