And so at the final hurdle we failed, as is often the case having been lulled into believing the hype of our media we ignored the truth of our own eyes and longed for a great win ignoring the pedigree of our opponents. The World Cup Trophy is “not coming home”, we were never it’s rightful home, we are not Germany , Brazil or have a record such as the the women’s USA team have who have won it many times. The Spaniards, men and women have a football methodology which has won them many plaudits, both national and at club level, their youth team is setting new boundaries in the female division of the sport of soccer both at entry, under 16s and their youth team and whilst we were heroic in our will to overcome the odds we seemed to lack the guile to be totally influential. Our girls played their socks off and at times outplayed, with consummate skill opponents who’s style of play suited our style of attack but against some teams we were simply lucky to win and yet the our media, as always hungry for a success story amid so much political mishandling turned these courageous women into a talisman to see us through. There were matches when the English teams tenacious play made us proud and wish our men could show such spirit but against other teams we were made to look predestination.
The energy of the Russo, Hemp, Daly, and Walsh. The dogged determination of Bronze, Greenwood and Carter and the unflappable captaincy of Milly Bright, roared on in the rear by that bulldog in goal Mary Earps shouting instructions to her defensive team, was a joy to watch, not withstanding the rush of blood which caused the sending off of the young attacking star Laura James and seemed to be compensated for by the team who were always very strong on resolve.
Now the show has moved on and the circus packed away its tent until 2027 when once again the cliches will be trundled out and the nation souped up into believing in itself once again. The legacy of young girls turning up to play football hopefully lives on and can only be for the good. In recent years school level girls are accused of not feeling cool playing sport and if you don’t start at school it’s unlikely you will later.
Sport is essential to the well being of a nation on many levels. It’s cardiovascular effect and the adrenaline it produces in the spectator is the fillip they need to cope with the mundane lives we lead and to some extent girls have largely been left out of high profile sport, their apparent lack of strength means they can’t hit a golf ball as far or tackle as ferociously in rugby but why can’t they play snooker or feature in darts say. Is it a lack of interest and will the exposure world wide of the females playing football ignite women to recognise the importance of sport in their own psychological make up.
So we came away the losers but as Kipling reminds us, “there has to be winners and losers (triumph and disaster) but we must "treat those two imposters the just same and then you will be a man my son" or in this case, woman and daughter.
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