It’s only been 34 days. 34 days since England celebrated winning a major international football tournament for the first time since 1966. But this week the Wembley heroes gathered at training once again ahead of their World Cup qualification double header against Austria and Luxembourg.
It’s been another week of celebration for the Lionesses. The joy of seeing familiar faces and rekindling unbreakable bonds that were made during the summer has brought smiles back to the faces of those involved, but it has also been a week that has marked the one-year anniversary of Sarina Wiegman’s reign.
Fair to say it has been quite the year.
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This time last year she was taking the first tentative steps in organising an England squad that possessed talent, but had underperformed under both Phil Neville and interim boss Hege Riise. England waited over a year for her to arrive, but she has been well worth that wait.
Neville couldn’t quite hit the same heights he did after leading the Lionesses to the World Cup semi-final in 2019. Questions were raised on the direction the England team needed to go in, but appointing their first ever foreign manager, and the winner of Euro 2017, would prove to be a major coup.
The story since then has been perfect. 20 matches, 18 wins in normal time, two in extra-time. No defeats. 106 goals scored. Five conceded. One record breaking 20-0 win, three 10-0 wins and most importantly, one European Championship. The women’s game has a huge level of disparity in some of those qualifying matches, but what Wiegman managed to do almost instantly was instil a desire and willingness to keep scoring goals.
We saw it against Latvia and North Macedonia. But we also saw it against Norway in that Euro 2022 drubbing. Beth Mead became a potent goalscorer at international level and was so vital to her manager that she ended up winning the Golden Boot. The reliance on Ellen White was dropped and instead a whole host of attackers were itching to get on the pitch.
What a year it has been... 🙌
Fran Kirby returned to the fold, Lauren Hemp was sensational, Alessia Russo is surely England’s future as a number nine and Chloe Kelly. Well, what more is there to say about Kelly that hasn’t already been written. The Manchester City winger hadn’t scored a goal for England before Wiegman arrived.
This summer she ended up scoring one of the most important goals this country has ever seen. That goal against Germany has already been ingrained into the minds of youngsters up and down the country and she will go down as a pioneer of the women’s game for that goal alone.
England meet up to complete their qualification campaign for next summer’s World Cup, knowing that one win will secure their place in the tournament. With eight wins from eight and no goals conceded so far, it should be a relatively straightforward task, but there is a slight sense of a new era dawning.
Both Ellen White and Jill Scott called it a day after the tournament, two players who have been absolutely crucial to English football over the past decade. But it feels like the right time for both, especially when you consider the huge amount of talent in this squad. It opens up spaces for the likes of Lauren James, who at 20 got her big move to Chelsea last summer and is now looking to kick on for club and country.
Austria away is as tricky as it gets in this group for the Lionesses, but they must ride this wave of positivity all the way to the next World Cup.
