Women's World Cup: Big expectations as England reach last 16
Thursday 18 June 2015 09:48, UK
Sky Sports News HQ reporter Geraint Hughes was in Montreal to see England's women make the knock-out stages of the World Cup with a 2-0 win over Colombia...
Mission accomplished! The England head coach beamed with delight after his side secured their qualification from Group F and on towards the knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup.
He then retracted a little bit from his original ‘mission accomplished’ statement. He was of course thrilled to have qualified, but just reaching the last 16 isn’t really Mark Sampson’s or England’s objective at this tournament.
England won’t fear Canada. The crowd might get a bit loud and shout ‘soccer’ and ‘go Canada!’ a lot, but England won’t be tactically outshone by them
They must go further. This is not me being a doom and gloom merchant or as the SSNHQ crew here in Canada like to call it, ‘bringing over the black clouds’, this is what the Football Association expect.
Absolute bare minimum was to get out of the group, match or do better than their current world ranking – which is sixth.
Dan Ashworth, FA’s Technical Director who is masterminding ‘England’s DNA’, told me this in Moncton before England had played their second game against Mexico.
He wasn’t heaping pressure on the young shoulders of Sampson or even speaking ‘off message’. A huge amount of money has been spent by the FA on this team in Canada, a huge amount of effort to push this squad to its limits and a lot has been said about promoting and furthering the women’s game in England so a return on that investment in time and money is expected.
So rather than expect a raucous evening of celebration in Montreal, expect the medical, fitness and analysis staff to take centre stage now to get the 23 players fit and ready for Norway in Ottawa. Sounds boring, but that’s showbiz! Or just World Cup football with a three-day turnaround between matches.
Sampson had other reasons to be delighted though with his side's progression to Ottawa and a last 16 meeting with Norway. It avoids a ridiculous travel schedule and the subsequent jet lag that came with finishing third in Group F as the team would have to criss-cross from east to west across Canada game by game.
It would have been a nightmare and taken the edge off any satisfaction at qualifying. Sampson told SSNHQ: “The medical staff are happy, with the three-day turnaround they have a lot of work to do so we don’t have to have a long flight. They can work on the players and we can drive to Ottawa.”
Marieanne Spacey, Sampson’s right hand lady and one of England’s most naturally gifted strikers, added: "The work for Norway has already started, but we can do it at the pace we want to now.”
So off to Ottawa it is, and has anyone else noticed that by finishing second in Group F behind France on goal difference, a route to the final in Vancouver early next month is opening up that pits England against sides they can beat?
Norway. Yes they will be tough and they got a draw against the Germans who are seriously good, but Germany battered them during the first half of their draw in the Group stages and it should have been over as a contest by half time, so Norway are very beatable.
Then it’s potentially the hosts Canada in the quarter-finals. Have Canada really been that amazing at any point? They qualified top of their group by scoring just two goals, the lowest ever total needed at a Women’s World Cup to top a group.
England won’t fear them in the slightest, the crowd might get a bit loud and shout ‘soccer’ and ‘go Canada!’ a lot, but England won’t be tactically outshone by them.
However, if England had topped Group F, the last 16 match may have been relatively easy, but it looks like Germany await in that quarter-final.
And we all know about England and Germany at Worlds Cup…Mission accomplished it is not for England. More Phase 1 complete.
