by There will be no Team GB team involved in the women’s football competition at the Olympic Games in Paris next summer, meaning women’s football will miss out on a key exposure opportunity – and it is because England, which was named responsible of qualification on behalf of Great Britain – failed to win their Nations League group. This leaves fans wondering: where did it go wrong?
It should not be forgotten that it is extremely difficult to qualify for the Olympic Games as a European women’s team, as only 12 teams will participate next summer compared to 16 men’s teams and therefore only two European teams will join hosts France. Sweden, which finished third in the World Cup behind England and Spain, will also not participate. Only Germany, the Netherlands and world champions Spain remain in contention for the two places, after the Dutch scored twice in injury time to take England to the top of Group A1 of the Nations League by difference. of goals on Tuesday night.
It was a cruel way to miss out by the slightest of margins, but England will still look back and reflect that it was a missed opportunity and that lessons must be learned from their campaign. This was a campaign that did not simply unravel on a night of high drama in Glasgow (by contrast, England were magnificent at Hampden Park), but the damage was done much earlier, in a difficult autumn period.
Individual defensive failures
Firstly, England must look inward and acknowledge that their defense (particularly in their 3-2 away defeat in Belgium) was not up to the standards their fans expected.
Even in their first victory over Scotland and in Friday’s comeback at Wembley over the Dutch (where Jess Carter and Mary Earps were to blame for the goals conceded), but especially in Leuven in October, it was very easy for opponents to get behind of England’s defensive line, which became a constant theme in the first five games of the campaign.
Much of that can be attributed to the absences of the starting defenders due to injuries, but regardless the team must strengthen at the back and return to its solid best in 2024.
Missing great opportunities
At the other end of the field, with the exception of Tuesday’s rout in Glasgow, England’s finishing has also been somewhat worrying, and in a group where a single goal scored would have made the difference, now every opportunity wasted in front of goal It has an additional meaning, as harsh as it may seem.
Arsenal striker Alessia Russo, a star of England’s World Cup run, scoring in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, has scored just one goal this campaign, while Aston Villa’s number nine Rachel Daly did not score a goal in the Nations League. Both will be disappointed with those returns, because of their high standards.
As a team, the Lionesses wasted many chances in the first half of their 1-0 home win over Belgium in Leicester in October and that waste has come back to haunt them now. Even on Tuesday night, despite her good performance, Lauren Hemp’s inexplicable miss from a few yards out, when she hit the post in the first half, also proved costly.
Lack of video assistant referees
Likewise, based on the principle that every goal has counted so significantly in this Nations League group, England can feel aggrieved at having been on the wrong end of some questionable refereeing decisions in multiple games in their campaign, any of which was decisive. overall goal difference.
In England’s first game, Lauren James had a late goal incorrectly disallowed for offside, replays showed, while England felt Daly’s early header, which was also disallowed for offside, should have also been disallowed. valid. To take stock, in the same game, it is fair to say that the Lionesses were also very lucky not to concede a penalty for a flagrant foul on Martha Thomas by Millie Bright. In these women’s international matches the Var is not present.
The controversy intensified in Utrecht, where England suffered a crucial 2-1 defeat against the Netherlands, and replays suggested that the Dutch’s first goal should not have counted, because Danielle van de Donk was offside in the build-up. On Friday at Wembley, there was also an offside issue surrounding the Dutch’s second goal, while their first goal, although defined by weak England defending, technically came from a Dutch play that began with a goal kick. , when a corner should have been awarded. .
In isolation, each of those incidents is simply part of the sport. Officials make mistakes, they are human beings. But it won’t ease the frustration of England or Team GB fans.
Injuries to key players
Speaking of frustration, England were also hampered by injuries to key players, including the prolonged absence of influential captain Leah Williamson and the knee injury to fellow centre-back Bright, which caused her to miss the December matches. Her absences were painfully felt in the first half at Wembley, in particular. And many of the defensive failures seen in the defeat in Belgium in October came only after centre-back Alex Greenwood was taken off with a concussion.
What’s more, Beth Mead’s classy performance at Hampden Park showed just how much England have missed Arsenal’s striker in her 12 months out. Any team in the world would miss a player of Mead’s caliber.
However, England should have had enough strength in depth to do the job.
But there is a positive side…
Fatigue also played a part, especially in the September camp, where England were back together less than a month after the World Cup final, and some players only had six days off afterwards. Having moved pretty quickly from last season’s club campaign to their training camp ahead of the World Cup, this is a team that didn’t have an off-season break this year.
Many of the players lamented that busy schedule when they spoke during September camp, and they seemed mentally and physically exhausted. Sarina Wiegman herself expressed her concern about the schedule and stated that “players are not robots.”
For that reason, perhaps there is a silver lining to not qualifying for Paris. England’s devastated players won’t feel that way now, but it could be a blessing in disguise for them to take a breather next summer and boost their chances of success at Euro 2025, where they will look to defend their European title. .
When asked if there might be some benefit to not qualifying for the Olympics, Wiegman disagreed, saying, “Well, you want to go to all the big tournaments. The career of a footballer is [only] a certain amount of time, so if you can play all the major tournaments, of course all players want that. In a broader perspective, we have to look at the schedule and the players are not robots. And they need some rest too. That’s very obvious. But instead of a tournament? For me that goes too far.”
As understandable as Wiegman’s thought process may be, if England had qualified, some of his players would have faced five consecutive summers of major tournaments: the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the Euro 2022, the World Cup this summer, Paris in 2024 and then 2025. The euros in Switzerland sound the alarm about the risk of injuries.
No England player or staff would have wanted it that way, and they must all strive for better results and stronger defense in their Euro qualifiers, but perhaps a rest is what they need most.
