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The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Why Sarina Wiegman is the best manager in the world
And Sarina dancing, two stars on the shirt. Yes, it's a predictable line, but it is said with all the more meaning given how fans sang "Three Lions" after a sensational and utterly unpredictable Euro 2025 victory for England. 'I kept asking myself, 'how can this happen?' Sarina Wiegman herself said, with the immediate payoff: 'But it happened.' 'The most chaotic, ridiculous tournament I have played.' No wonder she was dancing at the end, and then laughing that the image had already been projected to the world before she even arrived at her press conference. The victorious England manager was still, of course, utterly composed. She naturally knew exactly what to say, just like before the game. 'Enjoy it,' was the main message as the players left the dressing room. They can certainly enjoy it now and relish every moment. Wiegman admitted it will be a rare match she watches back for reasons other than tactical analysis. Before the final - and even during it - enjoying it might have seemed a dubious prospect, especially when Spain seek to exhaust and exasperate you with possession for so long. And yet it again brought out something Wiegman and her players very much enjoyed. Digging in. Showing grit. Pride. 'Proper England,' as repeatedly rang out during this tournament, especially at the end. The defining and decisive images of these games - almost as much as Alessia Russo's header or Chloe Kelly 's penalty - were blocks, tackles, players still putting it in when they had so little left to give. Wiegman admitted that was what stood out for her. 'The fight,' she said. 'We said it a couple of times, the players said 'proper England'. Today we also had to defend very well. They were challenging us. But you see how we give everything to defend the goal. I do enjoy that, because that says something about the team and the togetherness and the will to really want to win.' There's more to these words than Wiegman just enjoying that togetherness. She ensures togetherness. Wiegman talks about 'the most chaotic, ridiculous tournament,' and she can speak from more experience than anyone, given that this is her third successive Euros victory. That is a record that shouldn't really be possible, but she's managed it. She only fortifies her claim to be the best coach in the women's game. 'She's bloody amazing,' tournament-winner Chloe Kelly beamed. 'She's an incredible woman, what she's done for this country, we should all be so grateful for. 'What she's done for the women's game, not just in England, in the Netherlands she's done it, she's taken it to a whole other level. The work doesn't go unnoticed from the staff behind her, they're incredible people and I'm so grateful to have worked with such amazing staff members.' As if it needs to be said, Wiegman knows how to win tournaments. Even her sole recent 'failures', in the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, were narrow defeats in finals. Getting that far twice still displayed her aptitude for this, for driving a team through knock-outs. It comes from creating the right team culture. Gareth Southgate got that and got England's men further than anyone else. Wiegman gets it, but has even more. There are, of course, bigger debates to be had about the performances, how the best team only occasionally wins tournaments, and even football identity and tactical ideology. But those are debates for the Football Association and Dan Ashworth. Wiegman can only manage what she is given, and it clearly works in terms of maximising it all for results. It may not always be pretty - England again came back into a game by going direct. It may not even maximise performance given how close England repeatedly came to going out. This was the fifth different rescue act they needed, having survived multiple times more scares. But Wiegman ensures they know how to get there. They squeeze the most out of their talent in a different way than coming together as a collective in a tactical sense like Spain have shown repeatedly. "We have players that have talent, and the togetherness of this team is really incredible, but also the belief that we can come back,' Wiegman said. "The players say we can win by any means, and we just never, ever give up. Today of course, we had moments where we really had to fight, but I thought we also had some very good moments in the game.' In response to a question about the player of the match, Hannah Hampton, whose entire tournament vindicated yet another Wiegman decision, the manager was tactful. Mary Earps and Millie Bright, of course, weren't mentioned in any of this. "Every player has their one story and journey and hers has been incredible. Starting the tournament and losing the first game, there was so much riding on every game, we had five finals. She had to step up and I think she has been amazing. It's a little bit like a fairytale to stop those two penalties in the final.' She's right as regards individual stories, though. Lucy Bronze had her energy, and that willingness to play through pain. Jess Carter had far more serious issues, and saved her best display for the final and the toughest challenge. Michelle Agyemang had her impact, and now her award for young player of the tournament. Kelly, then, evidently had points to prove. Her year had started with a struggle for minutes at Manchester City, and so much doubt. It culminates with… well, she can describe it herself. 'There were a lot of tears at full-time, especially when I saw my family, because those are the people that got me through those dark moments. I'm so grateful to be out the back end but if that's the story to tell someone experiencing something the same, that sometimes it doesn't last and just around the corner was a Champions League final - won that - and now a Euros final - won that. 'So, thank you, everyone who wrote me off.' That could be said of England as a whole, given how this tournament went, but they ended it still as European champions. Kelly ultimately puts that down to one person. 'What she's done for me individually, she gave me hope when I probably didn't have any. She gave me an opportunity to represent my country again. I knew that I had to get game time and representing England is never a given.' Neither is tournament victory. Wiegman has made it as close to a guarantee as you can get. So, how will she actually enjoy herself? She's already put two stars on their shirts.
The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
How the new Tadej Pogacar used Tour de France to reach terrifying new heights for rivals
The defining image of this Tour de France may not be a rainbow-clad Tadej Pogacar celebrating his 100th career victory; nor Pogacar letting fly with 12km to go on Hautacam and storming up the mountain in yellow; nor Pogacar grinning as he essentially broke his rivals in the Pyrenean time trial. Instead, the defining moment of this year's Tour may be the waiting game he played on the road up Mont Ventoux. Climbing the legendary lunar landscape, pedalling smoothly, but hanging back. Up ahead, it was local boy Valentin Paret-Peintre who took a career-defining victory, raising his arms aloft, Ben Healy shaking his head in defeat in the background. (For the French, that is probably the defining moment.) Further down the mountain, Pogacar continued to pedal. He did not reel in the day's plucky breakaway, chasing down every moment of glory for himself, as many teams – and many observers – may have feared. Instead, he watched. Waited. And in the closing moments, he broke free of Jonas Vingegaard, his only, very remote challenger for yellow, and floated across the line alone. This Tour de France has seen a newer, more complete version of Tadej Pogacar, the 2.0 model of the world's best bike rider. Refined, given a few tweaks and upgrades. It has made him a more terrifying prospect than ever. Pogacar now has four Tour de France titles, each won in a different style. The first, in 2020, was almost a surprise, having shadowed Primoz Roglic for the whole race before seizing the crown in the final time trial. His second title, the following year, was a show of strength: he led from day eight and won three stages, including two summit finishes. Then followed two years of humiliation at the hands of Vingegaard. In 2022 he won three stages to the Dane's two; it wasn't enough. In 2023 he was on the back foot from the start, nursing a wrist fracture from Liege-Bastogne-Liege, but attacked the race with the same exuberance as if he had been box-fresh. It proved his downfall, as Vingegaard utilised his team strength and canny, calculating racer's mind to overwhelm Pogacar, letting him exhaust himself with attacks before quietly, mercilessly, turning the screw. 2024 was back to normal for Pogacar: his third overall win was a display of total domination, hoovering up six stage wins in the process. But the lessons from his two years of abject defeat no doubt stayed in his mind. They have contributed to his newer, sharper, all-conquering form. Now he is not just the world's best bike rider: he is the world's best racer. His dominance this year is unprecedented in the modern era. Only 12 riders have finished within one hour of the yellow jersey. That hasn't happened since 1969, when Eddy Merckx won his first Tour. Evidently, Pogacar still loves to win: UAE Team Emirates-XRG orchestrated Tim Wellens taking custody of the king of the mountains jersey ahead of stage four, just so the Slovenian could take his 100th career win in the world champion's rainbow stripes, rather than polka dots. He picked up two wins on the Classics-style punchy terrain of the first week, both times against his biggest rivals: Mathieu van der Poel and Vingegaard. It was clearly important to him that he not just stamp his authority on the race on Hautacam, but to take victory on one of the Tour's most infamous summits too. But whereas previous incarnations of Pogacar would simply have kept winning, from then on, the 26-year-old held something back. On Mont Ventoux he was content to match Vingegaard's attacks, withstanding the temptation to put his rival in his place, and only accelerated at the very summit. It seems unlikely this was driven by any sympathy for his fellow riders; he said during this Tour that he isn't here to make friends. He did the same on Col de la Loze, making his point with a vicious kick inside the final few hundred metres, rather than attacking from the foot of the climb. Perhaps part of that is because he views the Courchevel side of the climb as beneath him: 'This side of the Col de la Loze is much easier, but the other side I want to return [to] for a victory.' But he also said, 'I wanted the win, but [defending] the yellow jersey is a priority.' He backed that up on stage 20: UAE rode as if they wanted to win it, but he did not chase down Thymen Arensman in the final kilometres, allowing himself to be towed along by Florian Lipowitz as the German rode for his own GC ambitions. He has spared energy, riding conservatively and defensively, racing within his means. In short, he has raced in the same manner Vingegaard did when he schooled his rival in the 2022 and 2023 Tours. One of the most fascinating developments of this year's Tour has been seeing just how much the world's two best riders have taken from each other, as they both aim to plug the holes in their armour. It was noticeable in the first week how much better Vingegaard has become on punchy climbs, the sort of terrain where he has never previously been able to match Pogacar's unparalleled explosive kick. And over the last couple of seasons, Pogacar has made himself sharper at high altitude, on the hour-long, brutal Alpine climbs where Vingegaard has always felt most comfortable. Vingegaard demolished Pogacar in 2023's climbing time trial, from Passy to Combloux; Pogacar turned the tables this year. Every adaptation has served both riders well – but it has also highlighted how unbridgeable the gulf was for Vingegaard this year. The pair are, in theory, closer than ever, with neither carrying injuries and both in their physical prime. Vingegaard certainly looked closer to Pogacar in the Alps than the Pyrenees, but he hasn't gained any time on the Slovenian, barring bonus seconds, in the last two Tours. His only time gain on this Tour was two seconds on the line on stage 19. So Pogacar celebrates a fourth victory, and can finally go back to doing 'nice stuff with his life'. Where next for the modern-day Cannibal? He has won nearly everything there is to win; he has got Vingegaard's number. But he has also cut a jaded figure: it does not feel merely coincidental that Pogacar has seemed fed up throughout much of this Tour, especially since he began to ride in defence of yellow. 'This is the point where I ask myself: 'Why am I still here?' It's so long these three weeks,' he said after the queen stage. The idea of the Tour without the world's best rider seems inconceivable; UAE are hardly likely to let their star skip it. But what does the future look like for Pogacar? Will he go back to his marauding, stage-hunting pomp, hunting down Mark Cavendish's record 35? Will he target ever more outlandish milestones – maybe the unprecedented Giro-Tour-Vuelta treble? He has drawn level with Chris Froome on four Tour de France victories: could he go one clear of the current record of five, shared by Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Jacques Anquetil? For the peloton, Pogacar 2.0 may be a more merciful figure, refraining from winning everything in sight in search of greater goals. But he is ever more powerful – and the only question remaining is, how far will he go?
BBC News
3 minutes ago
- BBC News
Choose how you feel about Luis Diaz's departure
'He did things-no one could do' - how 2005 Ashes 'reinvented' Flintoff. Video'He did things-no one could do' - how 2005 Ashes 'reinvented' Flintoff
