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The Guardian
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘Feeling loved': how Wiegman turned Lionesses from also-rans to winners
'Who has got the ability to take us right to the top of Everest? That's my job, to find that person for the players, they deserve the best.' Those were the words of Sue Campbell, the Football Association's former head of women's football, in the summer of 2020 as – alongside the chief executive, Mark Bullingham, and technical director, Kay Cossington – she sought to find a new England head coach to replace Phil Neville, who was to leave his role the following year. The Lionesses had reached three consecutive major tournament semi-finals, but kept enduring heartbreak and missing out on an elusive final. The FA's mission was simple: find someone with the knowhow to take the team to the next level. A total of 142 applied for the role, Baroness Campbell said at the time and it was Cossington who first suggested: 'There's this brilliant woman called Sarina Wiegman ... ' The less said about some of the decision-making from people in power in this country in that bleak summer of 2020, the better, but when it comes to that particular appointment, it is now abundantly clear that Campbell, Bullingham and Cossington made the correct choice. Just three tournaments, three finals and two titles later, Wiegman has overseen the transformation of the women's national team's identity into winners, a team oozing belief, with a never-say-die attitude and an unrelenting focus on success. The first thing Wiegman commanded on day one in the job was respect. The England players knew that Wiegman had done something they had not yet done – she had won a major international trophy, with the Netherlands in 2017 – and that made them eager to listen to her every word. Not only a former player at the highest level, she is also a former PE teacher and, as one source close to a squad member told the Guardian on Monday, Wiegman's man-management skills have made her like 'that favourite teacher you had at school' because she has found a balance of being firm but fair, simultaneously being an instructor and a friend. Her motherly side has clearly made new additions to the squad feel at ease. This summer she encouraged them all to open up to each other, to be 'vulnerable' around each other, to grow closer bonds. The 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang said during the Euros: 'I think most people will say, when they work with Sarina, she's like a mum to us, almost. She cares about our wellbeing [and] she's ready to step in and tell us: 'That's not good enough, let's be better.' So I think she has that fine balance and she's put a lot of trust in me, which I'm really grateful for. 'She shows the same type of care to me, who's the youngest, to the oldest, showing the same sort of care to each and every one of us, no matter what our role is, even if we don't play, she's still willing to go and shake your hand and say 'well done', even if we didn't touch the pitch, and that shows we're valued in the squad.' Wiegman's tenure has been defined by the fact that, at every step of the journey, with every decision she has made, however large or small, she has only had one priority: on-pitch performances. With every plan that she and her staff make, from the scheduled time of a training session, to the location of a hotel, to food, rehydration and recovery, right through to the way she can often seem reluctant to give away inside information during press conferences, it all boils down to one thing: what will help the team the most? For a reporter, that performance-first approach might sometimes mean a media session is rearranged at relatively short notice to help the team's training schedule, and so be it, because everything else is secondary. For a player, it means there is very little room for sentimentality. Just ask Steph Houghton, whose exemplary service to the game was not enough for her to be picked by Wiegman if she felt others were in better form. Another crucial aspect has been attention to detail and Wiegman would be the first to say that it is a team effort with her staff. England's analysts have gone into forensic detail on all of their opponents and the benefits have been abundantly clear, whether it be in the homework done to aid Hannah Hampton's preparation to save penalties, or in the notes prepared on how frequently an opponent might cut inside, or in the way players' output in training is monitored to check how well they are performing physically. Every detail counts. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Then there are Wiegman's personality, body language and level-headed reactions. There is a composure to her mannerisms – even when her team are 2-0 down with 12 minutes to go in a Euros quarter-final against Sweden – that would make a player retain their belief even in the middle of a hurricane. That was touched on by the midfielder Keira Walsh this month when she said: 'She's probably one of the best managers I've played for in terms of trying to make everyone feel loved. She really, really cares about the human side. Another thing that you notice when you play for her is how calm she is. It makes a massive difference in the 95th minute when you're losing 1-0, and you look to the side and she's very calm. That speaks volumes of her as a manager.' That calmness has also shone through in the vast majority of Wiegman's press conferences over the past few years, with the 55-year-old never seeming overly pleased when her team were winning games in the run-up to tournaments and, equally, never overreacting when they underperformed or lost. A lot of coaches preach the cliche of never getting too high with the highs nor too low with the lows, but Wiegman embodies that approach naturally. That said, even she allowed herself wry smiles, excitement and jokes of 'having a heart attack' amid the last-gasp drama her team put the nation through this summer. She also made a point of thanking the travelling media, all of her staff, Uefa and the people of Switzerland in a classy speech in Basel, offering a little glimpse into her character. She has two more years left on her contract, for now at least. The journey is not over but she has reached that Everest summit twice already. The view from the top looks good.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Capitals Prospects To Watch At World Junior Summer Showcase
The Washington Capitals will be well-represented at this year's World Junior Summer Showcase, a first step for prospects to show that they can play in one of the IIHF's biggest tournaments come winter.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Why are Spain so good? The contrasting paths behind runs to Euro 2025 final
As England again wonder how Keira Walsh can evade Spain 's intense press to decide a major trophy, some in the Football Association are still marvelling at the shift. This is as high a level as you can get, and is now a frequent challenge. They grew up hoping just to qualify for tournaments. 'I have trouble explaining to my kids sometimes that this isn't normal,' FA chief executive Mark Bullingham laughs. 'When you look at 1967 and through 50 years to 2020, we made one final.' The Euro 2025 final will mark the third consecutive major final for Sarina Wiegman 's team, and also the fifth in five years across England's women's and men's squads. But there is one country that matches that, and that is Sunday's opposition, who they of course know well. Spain have reached the final of the last three major tournaments, across women's and men's, to go with three consecutive Nations League finals, and all of that on the back of the original 2008 revolution in their men's game. Those in Spanish football who care about the women's game now feel the same as Bullingham. It's still amazing that the world champions hadn't won a knockout match until 2023, just as the men's team couldn't get beyond quarter-finals for decades. The game's two historic underachievers have become the modern powers. That is also down to something much better than old-fashioned football cycles. It's about resources, and culture. To spin Bullingham's own words around, this actually is a 'new normal', because it is entirely logical cause and effect. England and Spain are two of the wealthiest football economies in the world, and have finally developed infrastructures to match them. The fact they are doing it across the women's and men's games is all the more relevant ahead of this final because it speaks to the breadth of the approaches. They've got to the point where everyone else – including at this tournament – asks them how they did it. And while there are shared ideas on coaching principles and structural concepts, the two countries have really come from different angles. Or, really, different ends. While England's progress has been top-down, Spain's has been bottom-up. That contrast might yet decide Sunday's final in Basel, as well as what comes next. England's progress has been from a decision that was as rudimentary as you can get. They threw money at it. In 2016, as a next step in the 'England DNA' philosophy that was founded with St George's Park, the budget for women's football was increased by 16 per cent. This went up repeatedly over the next three years, a period that overlapped with the formative seasons of more than half of Wiegman's Euro 2025 squad. In short, they were exposed to drastically improved coaching, facilities and structure. It was why there was a deeper truth in Wiegman's simple, if self-effacing recent explanation for success, that she has 'very good players'. She does, and better than most of those at Euro 2025, but not by accident or just one good generation. England are benefiting from investment, in money and energy. Given that the Spanish federation has been greatly criticised for attitudes to the women's game, it would be wrong to say their players benefited from similar. But there was something even deeper in the football culture. You can go anywhere in Spain and you will see countless small-sided outdoor pitches. They're always full of kids playing and they're all established by local authorities. Boys and girls have somewhere to go, which complements the other vital elements that came together at once. Such pitch coverage is linked to national strategy shifts from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, which also happened to be the year that Johan Cruyff's Barcelona won the Champions League. An entire ideology was imprinted in the Spanish football psyche, and at the same time kids could freely express it. The very spatial dimensions have conditioned a climate in which six-year-olds immediately start learning two-footed technique in enclosed spaces, with this base ability then honed by some of the best club academies in the world. Uefa figures who work in the grassroots liken it to speaking a language: if you learn all of this as your brain develops, from six to nine, it is all internalised to a much deeper level. So, in an almost organic way, Spanish football culture nurtures this groundswell of talent, readily integrated in a distinctive ideology. That exposure to two-footed football from such a young age is something that is still 'hit and miss' in the UK and Ireland, as well as even Germany. It's why many see Portugal as the coming force, too. There, you can't even coach six-year-olds without a Uefa A licence, a decree that has resulted in a recent explosion of men's talent. The same is expected in the women's game if recent investment continues. More concerningly for everyone else, the Spanish federation is finally forging stronger links with their local setups. Hence, Bullingham talking on Thursday about how Spain's 'grassroots coaching level is phenomenal', as well as the need to 'build an equivalent' of the English men's Elite Player Performance Plan for women. That's also why Spain's 2023 World Cup win was all the more influential, despite the Luis Rubiales controversy. More girls were inspired to play by female role models, at the same time those same players forced the football authorities into changes. England's own players are fully appreciative of that, as are the FA. 'We have said before that, until we have the same number of girls and boys playing football, we still have a job to do,' Bullingham explained. This top-down/bottom-up contrast may well condition Sunday in another way. It certainly conditioned the 2023 final, as well as performances in this tournament so far. On one side, the Spain players have internalised an ideology, that they then naturally express. It's all so fluidly integrated, so the women play in the exact same way as the men, and every coach appointed fits into this approach. The tactics come from within. Against that, England have appointed an elite coach from outside, who has also imposed tactics on the players. While it has worked for individual tournaments, it does pose longer-term questions for the FA. Some who work in the grassroots feel this contrast has potentially influenced England's lack of elite coaches, because the coaching pathway isn't as defined. The flip side is also that you don't necessarily need star managers if the coach understands the ideology. Many stakeholders feel England's successive men's under-21 Euros victories under an English coach in Lee Carsley are actually the most significant recent development, and should be given due credit. 'We need to keep improving our level, coaching at every stage of the pathway,' Bullingham says. He insists that doesn't necessarily mean exactly replicating Sunday's opposition. 'Whether we go quite as far as the Spanish in knowing the exact style of play, you obviously want players that are technically strong, comfortable on the ball, to play out and so on, I think we probably then still want a bit of flexibility on how we play.' We will witness the difference on Sunday. The term of the campaign, 'proper England', is really 'tournament ball': tie-specific responses to get through individual knockout games. On the other side, Spain have gone for an integrated ideology. They're two competing approaches for the teams, but all from complementary rises for the federations. The very fact it's the third consecutive final between the two showcases the shift.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Sport
- Telegraph
Lionesses' patriotism fires ‘Proper England' bid for glory
To borrow from Winston Churchill, has ever a sporting nation owed as much to so few women as we do to our Lionesses? Three successive major tournaments and three finals reached. Some older players have come and gone, but there is a core group that has played in all of them. This is an unparalleled era of success for one of our nation's football teams. They have made what once seemed impossible feel routine. When the Football Association began to invest heavily in women's football just over a decade ago, they could never have imagined England would enjoy a period like this. It is the performance of a football superpower, even if Mark Bullingham, the FA's risk-averse politician, is uncomfortable with such a phrase. We have grown so accustomed to these achievements that reaching a final is no longer a novelty but more an expectation, yet we should not become blasé about what it means as England prepare to face Spain in Basel this Sunday. We should celebrate everything they stand for, encourage the joy they take from representing their country and the unashamed pride they attach to wearing the national shirt. They lean into the idea of 'Proper England'; they wear and talk about their patriotism with ease. 'It's just a feeling of pride, every single time I pull the England shirt,' said Ella Toone. 'It's just pride. It was something I dreamed about since I was a little girl, I always wanted to play for England and go to major tournaments. 'Representing your country is something very special. I still have to pinch myself. It is an amazing feeling. I've got 50-odd caps now, but every time I feel the same way I did when I pulled it on for the first time. 'When you pull the England shirt on you want to make the country proud. You want to fight for each other and the fans. Every time we pull it on we have this sense of freedom and belief. It never changes.' If you asked any other member of the 23-player squad, they would say the same. This is not a shirt that weighs heavily on any of their shoulders, it is a shirt that makes them stick their chests out. 'I will give anything and everything when I play in an England shirt,' said the squad's oldest and most decorated player Lucy Bronze. 'I want all the girls to know that is my why... My why is to give everything for this team because I just love playing for England.' She has been doing it for more than a decade. Shoulders back, chin up, battle after battle, game after game. When you watch the England players belting out the national anthem before games, arms linked, it is clear patriotism is part of what fuels them. Our pack of Lionesses, our team of warriors who never know they are beaten. A team who could have surrendered at least twice at this European Championship, but who, somehow, against the odds fought their way to victory. England were seconds away from defeat in both the quarter-final against Sweden and the semi-final against Italy, but from the jaws of elimination, they snatched the most magnificent of triumphs. They refused to accept their fate, because to do so would not be England. Chloe Kelly's winning goal for the Lionesses against Italy as you've never seen it before! 🤩 #WEuro2025 #BBCFootball — Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 23, 2025 This is England. Our England. Heroic, brave and resilient. They embody everything we want our sporting teams to project to the world. The indomitable English, tough and hard. No cause is ever lost, no challenge too great. It is a phrase England's players have adopted this summer – they want to live up to the idea of 'Proper England'; of being a team who scrap and fight, who are physical, fast and direct. Bronze explained that the concept comes from previous generations earlier in the tournament: 'What was meant by that was we have a lot of younger players and new players who have very different experiences of playing for England compared to the likes of myself, where we know England used to have to dig deep all the time – 2015 was the first time we beat Germany, that's insane to think of right now. 'England of the past, it was that you had to dig out performances and it was that you were maybe the underdog, not the favourites. Whereas this England team has developed, football has changed. We're a very talented team, a lot of technical ability, tactics, all that comes with it, but we don't want to ever forget that we are England, we are proper England and, if push comes to shove, we can win a game by any means possible.' Absolute euphoria! 😮 Lucy Bronze buries her penalty and Smilla Holmberg cannot hit the target - sending England through to the semi-finals! #BBCFootball #WEuro2025 — BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 17, 2025 The FA once coined a phrase 'England's DNA'; the Lionesses, more than any other of our national sides, embody it. Indeed, it is this pride in the country that, perhaps, is the key to their success. To play for England is the ultimate goal for every young female footballer in the country. There is no greater honour, or greater achievement. When the dream is realised, nothing matters more than living it for as long as possible. Twenty-four players have made more than 100 appearances for England women's team compared to just eight for the men. It is the pinnacle and it shows. Not since 2015 have our women's team been knocked out of a Euros or World Cup before the semi-finals. It is a decade fuelled largely by the love these players have for their team-mates and their country. This is a multicultural England team evidenced by the fact their two most exciting young players are Chelsea's Lauren James and Arsenal's Michelle Agyemang. They see themselves as English because they are. Their patriotism is colour blind, even if, sadly, some continue to refuse to accept it. ENGLAND ARE LEVEL IN THE 96TH MINUTE! MICHELLE AGYEMANG HAS DONE IT AGAIN 🔥 — ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 22, 2025 When their team-mate, Jess Carter, another of the team's black players, received horrible racist abuse on social media during the Euros, the team rallied behind her, they pulled together because the centre-back was one of them. Unified and dignified. A team led by a Dutch coach who has fallen in love with England too; a team which combines talent with hard work, spirit, bravery and a stubborn, defiant streak that makes them incredibly hard to beat and impossible not to like. They represent the best of us. They are unflinchingly and unwaveringly proud to wear the England shirt. Whatever happens against Spain on Sunday night, we should be proud of them.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hansa sweep aside CL team, big embarrassments in friendlies
The height of summer is, in professional football, the time for relevant tournaments (Volkswagen Cup, surprise winners VfL Wolfsburg) and irrelevant ones (Club World Cup). Those who aren't 'lucky' enough to take part in such competitions play friendlies against teams who happen to have ended up in the same region while looking for a training camp. This not only leads to absurd matchups, but also to some delightful results. FC St. Pauli - SV Drochtersen/Assel 0:1 Bundesliga versus Regionalliga Nord. Surely a clear-cut affair, even at the start of preseason? Think again. The underdog scored the only goal of the day in classic fashion from a set piece. By the way, the Kiezkicker not only had no luck, but then bad luck was added on top. New signing Ricky-Jade Jones suffered a serious shoulder injury during this unpleasant defeat and will be out for several weeks. SSC Napoli - SS Arezzo 0:2 It was supposed to be a day of celebration for the Italian champions. In the debut of new top stars Kevin de Bruyne and Noa Lang, third-division Arezzo was expected to be brushed aside with ease. But, true to the saying 'If you don't score at the front, you'll concede at the back,' the underdog struck at the end of both halves (38', 90') and embarrassed the favorites. Grande Kack. Werder Bremen II - Borussia Mönchengladbach II 5-1 The result itself isn't a surprise. Both are Regionalliga teams, it's a friendly, these things happen. The awkward part comes when you look at the scorers. The Gladbach goal was scored by none other than Florian Neuhaus. His loose tongue during a Ballermann trip had earned the former national player a four-week demotion to the reserves. Whether Foals manager Roland 'Don Rollo' Virkus had a secret chuckle or two at this twist of fate is not recorded. CR Flamengo U20 - Bayer Leverkusen 5:1 During their training camp in Brazil, Bayer Leverkusen's pros got a taste of the world-famous 'Jogo bonito.' Against Flamengo's youth team, the 2024 German champions were already 0:4 down by halftime. For the second half, the big guns like Xhaka, Andrich, and co. were quickly brought on. But it made absolutely zero difference to the scoreline. Bayer's goal was scored by U19 striker Montrell Culbreath, who later called it 'outstanding, yeah.' Well then. Hansa Rostock - Aston Villa 3:1 The Villains only fell to eventual winners PSG in the quarterfinals of the last Champions League. Against Rostock, the Birmingham side were still leading 1-0 at halftime, but then the 'Kogge' set sail and secured a surprising home win. Villa had won the second leg against PSG 3-2. So does that mean Hansa are theoretically stronger than the CL winners? Let's not go there. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here. 📸 Matthias Kern - 2025 Getty Images
