Problems really piling up for Sarina
IN TourNAmENT football every time you find a solution you get dealt another problem. That’s what it felt like yesterday when Keira Walsh returned shortly before we lost our player of the tournament Lauren James. England in the Euros had it pretty plain sailing in terms of the same formation and the same team. But this World Cup feels more representative of what tournament football is usually like and the problems it throws your way, whether through injuries, suspensions or whatever it might be. ultimately, it’s about which teams deal with it the best and so far England have been great. They didn’t play their best, and at times Nigeria looked more dominant, but England edged it. It was good to see a clean sheet because that shows confidence in defence. The fact that they’ve only conceded one goal in the tournament is fantastic. To show the ability to let nothing get through them after they went down to 10 players will serve them really well in the long run.
When I first saw the incident with Lauren I just thought, ‘What are you doing?’ But she’s young and still inexperienced and when you get to these games then emotions can start to run high, especially at that late point when you’re desperate to get a goal. This will be a great lesson for Lauren. It’s just a shame it will be to England’s detriment as she’s been the real difference-maker so far, but it’s time for somebody else to step up now.
It will be interesting to see what Sarina does for the next match against Colombia or Jamaica and whether she decides to go back to her usual formation or stick to this new formula without Lauren.
I’d love to see Chloe Kelly taking over that position, getting on the ball and working the opposition defence. In Chloe, you have a player you can count on to work incredibly hard.
Chloe and the team showed their mental resilience and togetherness in that penalty shootout. They also showed they want to do something special at this World Cup.