England see the good from a bad start
THE modern mantra for the defeated athlete is ‘taking the positives’, Ivory Coast coach Clementine Toure even used the phrase after her team had lost 10-0 against Germany. So it was unsurprising that Fara Williams, the veteran England midfielder, echoed manager Mark Sampson in looking on the bright side after the Lionesses opened their World Cup campaign with a 1-0 defeat by France yesterday.
“We performed very well as a team,” said Williams. “We were really wellorganised and stuck to our game-plan. We denied them opportunities. The goal they scored [a 25-yard drive by Eugenie Le Sommer] was fantastic, you can’t stop that. Apart from that we felt we were in control of the game.
“Against good teams you have to make sure you don’t play too open, you have to stay tight and connected and we did that. Individuals did what was asked of them, they took one for the team [in sacrificing their attacking instincts].”
Although Steph Houghton is England’s official captain it was Williams, who was winning her 139th cap, who spoke to the team in the huddle at half-time and fulltime. She said she was telling her teammates it was “about the performance P 1 1 1 W 1 0 0 D 0 1 1 L 0 0 0 F 1 1 1 Yesterday France 1 0
Colombia 1 Mexico 1
Saturday
June 17 France v Colombia v Mexico v Colombia Mexico v France A 0 1 1 Pts 3 1 1 (6pm) (9pm) (9pm) (9pm) and building momentum”. She added: “We had a good performance even though we lost and we will take the positives from that. It is about building for the next game.”
Sampson, who was overseeing his first match at a major tournament, said: “What we wanted was a platform to build on and we got that. The result was not good but we will reflect and take lots of positives. Defensively, the way the team managed the game was outstanding, limiting one of the best teams here to four shots on target.”
Williams played as a holding midfielder with a brief to mark Le Sommer as England set out with a game-plan to contain France. To counter the dangerous Elodie Thomis, Sampson played one full-back, Lucy Bronze, in front of another, Claire Raffer t y. The ploy worked so well that Thomis was withdrawn. However, just before the halfhour Le Sommer took advantage of one of many episodes of sloppy passing by England to steal possession and score.
With England mustering only one shot on target — a tame volley from Jill Scott — that was always likely to be enough. They will now look to execute a more expansive game-plan against Mexico on Saturday at the same Moncton Stadium. Their opponents were surprisingly held to a draw by Colombia yesterday. A win and a draw in their two remaining matches should be enough for England to qualify because it would be a big shock if Mexico or Colombia beat France.