I am writing this whilst 11,000 feet in the air in a 14 seater plane, which seems appropriate given that 14 England players worked together on the field to earn a vitally important win against Mexico on Saturday and after the game, everyone was on a high.
Mark Sampson’s team were under pressure to turn on some of the flair demonstrated in their qualifying campaign (in which they scored 53 goals and conceded just once) after their attempt to contain France had resulted in a dour display entertainment-wise. When Colombia pulled off a shock 2-0 victory over France, also their first ever win in a Women’s World Cup, in the first Group F game of the day in sunny Moncton, the intensity of that pressure ramped up several notches and turned the Lionesses’ Mexico match from a ‘must not lose’ to a ‘must win’. A draw would not have immediately resulted in England missing out on the next round but it would have meant them heading into a final game teetering on the brink and also put a devastating psychological dent in any aspirations of going much further in the tournament.
Under pressure
The prospect of failure must have weighed heavily on their shoulders and certainly impacted on the early stages of their performance, as their coach noted candidly in the post match press conference :
“We knew today was a crucial day for us. We tried our best to control it. The result prior was such a big shock – we’re sitting in the changing rooms and we can hear the ‘oohs and aahs’ so we were fully aware of that result – and we knew it was an important day for England and England’s players delivered.”
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