Sarina Wiegman said she was “disappointed and surprised” to hear that Brazil does not have under-15, under-16, under-20 and under-23 women’s teams and stressed the importance of building structures and foundations as the key to success.
Wiegman’s Lionesses welcome Brazil to Wembley on Thursday for the first women’s Finalissima between the champions of Europe and the champions of South America, as the two nations prepare for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand that begins on 20 July.
In a joint press conference, Brazil manager Pia Sundhage, who scored the first goal in the first women’s match held at Wembley in 1989, exposed how much Brazil needs to do if it is serious about hosting the 2027 World Cup.
“It’s great when you get to host such a great event,” said Sundhage. “Right now, if we have World Cup 2027 in Brazil it is not just the weeks or month of the World Cup, but it is about taking care of what comes before and after. In order to do that it’s time that Brazil steps up. Because right now we have no U15 national team, or U16, we maybe have U17 and right now the U20 aren’t playing.
“Girls, or boys, that want to watch the game want to represent Brazil … If you’re 15 years old you can do that in England, you can do that in Sweden, but you can’t do that in Brazil … You have to do the right thing, you have to put in the structure and organisation. I hope that will happen as there are so many good players, there’s such a good heart, everyone is playing football on the beaches, all over the place, you just have to have some sort of structure.”
Wiegman replied: “I hope they get as soon as possible, U15, U16, U20, U23 teams, because Brazil needs that. I’ve been there, I’ve seen lots of girls, I’m just a little bit surprised and disappointed too, it would be good for them.
“If you host a tournament, lots of work has to be done before that tournament is hosted, so you can make that next step. The fundamentals were already here [in England], then we won the Euros, then we could accelerate, and that’s very important.”
Brazil and Arsenal centre-back Rafaelle Souza echoed the calls of the two managers, adding that “it starts with the clubs”.
“The league here is impressive,” she said. “It’s all about the structure, you can’t just host a cup and change football, you need to create a structure. We need the same structure as men’s football. Only Corinthians in Brazil have the women train in the same place as the men. We need to have the structure in order to have the attractive football that drives investment. There’s a lot of things needed in the background before you can have a successful league, that’s why Brazil needs to improve so much. But it starts with the clubs, the clubs need to have structure so the players can improve technically, tactically and physically.”
At Wembley, in front of around 90,000 fans, Souza will line up opposite a player she stands alongside at Arsenal, the England captain Leah Williamson. At the Finalissima press conference, they spoke glowingly of one another.
“Rafa’s a bit of a warrior, as an athlete she’s head and shoulders above the rest,” said Williamson. “It’s the Brazilian way, and what she can do with her feet is impressive also. So, I’m in awe of her to be honest, most days. It’s a new territory being on a different team tomorrow.”
Rafaelle said: “Leah is a great player … I feel like she’s half Brazilian because she’s got the skills, she just needs to learn to Samba and she’ll be fine.”
Williamson is a staple of Wiegman’s starting XI. The England manager experimented with personnel during the Arnold Clark Cup in February, but said that against the stronger opposition of Brazil then Australia on Tuesday, there will be less tinkering despite it being the final camp before she announces her World Cup squad.
“We will experiment a little less because we have two games, we are in different stage,” she said. “But we’re also in a period that the players have many games and the load on players is really high so we’re also try to manage the level too. So, it’s a little bit of both. First, play the game tomorrow and of course we play to win but you also play to develop too. After that we’ll see how the team is and what we still want to see and how everyone comes out of the game.”
