Just two games now stand between England Women’s team and triumph; two games on home soil during which Sarina Wiegman will have to keep finding the tactical answers that will turn the Lionesses into champions.
It’s a short list, but a significant one: 1966. That’s the only time England’s teams – men or women – have won a major trophy, that being the World Cup. Gareth Southgate’s side went close again last summer in the delayed men’s European Championship, but fell agonisingly short.
Wiegman’s team, it increasingly feels like, are capable of taking that final step at Euro 2022 – and if they do, it will be in enormous part down to the influence and expertise of the Dutchwoman in the dugout.
Happily for Wiegman and those supporting the home nation, there are huge parallels with what she has already achieved in the game, and already proven she is capable of.
Turn the clock back to the late 80s, when Dutch men’s football reigned supreme for a short period. PSV won the European Cup, shortly before Rinus Michels finally led the Oranje to international success that summer, winning Euro ‘88. At that time Wiegman was in her own playing days at the Fifa Women’s Invitational Tournament and had won a handful of international caps. That number would eventually tally more a hundred – later reduced to an official 99, as a few were against non-Fifa nations.
After starting out coaching with girls’ grassroots teams in the Hague region, her club coaching career began with a season-long spell with her former club Ter Leede. She won a league title and KNVB Cup in 2007 before taking over at ADO Den Haag in the newly formed Women’s Eredivisie.
Fast forward a decade and Wiegman had become the first woman to hold a coaching role at a Dutch men’s club (a season-long spell as an assistant with Sparta Rotterdam). She also completed her Uefa Pro coaching licence in 2016, becoming the first woman to do so.
Since that Michels-inspired triumph, of course, the Netherlands had failed to lift another major senior trophy – until along came Wiegman. Installed as permanent boss just months before the 2017 Euros, she immediately turned around both form and playing style as her team swept aside every rival to win all three group games and knock out Sweden, then England, then finally dispatch Denmark in the final.
For the Netherlands’ footballing history, now swap in England’s.
The 52-year-old has been in charge for only 18 matches, up to and including the remarkable comeback quarter-final victory over Spain, yet already her team have hit 100 goals – aided by some absolute thumpings in qualifiers, most notably a record-breaking 20-0 win over Latvia. That result led to calls and questions about possible format reform, but Wiegman had done her job.
Prior to these championships getting underway, Wiegman’s past and present collided as the Lionesses beat Netherlands 5-1 in a warm-up game. If it was exciting to see the reigning champions beaten in such fashion, the manager wasn’t letting anybody get carried away.
“We stick to our strategy and plans, and whether we would lose or win now, we’re not going to all of a sudden sit, we call it, on a pink cloud. We stay grounded,” she insisted after that victory.
“Even if we had lost today, then still we know what we can improve, what we do well, and we want to take the next step in our style of play. Of course, the expectation will go higher, but now it’s a moment. I think we’re in a good place, but we still need to improve a couple of things, and we know that.”
It’s indicative of her time with England, but also her wider career: there’s a lot to achieve, a lot of work needed to ensure those lofty objectives are met and continual development is the most important ingredient to ensure success over the longer term.
Wiegman did not, for example, stroll into the Dutch job. Twice she was employed as interim manager, the first occasion ending as she stepped back to being assistant (having become an assistant coach with the national team in 2014). Time to learn, time to prove her worth; a setback wasn’t the end point, and nor would it have been in England’s search for success in a pre-tournament friendly.
Recognition and the deserved top job eventually came her way and the Euro 2017 triumph was almost replicated on the global stage – the Netherlands were beaten in the 2019 World Cup final. Such has been the exhibition of what Wiegman is capable of with her teambuilding skills and tactical insight.
At Euro 2022, England have already been massive beneficiaries of both. Hard decisions were made in the squad selection, but the chosen group have been incredibly resilient and very much together. On the pitch, the switch of style and forceful turning of the tide against Spain was instrumental in England’s progress to the last four.
Two more matches stand between this group and national footballing immortality, and Wiegman stands ready at the head of the team with the know-how and track record of achieving exactly that.
