July 31, 2022, 10:49 am ET
July 31, 2022, 10:49 am ET
LONDON — Sarina Wiegman and her players know, deep down, that the most important victory has already been won. Their spoils can be measured not just by the record attendances and record audiences that England’s run to Euro 2022 has generated, but by packed pubs and ubiquitous shirts and, on Sunday, packed trains they head to Wembley Stadium for the final. against Germany
It will also be clear in a few years’ time, as England captain Leah Williamson said, when this tournament is seen as a “game changer” for women’s football in England, no doubt, and probably in Europe as well.
The problem with elite sports, however, is that it’s not as simple as that. The impact of Euro 2022 on the general public will of course not change regardless of whether England can take that final step on Sunday and become European champions for the first time, but the way the players remember it certainly will will make. It is one thing to inspire a nation to glory. Another is to do it with regret. The victory that matters to England is not the philosophical one, the conceptual one. It is what is achieved in 90 minutes, in a field.
Ellen White alternated between shouts and screams in an emotional run to the finale. Credit… Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
It is also possible. England have come through this tournament with such drive and panache that even Wiegman admitted the group stage was “relatively easy”. His team has only fought once, in a full quarter-final against Spain; this match was also the only goal that Mary Earps has scored. The host must be the favorite.
The only caveat is that Germany is not a convincing underdog. Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side have the air of a team in transition, an older generation slowly giving way to a younger one, led by the indomitable Lena Oberdorf, but Germany’s pedigree in this tournament he’s impeccable: he’s been crowned European champion eight times, after all, and he’s never lost a final he’s reached. This iteration has been steadily gaining momentum throughout the tournament. He, too, knows that this is the victory that matters, the one on which everything depends.
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