What A Way To Win The Cup

Wednesday 25th February 2022: Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton: Arnold Clark Cup: England vs Germany

Today’s blog takes us back in time by 5 months to the end of February as England’s Women’s team competed in a crunch match at the end of a gruelling week of travelling across the country in search of their first trophy under new boss Sarina Wiegman. The trophy they were trying to win was the Arnold Clark Cup, a competition bringing together 4 of the best International Women’s teams from across the globe. It was their first tournament under Wiegman and a great chance to put down a marker against some of the toughest opposition in the sport before the Euros in July.

This was the first time that fans across the country would be able to see Wiegman’s team face up against other members of the FIFA top 10 world rankings. They had already faced Canada at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough and Spain, favourites for the Euros, at Carrow Road in Norwich, collecting creditable draws in each. Failing to score against Spain was far from ideal but with no losses to their name they were still in with a chance at glory as they faced off against Germany in the final match of the tournament at Molineux in Wolverhampton.

Making it to Wolverhampton was simple enough and from the station you turn right across a bridge then follow the road between the Britannia hotel and the grand theatre before taking another right past the church before the stadium hoves into view in-front of you. I made my way through the Molineux tunnel, picked up a programme from the seller in front of me, and made my way inside after squeezing my stomach into my lungs to make it through the turnstile.

The excitement in the stands was palpable as I poured down the stairs to my seat, which told me the result must have gone England’s way earlier on and we were still in with a shot at the title. There had been another game at Molineux earlier in day between Canada and Spain in which a win for the North Americans would have secured them the title. As it turned out though Spain had won 1-0 in front of just 877 fans and so the 14,463 now filling out 3 sides of Molineux would witness history if England managed to win by 2 goals or more.

The announcer made it extremely difficult for casual fans to engage with the match though by introducing the teams simply by their shirt numbers when the programmes included none. I was able to work out which numbers corresponded to the England players due to my extensive match attendance over many years, but for the casual fan it must have been a nightmare. England were without their long-time captain Steph Houghton through the injury that would also keep her out of the Euros, so Leah Williamson stepped into the role she will also be taking on for the team over the summer. The experience ought to prove invaluable in the latter stages of the Euros.

England were in the traditional all-white strip with Germany in red shirts and black shorts for this one as play got underway to the sounds of a drummer and trumpeter cheering them on from behind the goal to my right. The atmosphere provided by their music was incredible and added to the expectation in the air.

There were no signs that the expectation was effecting the home team early on though as England piled the pressure on their opponents. Manchester City had provided half of England’s outfield players for the match (Lucy Bronze, Kiera Walsh, Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp and Ellen White) so perhaps it should come as no surprise that it was 2 of their number that were providing the most threat for the hosts. Bronze and Hemp were finding great yawning chasms of space on either wing and if their teammates had been able to find the right weight of pass they could have caused the Germans incredible issues.

England were on top throughout the first 10 minutes without creating a clear cut chance that would make their pressure tell and crack open the stalwart German defence. This inability to break the Germans down almost came back to bite them in the 10th minute itself as the visitors launched a promising attack down the middle. Given even more room to develop the attack, by a Bronze miscue in midfield, the Germans began to drive for goal and were only denied by some excellent covering work by new captain Williamson. Her and Kiera Walsh had been given the job of screening the defence, in a 4-2-3-1, when England lost possession of the ball and this excellent piece of play proved that Williamson was up for the challenge.

The only thing missing from the hosts play at this point was a goal and they came agonisingly close to proving one in the 13th minute when Stanway powered into space down the left wing, took the ball to the bye-line and cut it back. Her targets in the centre were Fran Kirby and Ellen White, but unfortunately the ball was inches behind the pair and when it was stabbed towards goal by a supporting player in white, Merle Frohms barely had to change position to smother the chance.

No matter though as England found the breakthrough they deserved just 2 minutes later. Once again the build up involved Stanway, Kirby and White but this time their interplay bore fruit. Stanway fed the ball to Kirby on the edge of the box and, after her first ball rebounded off a defender and landed at her feet, her second ball was a defence-splitter of the first degree. It was a beautifully wrapped gift for Ellen White to collect on the edge of the 6 yard box and from that point she slipped the ball to the keeper’s right, the exquisite placement of the finish giving Frohms no chance of stopping it.

White is as deadly as a cyanide injection from that distance and if she is allowed to find such positions in the upcoming Euros then England have a great chance of success. The pandemonium in the stands when that goal hit the back of the net was incredible and now England just needed one more goal to win themselves the title.

They came close to securing it in the 25th minute when White kept up her pursuit of a hideously lost ball down the right wing. Her impossible pursuit was successful and when the late arriving support finally showed up in the box the ball back to Bronze was dropped on a dime. Bronze whipped the ball into the box first time and picked out Stanway with unwavering accuracy. Stanway caught the ball graciously on the turn and volleyed toward goal, though her aim was a little off as the ball slammed itself straight into Frohms’ waiting arms. If the ball had been directed either side of the keeper it would have been 2-0 to England, but alas it was not to be.

Between the opener and that gilt-edged chance for England to double their lead there was a collision in midfield. Jess Carter was knocked flat-out on the turf and though she was back on her feet quicker than the German player she had collided with the effects of the incident were enough to see her removed from the fray in the 32nd minute. Rachel Daly, who plies her trade with Houston Dash in the NWSL, was the player sent on to replace her in defence.

This change did nothing to disrupt England’s control of the match though as Daly slotted in at fullback with consummate ease. England were unable to find ways to translate that control into further domination of the team sheet however as they struggled to find the telling ball in the final third. The closest they came to doubling their lead before the 40th minute was 4 minutes before that salient time stamp when Kirby slotted the ball through the defence for White to run onto. Kirby got just a smidgen too much on the through-ball though and it ran into the arms of Frohms before White could make a telling connection.

The salient facts of the 40th minute are that it was the moment in the match where it appeared that England had let their chances of winning the cup slip through their fingers. Germany managed to engineer their first space in midfield all match and Lea Schuller made the most of this new found freedom to charge at an England defence that was all at 6’s and 7’s as though shocked to discover that the Germans knew how to attack. Schuller advanced till she was just 20yards from the England goal then turned inside on a dime to make a flat run across the pitch to create a better angle for the shot.

The turn took Alex Greenwood by surprise and Schuller collapsed over her trailing leg to earn the Germans a free-kick in a promising position. Lina Magull stepped up to take the set-piece and the fans in the stadium were treated to a finish of exquisite quality. She looped the ball up and over the wall and the despairing dive of Ellie Roebuck before dropping it into the back of the net off the underside of the bar. It was a delectable finish that would have graced any game in history, but here it was in a friendly tournament scored by the wrong team in-front of a deeply partisan home crowd so it was met with a deafening silence, instead of the rapturous applause it merited.

The final 5 minutes of the half, and the 2 minutes of added time at the end of the 5 passed without any further incidents of note. So England headed down the tunnel for half-time level with their opponents despite having controlled the play for vast swathes of the match so far.

Perhaps it was this dominance of possession and the immense pressure that they had been able to exact on the German defence that dissuaded Wiegman from making any changes to the team at half-time, but it appeared to be backfiring as Germany created the first glaring chance of the second half. Julie Brand had replaced Nicole Anyomi for the visitors at half-time and in the 52nd minute she combined with Maximiliane Rall to break the Germans in behind on the right. Her cross picked out Klara Buhl by the penalty spot but, with the headlines in her eyes, she fluffed her lines and England were able to clear the danger.

The hosts first chance of note failed to materialise till the game reached the hour mark and even then it took a mix-up in the German defence for England to fashion the opportunity. Kiera Walsh picked up the loose ball and played Lauren Hemp in one-on-one with Frohms. Hemp had the simple task of knocking the ball to either side of the keeper, but her weak attempt to sneak it in on the keepers left was saved simply by Frohms. Hemp will have been happy to see the linesman raise her flag for offside and render the finish moot.

Within 120 seconds of this chance Wiegman made her first substitution of the match as Georgia Stanway was given the rest of the match off. Nikita Parris being given 28 minutes to state her case for inclusion in the squad for the Euros. This was also the cue for a turgid period of play that lasted till the 75 minute of the match, during which the fans engaged in the time-honoured tradition of the Mexican wave.

Germany replaced goal-scorer Lina Mgull with Linda Dallmann with 18 minutes of the match remaining as they looked to force a winner. They had the first chance to do so when the game sparked back to life in the 75th minute. They broke free on the left and advanced into the space that had opened up in-front of them. The cross through the box was collected in the centre but a defender was able to successfully able to kick-start a game of pinball in the forest of legs that gave Roebuck the opportunity to come and collect the ball.

The game was back in full flow now and Williamson took matters into her own hands in the 81st minute when she unleashed a pile-driver from the edge of the box that skimmed the bar on it’s way behind. Wiegman once again took the sight of her team closing in on goal as the trigger to make another substitution. This time it was Lucy Bronze and goal-scorer Ellen White who were gifted a well deserved rest to be replaced by Alessia Russo and Ella Toone for the final 8 minutes of the match.

With the match entering it’s final 5 minutes it looked like England’s chances of winning the cup had evaporated into thin air, but Lauren Hemp wasn’t having it. She produced a gut-busting run from midfield to emerge one-on-one with Frohms and when her shot was blocked the rebound fell to Millie Bright, who slid it under the dive of Frohms and fired England into a 2-1 lead with 4 minutes of normal time left to play. Now all England needed was their third of the match and the cup would be theirs.

Having got the lead England retreated into themselves for the next few minutes as though they were just desperate to secure the win and not throw away another lead. Germany replaced Klara Buhl with the fresh legs of Selina Cerci up-front in an attempt to exploit the host’s new nervousness. It didn’t work as England made full use of the 3 minutes added to the end of the 90 to come away with what they needed.

England’s cup winning goal came with the final kick of the match. They broke up-field and Hemp headed the ball on to send Kirby running free through the centre. She advanced into the box and slotted a deft chip over the keeper’s head and into the back of the net. That was England’s third goal of the match and secured the 2 goal cushion they needed to win by to win the cup. The pandemonium in the stands at this brilliant late turn of events was incredible. What a way to win the cup.

Unfortunately my abysmal planning meant that I had a train to catch back to the North-West and was unable to remain in the ground to see the team lift the cup. To walk away from that atmosphere and the presentation stage being set-up in-front of the stand I was in was heart-wrenching. It was made even worse when I reached the station to find that my train had been delayed by 15 minutes. I was then joined, by many who had stayed for the cup presentation then sprinted to the station, with 7 minutes to spare to add to my frustration.

It was an incredible way for England to win their first trophy of the year in front of their home fans. I hope that they will be able to top this achievement by lifting the European Championship trophy in-front of 90,000 at Wembley on July 31st.

I do not have a ticket for that game, but I will be at Old Trafford on July 6th to see them kick-start their Euro 2022 campaign. See you for that blog soon afterwards.