Hang the St George’s flags, sing that Baddiel and Skinner song and book the tattoo parlour for the inking of Phil Neville’s head and “world champions 2019” across your back. Because it’s coming home.
England Women won a trophy late on Tuesday night, the SheBelieves Cup. They did it in impressive fashion, by beating their 2015 World Cup nemeses Japan 3-0 with a clinical, dominant display.
They had earlier in the tournament earned a creditable draw against the world No 1 side, the USA, as well as beating Brazil.
So it obviously follows that England will end the Women’s World Cup in France this summer as triumphant champions, they’ll come home to open-top bus parades, invitations to No 10 Downing Street and guest spots on chat shows.
Expectation
Of course, many of us have been witness to enough global tournaments that we would not pile such unnecessary expectation on Neville and his squad – or to get carried away by victory in a friendly tournament to the extent that we would indelibly mark the impending World Cup victory on our bodies.
But the manner in which they approached the SheBelieves Cup makes it difficult to remain circumspect.
Neville was clear in that he wished to use the tournament – an invitational one – as a stepping stone to the World Cup. He used phrases like “heading in the right direction” and knew that their opponents were at varying stages of preparation and could therefore be short of full strength.
He also was keen to use as many players in his squad as possible during the three matches in the US – borne out by the eight changes he made for the Japan match from the draw against the hosts over the weekend – to imitate the pressures of a World Cup group stage, as well as working out what he had to work with for the summer tournament.
He said after the Japan win: “You don’t get togetherness with just 11 players. I learnt that in my career, because I wasn’t one of the 11 players all the time, but I was given opportunities.
“We’re always as good as the bench, our strength comes from the bench, including everyone, trusting everyone, believing in everyone, everyone knowing the system.”
Team-building
Whisper it quietly, but from what Neville says, it sounds like he has been building a team, rather than merely coaching a group of players.
There were some outstanding performances during the tournament, particularly in the Japan game.
Keira Walsh’s 40-yard pass for England’s third goal, scored by Beth Mead just 30 minutes into the match, was an absolute stunner.
Jodie Taylor, in her first start for England in five months, was “unbelievable”, according to Neville. She helped set up Lucy Staniforth’s opener and Karen Carney’s strike for the second goal.
Dream a little
So why not dream a little? Why not get a little excited – and have a little belief that England might just win the Women’s World Cup? What’s the worst that could happen? (We know what the worst is, but that discussion is for another time.)
A World Cup win in France this June is far more within the realms of possibility than the hopes the nation had for Sven Goran-Eriksens so-called Golden Generation back in 2002.
For his part, Neville is working towards England’s opening World Cup match, against Scotland in Nice on 9 June, claiming he has “bigger things to aim for” than the medal he picked up in Tampa.
“You don’t get many chances to get your hands on a trophy,” he added. “It is my first as a manager so I am just going to enjoy it. It’s great for everybody but I think we have bigger things to aim for. We will enjoy it but tomorrow we will look forward to the April camp.”
Meanwhile the rest of us can get busy hanging the bunting. Because it is coming home. Probably.
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