England 2-1 Colombia (Hemp 45+’, Russo 63’| Santos 44′)
SYDNEY — The moments after your country concedes a goal in a major tournament knockout match produce a universal feeling, that awful dull thud just below the belly button. You knew this could happen, it has happened before and yet here you are, wholly unprepared for the repeat.
It is the middle of the Venn diagram between unrequited ambition and the emptiness that greets every tournament elimination. And it sucks.
Players feel it too. They may talk about belief, resilience and never-say-it’s-over strength, but those are mostly grand plans based in principle not reality. You can feel it in the sheepish looks that stick around for one second too long. Your worst nightmare is happening and, on some level, it’s all your fault.
For England, the soundtrack to that momentary doubt was 30,000 Colombians who have made this World Cup their second home. The anthem was roared by each player as if they were paid by the decibel.
Around the bowl of Stadium Australia, those in canary yellow roared back. Colombia never expected to get this far. They made certain to treat each second of their knockout stage participation as a reason for fanfare. This small corner of Sydney was deafening.
England stared all that in the face and still they keep on keeping on. They conceded their first goal from open play. They trailed for the first time. And they became the first team at this tournament to fall behind in a knockout game and get through anyway.
They did not panic, not beyond the usual. They are getting used to getting it done. If they are specialising at being just a little better than each opponent, that’s a handy habit.
Colombia were all they expected and all they could be. Linda Caicedo troubled England’s right-back – Lucy Bronze vs the Golden Girl. Leicy Santos produced a chip that was either a lucky cross or impudent finish; make your own call.
The physicality that had littered pre-match discussion hit you in the face (literally, in the case of Rachel Daly). Colombia are relentless and there is no country at this tournament better at nudging players just as they are off-balance.
The saving goal, the one that breathed life and hope all at once, was a wretched error from Colombia goalkeeper Catalina Perez.
But England have been waiting all tournament for something to fall their way, something unearned that you gobble up greedily. They have slogged and battled for their goals – here was a glorious freebie.
But then luck tends to land at the homes of those who make it feel welcome. England were far better back in Sydney – the cumbersome, clumsy weekend in Brisbane can be forgotten now.
The passing was quicker through midfield, players taking two touches rather than four.
Ella Toone dipped into space in a way that Lauren James could not manage in the last-16. Lauren Hemp ran and ran, with and without the ball and was probably England’s best player for the example she set.
And Alessia Russo is back, if one goal is all it takes. She is still not the perfect target striker and she was muscled off the ball repeatedly when receiving passes with back to goal. But she also has that unshakeable, unbreakable confidence that is easily the most astounding aspect of young, elite sportspeople.
She had one clear chance in each half against Colombia. The second was drilled low and hard and true and England had their handhold in the cliff face.
Ten minutes before the end of normal time, before the agony of the nu-style stoppage-time extension, a group of England supporters began to bang the advertising hoardings in the third tier of the ground. It’s the simplest chant of them all: “Duh duh, duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh-duh, England”. They had probably tried six or seven times over the course of the match. This was the first time they made themselves heard.
The staccato rhythm of the majority – “Co. Lom. Bia.” – had been silenced. Another country had been defeated. England walk into the rarefied air again. They reached the semi-final of the 2015 World Cup, the 2019 World Cup and the 2023 World Cup. The other nations that have managed that? None. And doesn’t it feel good.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3gPNV1L
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