What do you do when you’re almost at the top of a mountain, you lose your footing, and you slip down? When you have the character and personality of someone like Sarina Weigman, you try even harder to climb back up.
Wegman hasn’t said specifically yet, but she wants to take charge of the Great Britain team at next year’s Olympic Games. after torment Lost the World Cup final for the second time in a row With a second nation, having already lost to the United States with Holland Four years ago, the 53-year-old wanted it more than ever.
In women’s football, they are excluded from Expose the world championship For decades, the gold medal in the Olympics was the second most prestigious award you could win, after the World Cup.
England They will have to reach the final of GB’s new Nations League competition to qualify, but they’ve shown they’re good enough.
UEFA has only changed the qualification criteria, trying to stir up interest in the glorious friendly tournaments that have already lost interest and relevance in the men’s equivalent. In retrospect, Team GB was already content to go to the Paris Games as a World Cup finalist.
Wiegman went to the Olympics with the Netherlands in Japan In 2021, but it was the Covid games, played in empty stadiums and she was honest enough to admit she didn’t really enjoy them because of that.
“Yes, of course,” she said when the possibility of going to Paris next year was raised last week. “the Olympics [2021] It was a little disappointing because it was in covid, and it was my big dream to go to the Olympics, but the Olympics weren’t like everything, well I’ve said it before, felt like a prison.
“And then football also unites, football brings people together, and that connection wasn’t there.”
Wiegman can’t say she wants the Team GB job, if they qualify. It will have to be invited and the details worked out with the other nations, but that’s the next obvious ambition it must satisfy.
After that, the team will return to preparation for the European Championships in 2025. Lea Williamson, Beth Mead and Fran Kirby should return from injury. Lauren James She will be a better player for her experiences, both good and bad, in the World Cup. The team will be stronger as a result.
This group should stay together until the end The next World Cup. It makes them a threat to everyone they encounter. good like Spain She, England hit the crossbar and James denied the equalizer by making a stunning save. Good margins. As much as this will hurt, they must proceed towards Paris with their heads held high.
Should Team GB not play in the Olympics, Wiegman will be back in action once the disappointment has been addressed and things have been redesigned for the European offensive.
you will do I know she made mistakes. The best managers always do that. She should have started Lauren James instead Ella Tonewho had a bad tournament and was an unknown in the final.
Don’t leave your X-factor player on the bench in a World Cup Final, James is England’s most exciting and explosive player. The fact that Wiegman changed formation, as well as making two first-half substitutions, shows that she knew she got it wrong at the start.
So what comes next? In time, as she sits at home with her family in the Netherlands, Wegman will realize that the answer is relatively simple.
When you come close to conquering the world, without three of your best players, you rearm and attack again. England has her European crown to defend Switzerland In 2025. They will be the team everyone wants to beat and will probably face Spain again, but if you want to build a dynasty, you have to win several tournaments, not just one and lose a final a year later.
As far as they may be interested in it, Wiegman is not interested in the American job at the moment. That could change but she has a contract until 2025 and Nobody ever broke it. Telegraph Sport understands that it has already given its word to FA they intend to continue.
The sting of defeat in Sydney is sure to bolster her desire to come back and try again. She could extend her contract until 2027 for the next World Cup and that is something the FA will be keen to do.
Wegman lost two finals and won the other two. England fell short, just as the Netherlands did in the biggest match of their lives. But she will not accept this as the end of the story.
This is the end of another exciting chapter, but there is another chapter waiting to be written. there always. The Lionesses are still one of the best female teams on the planet. They must go again and will.
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