July 31, 2022, 10:49 a.m. ET
July 31, 2022, 10:49 a.m. ET
LONDON — Sarina Wigman and her players know deep down that the most significant victory has already been won. His spoils can be measured not only by the record attendances and crowds that England generated at Euro 2022, but also by the packed pubs and ubiquitous shirts and, on Sunday, the packed trains traveling to Wembley Stadium for the final against Germany.
It will also become clear in a few years’ time, as England captain Leah Williamson said, when this tournament comes to be seen as a “game changer” for women’s football in England, certainly, and possibly across Europe.
The problem with elite sport, however, is that it’s not that simple. The impact of Euro 2022 on the general public won’t change, of course, whether or not 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. It is one thing to inspire a nation to glory. It’s another to do it with regret. The victory that matters for England is not the philosophical one, but the conceptual one. This is what is achieved in 90 minutes, on the pitch.
Ellen White alternated between cheers and sobs in the emotional run to the finish. Credit… Glynn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
This is also achievable. England went through this tournament with such poise and such grandeur that even Wiegmann admitted that the group stage was “relatively easy”. Her team has only competed once, in a tough quarter-final against Spain; this game also produced the only goal that Mary Earps also allowed. 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 the throes of transition, the older generation gradually giving way to a younger one led by the indomitable Lena Oberdorf, but Germany’s pedigree in this tournament is impeccable: they were crowned champions of the B after all, Europe eight times and has never lost a final he has reached. This iteration picked up speed, surely and diligently, during the tournament. It also knows that it is the victory that counts, the one on which everything depends.
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