By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Until Sunday, August 20, 2023, Spain had never won the FIFA World Cup title at the women’s senior level but all that changed after Olga Carmona’s goal in the 29th minute was all Spain needed to win its first World Cup title.
In fact, Sunday was Spain’s first appearance in the final and La Roja’s third appearance in the global football fiesta held every four years. The furthest Spain went previously was the Round of 16 in 2019 in France.
Only Spain’s youth teams have made it a habit of playing in World Cup finals just as sensational
Salma Paralluelo was part of the Spain team that won the FIFA U-20 World Cup last year. It was its first title at that level after finishing as the runner-up in 2018. The U-17 team, however, won its second consecutive World Cup title last year.
While there’s no guarantee that success at the youth level will translate to the senior level, it does signal that Spain has a very robust pipeline.
But Spain, which was ranked sixth in the monthly FIFA Ranking coming into the tournament in Down Under has become the lowest-ranked team to ever win a women’s World Cup.
The title will be seen by some as vindication for Head Coach, Jorge Vilda, who blackballed all but three players who last year protested the team environment he had created. It can be argued that it is their spectacularly skilled players, not Vilda’s tactics, that fueled this World Cup win.
However, nobody can deny the fact that Vilda’s superior tactics and technical prowess ensured Spain shredded England’s left side and forced turnover after turnover as one of those led to Carmona’s goal.
Spain took the ball away from Lucy Bronze at midfield and lofted it to the left side of the field, where Mariona Caldentey picked it up. She dribbled up the field before slipping the ball to Carmona, who beat goalkeeper Mary Earps in the far corner.
England had its chances, and Earps’ save of a Jenni Hermosa penalty kick seemed to give the European champions renewed energy. But they couldn’t finish and, ultimately, couldn’t keep pace with the new World Cup champions.
It may have been a low-scoring game, but the 2023 World Cup final had plenty of highlights, from an impressive Olga Carmona goal for Spain to a wild, and awesome, save from England goalkeeper Mary Earps who saved Jennifer Hermoso’s late penalty to give England hope of turning the match around.
Indeed, it was more of a ‘brain game’ for two master tacticians as the two Head Coaches Vilda and Wiegman kept changing formations during the epic clash.
Credit to England manager (Wiegman) for her halftime changes as the second-half possession numbers now favor England 53% to 47%, while the introduction of Lauren James and Chloe Kelly really gave the Lionesses some pace and some life on the flanks. A significant turnaround from the opening 45 minutes.
An early look at James and Kelly through the opening 12 minutes of the second half showed that they were doing what Wiegman wanted them to do: stretch the field laterally by providing width in the attack. James had more of a license to drift infield than Kelly, who was essentially playing along the touchline.
Wiegman who set her team up in a 3-4-1-2 formation in the first half made a formation change at the break, she introduced attackers James and Kelly to replace Alessia Russo and Rachel Daly, respectively, as England shifted to playing four in the back for a revised formation of 4-4-2.
Defensively, the waves of pressure from La Roja gave England all kinds of problems. Kelly Walsh, Ella Toone and Alex Greenwood were the only English players with at least 80% passing accuracy on the day, while the Spanish had seven such players.
The high press from Spain made it difficult for England to play out from the back, which forced the Lionesses to rely on speculative long balls toward forwards Russo and Lauren Hemp.
And the counter-press from Spain, which rockets into gear the moment La Roja gives the ball away, afforded England no time to breathe and reset.
At this point, there was plenty for Wiegman to ponder at halftime. Does she commit to playing a lower block defensively and fortify the penalty area with extra bodies or does she change shape by converting from a back three to a back four?
There are no easy answers for a team that struggled to keep possession and dedicated 17.4% of its passes to low-percentage long balls in an effort to generate counter-attacks
It was no surprise that England players will tire out late on as England began to look leggy and fatigued as stoppage time got underway.
All that defending and high-speed counter-attacking England did in the opening 45 minutes was so taxing, and it was fair to wonder if the Lionesses were running out of gas after chasing shadows in the first half and efforts to remedy the situation failed to yield any positive result as Spain ran away with 1-0 win to lift the coveted trophy for the first time-ever.
But credit for Spain’s victory should go to the impressive tactical prowess of coach
Jorge Vilda and his team’s game management ability. Spain began to string together passes for longer spells of possession during the match.
The La Roja has been the best team in this year’s tournament at keeping the ball and dominating matches with volume passing. READ ALSO:
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Some proper gamesmanship from the Spanish, who were milking every free kick and every stoppage-a few seconds here, a few seconds there. Knowing how to close out games is a skill, and Spain did a nice job.
Spain manager Vilda made his first change of the second half by replacing right-winger Alba Redondo with Oihane Hernandez in the 60 minute, which was an interesting move considering Hernandez primarily plays as a defender.
She was slotted in along the right wing where Redondo had been playing. Perhaps Vilda wanted a more defensive-minded player in that position as Spain continued to protect its 1-0 lead.
Spain survived nearly 15 minutes of stoppage time to secure its first World Cup trophy. The win marked the first time a new World Cup champion was crowned since 2011.
