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There remains a space above England’s crest, where that star could have been. It was what Lucy Bronze had dreamt of, ever since the moment where she first played for her country and realised England’s men’s and women’s teams don’t share the same badge. The Lionesses had the chance to change that, the opportunity to add their first star, the moment to capture their 1966. But the wait will now go on. After a historic tournament where the Lionesses again made their mark back home and demonstrated the immense power of what they have created, Sarina Wiegman’s side were left with a devastatingly simple conclusion. As a first Women’s World Cup slipped out of reach, the deflating reality was that, on the day, Spain were just better. And as England’s World Cup came to a close, there was no disgrace in that – certainly not against a side as talented as Spain’s, even with their issues. At full time, as the Spanish players celebrated at one end of the pitch, head coach Jorge Vilda and his staff at the other, Wiegman and her team were a picture of unity in the centre. Even in that moment, they realised they had already managed to achieve something far greater. Wiegman told them they could still be proud, that they had given everything not just in the final but on their journey to reach it. The England manager reminded them of the challenges they had been forced to overcome and the togetherness they had shown to grow through the tournament, right until that final moment. There was pride, too, that the team had given its nation reason to love them even more. “We’re the Lionesses,” Georgia Stanway said afterwards, and that term of itself has become synonymous with their ability to inspire and transcend, to bring a country to a halt and take millions along with them. “We’re not done yet,” Stanway continued. “We’ll continue to break barriers, we’ll continue to push on." This isn’t a team who stands still. The Lionesses have created an identity and image that represents the immense change and progress, and whose performances at the World Cup will result in more. If the impact of last summer’s Euros win is anything to go by, then when the WSL returns there will be bigger attendances, more investment, more growth. Eventually, Mary Earps will get her shirt and when she does it will be another moment to symbolise the power of what the Lionesses have done. And, of course, winning the World Cup would have galvanised that further, but when a team and a manager have a purpose like the Lionesses do then it only becomes a step on the journey. “This group of players are so eager to be successful. We want to grab every moment to be better,” Wiegman said. The World Cup turned out to be the ultimate test of just that, an examination of England’s strength, not that it was ever in doubt. England won fans in a different way to last summer. From the dizzying buzz of the Euros, the Lionesses had to grind it out far away from home in Australia. Wiegman said she had “never faced so many problems” during the World Cup, an admission she made after the Lionesses scraped past Nigeria on penalties in the last-16. From the clarity and continuity of last summer’s Euros, England had anything but at the World Cup and at times were vulnerable to an early exit. Amid the shocks and unpredictability of the group stages, enough teams were succumbing to that particular theme of the World Cup to suggest that England could have quite easily become its latest victim. England’s players had set the bare minimum of the semi-finals yet the way the Lionesses played in their first two matches against Haiti and Denmark suggested even that was a stretch. Yet England managed to overturn it – they didn’t accept their fate and instead found something new, creating a new formation that breathed new life into their campaign. In the knockout stages, they showed resilience and mentality, and in the semi-finals against Australia they produced the performance of their campaign, a gutsy win in the back garden of a traditional sporting enemy, and the sort of performance that the nation back home could be proud of. The regret was they were unable to replicate it in the final, even though Wiegman insisted she had none from a final where Spain ultimately showed their class. It spared the grand inquest into England’s World Cup that would have inevitably followed a defeat to Nigeria in the last-16 or Colombia in the quarter-finals. Even without Beth Mead, Leah Williamson and Fran Kirby, England showed where they stand in the power rankings to reach the final. Defeat there is not the end of anything, rather a continuation of a journey. As for what is next, the answer is invariably more football, yet more opportunities. England will need to perform well in the inaugural Women’s Nations League and reach the final in order to guarantee qualification to next summer’s Olympics in Paris, a competition Wiegman is determined to be at after a miserable experience with the Netherlands at the ‘Covid Games’ in Tokyo in 2021. Then it’s 2025, and the defence of the Euros. As England pick themselves to go again, it will be a priority for the FA that Wiegman is there for the next World Cup. Wiegman’s contract is until 2025 and while she has made it clear that she is happy with England and the support of the team, the Dutch coach will undoubtedly attract interest from elsewhere. The FA would be wise to act swiftly. Certainly, when Wiegman is paid an annual salary of £400,000 to Gareth Southgate’s £5m, it is clear where the FA could make a statement of how much they value Wiegman and the job she has done for English football and the exponential growth of the Lionesses. In the aftermath of another World Cup final defeat, after also losing at that point with the Netherlands in 2019, Wiegman admitted that thinking four years ahead was too far away. But the reality is some players may have already had their last opportunity, particularly Bronze. The right-back had reached the semi-finals in 2015 and 2019, then had the historic high of breaking the barrier and reaching England’s first World Cup final, only for it to be followed by the crushing low of losing the ball in the build-up to Olga Carmona’s goal. It’s the cold reality of World Cup finals, where the opportunity to be champions only comes along every four years. It is exactly why it is the game’s greatest stage and why defeat on it, of being so close but remaining so far away, is the most heartbreaking of all. For Bronze and England the chance to claim the World Cup was right there, and, while the Lionesses may bask in the seismic impact of their achievements back home, it is the thought of that missing star that will remain with them for at least another four years. Read More England suffer World Cup heartache as brilliant Spain show Lionesses what’s missing A change too far? England’s last roll of the dice comes up short How not to win a World Cup: Spain, Jorge Vilda and the story of a complicated victory How not to win a World Cup: Spain, Jorge Vilda and the story of a complicated victory The vital lesson England must take to ‘continue breaking barriers’ England players ‘heartbroken’ after World Cup final defeat to Spain

The defenders have got more Premier League assists than the midfielders and the forwards have between them. The defensive midfielders have three times as many league goals as the many forwards have mustered. Welcome to Manchester United, where few things go quite as planned, where Saturday’s spectacular salvage job from a fan who has been on the books for two decades involved a brace from Scott McTominay, not Marcus Rashford. They trailed for an hour against Crystal Palace. It is the sort of scenario in which managers rarely replace their top scorer. Yet as their leading marksman is another defensive midfielder, Casemiro, that was not the most notable element of his half-time removal. Nor, even, was it Erik ten Hag’s somewhat brutal explanation for introducing Christian Eriksen. “I wanted more football,” the United manager said. “Someone who brings passing and link-up play.” The Brazilian had brought passing: he passed the ball to Bryan Mbuemo to set Brentford on their way to an opener, a goal for which he arguably made three mistakes. And yet the pertinent part was simply the fact he was taken off. Ten Hag’s talismen are no longer untouchables. Rashford has been taken off in the last three games, each at a point when United needed a goal. And if suggests that neither status nor last season’s excellence can protect them forever, it is also an indication that each ranks among this season’s disappointments. All of which meant Casemiro’s status as an award winner was revealing of a wider malaise at Old Trafford. He had won September’s player-of-the-month prize with a whopping 70 percent of the vote. Perhaps a tour de force in the Carabao Cup victory over Crystal Palace, along with some recency bias, helped. Maybe a brace against Bayern Munich did, too, though it came too late to be relevant. Yet it pointed to a lack of alternatives: by Casemiro’s standards, he did not play well in September. It will be still more damning if he retains the award for October. Casemiro’s two appearances this month have ended early: sent off against Galatasaray, hauled off against Brentford, there were two warning signs. The first came from the officials, the second from the manager. If his red card in the Champions League owed much to Andre Onana, with Casemiro’s desperate slide at Dries Mertens coming after the goalkeeper had coughed up possession, it nevertheless felt symbolic. Casemiro’s tackling technique means he goes to ground too often. As he is getting slower, he is likelier to foul. The naked eye suggests he has been exposed, isolated and bypassed too often, in part when Ten Hag’s tactics have left him stranded behind Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount. The statistics show the supposed ball-winner is regaining it less often. In turn, that may mean he is sent off more often. Casemiro is making fewer interceptions: 0.69 per 90 minutes, compared to 1.43 last season and 2.17 for Real in 2020-21. His 2.91 tackles per 90 minutes is down from 3.77. He is winning fewer than half of his duels, according to Soccerment statistics. To put it another way, the defensive midfielder is not protecting the defence. The goals and assists that he, Scott McTominay and the back four have got are welcome but the defensively-minded personnel have failed to do their day job too often. If Onana is the most obvious culprit, he is not the only one. The intriguing element was that, arguably, Brentford was the first time where Casemiro began in midfield but not as the holding player. With Sofyan Amrabat starting in his preferred position, ending the unsuccessful experiment of deploying the Moroccan at left-back, Casemiro was often found in more advanced areas. As Ten Hag indicated, Eriksen is more of a playmaker and was then granted those duties instead. Yet as Casemiro’s United career shows, he can be both scorer and creator. He has the talent to contribute as each. Perhaps his future could lie as a constructive presence. Yet he was bought as a destructive one. His growing immobility provides a concern that this is not just a loss of form or an issue with United’s tactics. There is the opportunity to look for more solidity by pairing Casemiro and Amrabat in front of the back four. But there is the ticking timebomb that came with his transfer. Real Madrid pensioned Casemiro off, taking £63m for a player in his thirties. He has almost three years left on one of the biggest contracts in United’s history. He would not be the first player to be paid to decline at Old Trafford; perhaps now Ten Hag has signalled to Casemiro that he has to prove he is not a fading force, that his past and his Champions Leagues are no guarantee of a place when Amrabat could play instead. “In football it is eat or get eaten,” the United manager said. If Casemiro polished off the partnership of McFred, Saturday was one of the finest days of McTominay’s United career, and among the worst of his. Read More Arsenal deal substantial blow to Manchester City, but the significance will only be felt in May Erik ten Hag wants Man Utd late show to be ‘a turning point’ Erik ten Hag reveals how close Manchester United came to selling Scott McTominay Rasmus Hojlund says Manchester United must ‘stick together’ in ‘tough period’ Erik ten Hag vows to fight on ‘together’ with Manchester United Jude Bellingham helps Real Madrid to victory and Bayern Munich hit back to win

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VANCOUVER, Canada--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 5, 2023--