STEPH HOUGHTON: Trouble piles up for Sarina Wiegman, but Chloe Kelly and the England team showed their mental resilience against Nigeria
In tournament football, every time you find a solution, you get a different problem shared.
That’s how it felt on Monday when Keira Walsh returned shortly before we lost our player of the tournament Lauren James.
England in the Euros had a pretty easy sailing in terms of the same formation and team.
But this World Cup feels more representative of what tournament football usually looks like and the problems it throws your way, be it injuries, suspensions or whatever.
At the end of the day it’s about which teams handle it best and so far England have been great.
Sarina Wiegman’s (pictured) England side beat Nigeria 4-2 on penalties on Monday
The Lionesses have qualified for the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup after a dramatic end to the game
But Wiegman’s team was not at its best on Monday, despite keeping a clean sheet with ten players on the field
They weren’t playing at their best, and at times Nigeria seemed more dominant, but England made a point of it.
It was good to see the clean sheet because it shows confidence in the defense. The fact that they only conceded one goal in the tournament is fantastic.
It will serve them very well in the long run to show they can’t let anything go through them after they drop to 10 players.
When I first saw the incident with Lauren, I just thought, “What are you doing?” But she’s young and inexperienced and when you go to these matches emotions can run high, especially at that late moment when you’re desperate to score.
Chloe Kelly (pictured) came forward to score her team’s fifth and winning penalty in the shootout
England players comforted Nigerian goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie (bottom center) after the match
Lauren James (top center) was ejected after stamping Michelle Alozie (bottom center) from Nigeria
This will be a great lesson for Lauren. It’s just a shame it will be to England’s disadvantage as they’ve been the real difference maker so far, but it’s time someone else stepped up now.
It will be interesting to see what Sarina does before the next match against Colombia or Jamaica and if she decides to go back to her usual formation or stick with this new formula without Lauren.
I would like to see Chloe Kelly take over that position, get on the ball and serve the opposition defense. In Chloe, you have a player you can count on to work incredibly hard.
Chloe and the team showed their mental resilience and togetherness in that penalty shootout. They also showed that they want to do something special at this World Cup.