The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup came to a close Sunday (on FOX and the FOX Sports app) with a thrilling matchup at Sydney's Stadium Australia, where Spain defeated England 1-0 to win its first ever Women's World Cup title.
Still a long way to go, but a good bit of stoppage time can be expected once this game reaches 90 minutes due to the lengthy VAR review, the multiple substitutions by Spain and a player down injured.
A lengthy VAR check sent the referee to the monitor to review a potential handball in the box against England's Keira Walsh. The ball struck Walsh's right hand as she lunged toward her right to impede Mariona Caldentey. The review took several minutes, and the end result was a penalty kick awarded to Spain — a massive, massive decision.
Spain manager Vilda made his first change of the second half by replacing right-winger Alba Redondo with Oihane Hernandez, 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 .
England was performing much better in the first few minutes of the second half. Kelly, one of the halftime substitutes, whipped in a beautiful cross against the high Spanish back line. Lauren Hemp got on the end of the cross at the back post but was unable to direct it on frame. A golden opportunity for England went awry but creating that kind of chance so early in the half should instill some confidence for a team that desperately needs it.
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.
Sure enough, Wiegman made two personnel changes and a formation change at the break. Attackers James and Kelly replaced Alessia Russo and Rachel Daly, respectively, as England shifted to playing four in the back for a revised formation of 4-4-2.
Vilda's team had thoroughly outclassed England through 45 minutes on both ends of the pitch. Offensively, Spain kept 64% possession and out-passed the Lionesses by 303-178. The Spanish had a 5-2 edge in total shots, a 2-0 edge in big chances and teenage sensation Salma Paralluelo struck the outside of the right post just before halftime. Had that ball snuck inside the post, England would have been in a world of trouble at 2-0 down.
Defensively, the waves of pressure from La Roja gave England all kinds of problems. Walsh, Ella Toone and Alex Greenwood were the only English players with at least 80% passing accuracy Sunday, 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 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.
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? Does she change shape by converting from a back three to a back four? Does she introduce star attacker James? 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.
Best spell of possession for England in terms of passes strung together, but the Lionesses were unable to advance the ball out of the defensive third. All they could manage was to play the ball from defender to defender, defender to midfielder, with nothing to break the Spanish lines and push forward.
Meanwhile, the high press and counter-press from La Roja was really causing problems for Wiegman's team. Nearly every location on the field where Spain won tackles came in England's half of the field, demonstrating just how potent and effective its pressing/counter-pressing has been.
Spain survived nearly 15 minutes of stoppage time to secure the victory. A left-footed strike from fullback Olga Carmona in the 29th minute was part of a dominant first half for Spain that proved to be just enough to hold off England.
Two games, two goals for Carmona. It was her strike from outside the box that propelled Spain into the final, and now she surged into the box for a low finish into the bottom-right corner after a turnover from England in the middle of the park. Beautiful placement and control.
Spain is 5-0-0 (W-D-L) in this tournament when scoring first, and 5-1-1 all-time when doing so. What's more, Carmona is the seventh player all-time to score in the semifinals and the final at the same Women's World Cup and is the fourth-youngest goalscorer in a final at 23 years and 69 days old (and the youngest since Alex Morgan in 2011).
Spain's win marked the first time a new World Cup champion was crowned since 2011.
What was interesting about how the game had unfolded up to that point was England's clear intention to counter-attack at maximum speed whenever it won possession. Most people assumed Spain would win the possession battle, but England was compounding that discrepancy by playing at 100 miles per hour and hardly even trying to keep the ball. As soon as Spain turned it over, England was going direct to goal with counter-attack after counter-attack.
It was a bit surprising and a strategy that opened the Lionesses up to early fatigue. Fair to wonder if manager Wiegman will tweak that approach at halftime. Might England be better served by forcing Spain to defend for longer stretches? Teams with less possession can still keep the ball for short spells without going straight to goal.
An early heatmap for Spain showed a clear intention to build down the left-hand side with the trio of Carmona — who scored what proved to be the winning goal in the semifinals on a fizzed shot from outside the box — Hermoso and Caldentey working some excellent combinations to stretch England's defensive shape.
A real cat-and-mouse game in strategy in the first half.
A beautiful layoff by England wingback Daly on the left side of the penalty box teed up a first-time shot from Hemp. The shot had Spanish goalkeeper Cata Coll beat but rattled off the crossbar in what was the chance of the match for either team up to that point.
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