Finalissima
England’s national team can feel right at home in the first Women's Finalissima.
When it comes to women’s football I really don’t bite hard enough to justify my bark.
I’m fiercely in favour of the game developing with the backing of governing bodies and the support of the public, both in order to grow at the professional level and to provide grassroots participation opportunities where they matter most.
2023 is my twentieth year of writing about football but I can count the number of pieces I’ve written about women’s football on the fingers of one hand and that includes the one below.
I don’t write about women’s football for the same reason I don’t write about ice hockey, the NFL or speedway: I spend so much time watching men’s football that there aren’t enough hours in the day to take in enough to know what the hell to say about them no matter my interest in them.
It’s also not my story to tell as a middle-aged white man who grew up in the early years of the Premier League. Men’s football, for all its corrupting influences and enormous flaws, has had it easy.
In the same time the women’s game has battled back from adversity, grown, matured and started to find its feet again in England. I’m happy and grateful that’s the case but I’ve no more right to take a position on it than to extol the aviation safety virtues of TCAS.
At least, it wasn’t my story to tell until last summer. Those Lionesses got me good.
Finalissima
Among my favourite footballers you'll find three Lionesses. Rachel Daly, the impossibly versatile former Houston Dash player who's been tearing up the Women's Super League with my club, Aston Villa, is one.
Beth Mead, the star player in England's European Championships win is another. Millie Bright, the embodiment of ‘my sort of centre back’ in the women's game, is the third. Fabulous footballers all, and winners to boot.
This Thursday I’ll attend a women’s fixture for the first time. By dint of their EURO win England take on Copa América Femenina winners Brazil in the inaugural Women’s Finalissima, an intercontinental battle of champions at Wembley. Well, why not start at the top?
Finalissima is a nonsense, of course. Ceremonial football is the sparkly tuxedo of a sport built in the dirt. The European and South American confederations have a shiny partnership – a memorandum of understanding, to be precise – with London as its base and FIFA and the threat of a European Super League as its justification.
Thursday’s showpiece occasion is a product of that understanding, which promises more intercontinental action in the years to come. It launched in earnest last June with the men’s equivalent between Italy and Argentina, also played at Wembley, with relatively little fanfare. Argentina won 3-0, retaining the title 29 years after winning it in the first place.
Despite the chasm between the glitz and the modest audience on the night, last year’s Finalissima – only the third time the champions of Europe and South America have gone toe to toe for intercontinental honours – was a thoroughly enjoyable game. Argentina were magnificent, so much so that their more famous next success wasn’t much of a surprise.
For that reason and others I can’t quite put my finger on, I’ve found myself uncharacteristically positive about Finalissima. It has a stupid name. It’s political. It’s pompous and unnecessary. But it’s fun.
As the women’s game in England grows the alignment of the stars could hardly be better. Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses won their first major tournament on home soil and captured the imagination of a football nation with their attacking play. The team became household names in a matter of weeks and interest in women’s football got a boost in terms of both spectating and participation.
The England team have also become spokespeople for a better future for girls’ sport in schools and beyond, emboldened by the esteem in which they’re held by the English football public. Now, as the Women’s Super League season approaches its conclusion, they unite once more for another big occasion.
Winning at Wembley won’t make the Lionesses world champions – that quest is still to come – but it would be one hell of a feather in the cap and a fitting end to a triumphant EURO cycle. Wembley will be packed again. Finalissima is part test of strength and part victory lap. It’s fantastic for women’s football and I can’t wait.
Seeing the Lionesses under the floodlights of Wembley is something I consider a privilege, not least because I’m a latecomer to women’s football and feel rather regretful that I didn’t commit to attending the European Championships.
If Wiegman follows the trend set by Roberto Mancini and Lionel Scaloni last summer and names a team close to the one that got England to Finalissima, I can hope to see Daly in the flesh for the first time. Mary Earps, Lucy Bronze, Leah Williamson, Georgia Stanway, Ella Toone, Keira Walsh, Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly and Alessia Russo all featured heavily in the European Championships and are in the squad for this international week.
Bright unfortunately had to withdraw from the squad and Mead’s anterior cruciate ligament rupture in November seems certain to keep her out of contention for the upcoming World Cup too. That’s double gutting.
There was a time when Marta was the world’s most famous female football player. Now playing in the USA at the age of 37 with 115 international goals to her name, Marta has been crowned the best female footballer on the planet on no fewer than six occasions. She’s in Pia Sundhage’s squad and Finalissima would be her 176th international cap. That’s the sum total of my knowledge about this Brazil team.
Adriana, Marta’s team-mate at Orlando Pride, is one of four US-based players joining the legendary forward in London. She scored five times in the Copa América Femenina last year.
Sundhage has named one player who earns her living in London. Raffaele plays with Williamson in Jonas Eidevall’s Arsenal defence. Geyse, who scored in the Copa final, is a club team-mate of Bronze and Walsh at Barcelona.
In all honesty, England could be playing anyone on Thursday and it wouldn’t make a difference to me. While I’m looking forward to seeing the South American champions, my short pilgrimage to Wembley isn’t for them.
Finalissima is a Wembley homecoming for a team that thrilled and entertained me last summer and capped it off with a dramatic final win against Germany. I’m there to pay homage as much as to see Daly do her thing up close for the first time. The mighty Lionesses deserve nothing less.
“There’s a way to win, you know.”
The words of one silly duffer behind the goal after abusing Coventry Sphinx supporters as they passed by on the way out of the stadium at the end of their win on Saturday. He was shocked and appalled that we responded by exaggerating our celebrations. Shocked and appalled, I tell you.
Salty beef extracts
Inside the crisis of violence threatening park football’s future (i)
Hummel Launch Denmark 2023 Home Shirt (SoccerBible)
Malaga: From Champions League to inescapable nightmare in 10 years (BBC Sport)
Premier League tightens ownership rules to stop human rights abusers running a club (BBC Sport)
Quick, shut the stable door or that horse over there galloping over the horizon might get out…
Goal of the Week
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Enjoyed this. I am feeling a bit bandwagon-y with women’s football, having really only paid it any attention in the last 18 months or so. But now my 12 year old daughter is playing for a team, we’ve been to half a dozen games in the last year and we too are off to the Finalissima. All good!