The Lionesses will roar

 The Lionesses will roar.

This may be the right time for the gentlemen of the world to take a back seat or just drool with admiration. Besides it's taken us 57 years to redress the gender balance and we're still knocking on the same door without finding the key. So it is that with some reluctance and a heavy heart we acknowledge our flaws, weak spots, footballing shortcomings, the demoralising recognition of failure after failure. The men of the football world will sit in their local pubs, homes and sports clubs, silently realising that we just can't crack the code, decipher the indecipherable and work out exactly why the World Cup is just beyond us.

Tomorrow the England women open their World Cup opening group match against Haiti. Our standards are now naturally high and expectations realistic but this has to be England's turn to steal the thunder of their menfolk. We have plumbed the lowest depths of humiliation over the years and we've seen it all happen before fizzling out into dumbstruck disappointment. The men have got so far into tournament football and then tripped over a paving stone at the last and vital hurdle. We should be accustomed to these repetitive setbacks but never do so. We build our hopes up and then get excited about nothing in particular. It's our default mechanism, the way we always do things in England.

But this time it feels like optimism will finally land on the right side for England. England's Dutch manager Sarina Wiegman is now responsible for the toughest gig in world football, converting a team of European champions into the world's best. Her task of course is a daunting one since whereas Europe seemed a more straightforward conquest now the world  has converged on both Australia and New Zealand. World domination is something completely different, the global challenge, powerful continents across the world united with a common purpose and countries with specific agendas and mentalities. It's all very exciting and real.

Last year in the women's Euro tournament England finally broke the men's hoodoo with a collective ethos and togetherness that lasted for ages. For the first time in decades, a sporting team and ensemble promise so much that we just assume that the World Cup will be lifted quite easily and confidently. You could say we've become ever so bold and blase. It has to be our moment in the sun. There is a spirit and cohesion about the England's women team that we simply took for granted, a joie de vivre that has only rarely been in evidence in the men's game up until very recent years when Gareth Southgate changed things radically.

And yet here we are again at the business end of international tournament football. It's all very nail biting and fascinating because we think it's going to be our turn on the winners podium. When Chloe Kelly whipped off her shirt and whirled it above her head for England's winning goal against Germany in last year's Euro final we were witnessing history in the making, the first ever team to win a prestigious international trophy since 1966. So we got out our rattles and scarves and celebrated with an appropriate happiness.

After all the West End of London revelries, the girls lined up in front of the media cameras and danced joyously for what seemed like the rest of the afternoon and deep into the evening. Kiera Walsh had given the ladies a well deserved goal and from that point on, England overwhelmed the Germans with cleverly constructed and patiently measured football that the boys must have wished they could produce more consistently.

Tomorrow though the whole of England will once again camp out at a multitude of bars, fan zones, leisure centres, parks, gardens, at home and even restaurants where football appetites will surely be satisfied. We will drape St George's flags all over our living rooms, hang Union Jacks from every roof and gable conceivable before embarking on a culinary binge of good natured alcohol, pies oozing with patriotic flavours and sandwiches from the finest bakeries. Of course we will be there in our numbers, families, colleagues, friends, neighbours. Oh what England would give for another dose of 1966. The nation has unwavering support for every 90 minutes. Go for it, ladies.