Spain are the new Ladies World football Champions

 Spain are the new Ladies football World Champions

In the end England really couldn't have done a great deal more. The England ladies had gone as far as they could and accepted defeat graciously. For most of the nation, they'd reached the land of fantasy, exceeded all of our expectations and didn't quite cross the finishing line. The World Cup has always been that elusive promised land for the men but for the ladies this narrow defeat to Spain in the World Cup Final represented something much more satisfying than we might have thought at first.

Now it is that women's football is at its highest point, the zenith of its recent development and everything that might have appeared impossible is now achievable. Of course they were beaten by a technically superior Spain side on the day but this was an England side at its most redemptive. They hadn't really impressed throughout the tournament, but rather like the men, they'd tried, laboured at times and then persevered because this is what England teams of any sex normally do when their backs are against the wall. At some point we'll sit down in our local pubs or at work and analyse the enormity of England's achievement even in defeat.

Make no mistake women's football has become  spectacularly successful at every level but you suspect that men are probably wondering how it took the ladies only a couple of attempts at reaching the World Cup Final and the men have been busting a gut since the Crimea War to finally win a World Cup. Or at least it seems that way. 57 years is a long time by any stretch of the imagination but the reality is that our ladies, although outclassed in the end by Spain, still held their heads up high and never flinched from the task at hand.

Last year of course Sarina Wiegman, the Dutch manager of England's noble ladies, guided her England to European Championship victory and a trophy at long last. We'd seen the blue print and template then and how we were blown away by the fearlessness, the ambition the team had shown, the devil-may care adventure of England's attacking approach. England had boldness coursing their veins, a collective work ethos that both stunned and surprised most of us and a red blooded commitment to the cause. They were all in this one together and nothing could stop them. Until, sadly yesterday, when this all felt like one match too far.

But these are revolutionary years for the England's ladies football team. Perceptions have radically changed, stereotypes happily binned and England's women have now something to chew on as food for thought. They may have lost this particular battle but finally the emergence of a proper football team is something we can readily embrace. There's a bright future ahead and nobody should panic since this is quite definitely a positive sporting highlight of the year.

Comparisons of course with 1966 were frequently referenced in the days leading up to this World Cup Final and it may be invidious to quote the men's World Cup Final victory against West Germany with the modern day incarnation. But the girls are making giant strides at getting there, fulfilling rich potential and defying the odds. For a while there were sporadic glimpses of the girls class and style but Spain was a country with perhaps just a tad more streetwise savvy, knowledgeable at all times and more than capable of living with the best.

The fact is that in the heart of Sydney where football takes much more of a low profile in Australia, England went head to head with their Spanish opposition without any signs of debilitating anxiety or nervousness. It must have felt as though England had almost conquered Mount Everest but their crampons on the way to the top had let them down. This now feels like the English mentality on the big occasion. You almost find a way to win but fail to pick up on important parts of the script. Most of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles have now been successfully negotiated but you now feel that all the ladies need is one determined shove towards the winners podium. The men can obviously sympathise.

And yet the Australian public have taken warmly to all of this fuss, commotion and publicity for football's most worldly and finest. This was an improbable setting for a football World Cup and cricket seems to get most of the recognition. The Ashes admittedly remained Down Under and perhaps Australia still take a private satisfaction when the Poms are put in their place. But this is football and not cricket and besides the English summer game is now drawing to its close.

So it was that England, valiant and dogged to the bitter end, seemed to take the game to Spain in the opening phases of last night's game. There was a natural fighting spirit, a clear expression of their intentions on the nights. The ladies had a lovely cohesion about them, a willingness to make the ball work in their favour and they just kept passing in close proximity. But the lack of an attacking cutting edge and lethal penetration in attack blunted England's forward momentum. England had both movement and gallantry on their side but the goals refused to arrive and Spain made their opponents pay.

Soon though Spain showed all of those exotic interpretations of the game, quick passing around their English counterparts like motorway cones. The likes of Jeanni Hermeso, Ona Batlle, Irene Parades , Teresa Abelleira, Laia Codina and Mariona Caldentey combined freely and expansively across the pitch and in vital areas where the maximum damage could be done for Spain. Their passes were almost as honeyed and precise as their male counterparts but there was a coherent structure to the Spanish game that had to be admired. Spain were stylish, spontaneous and delightfully quick witted, an education to watch for learned students of the game. Women's football had come of age.

But after a promising start for England, Spain began to monopolise possession completely, linking their attack together with the kind of  perfect engineering we've come to expect from the men in recent years. Spain's football had by far the greater impact on this match, a side of richly progressive ideals who now had their ultimate prize in their hands. The ball seemed to have an obvious destination at times and Spain's attacking manoeuvres had a cleaner texture, a pleasurable adherence to the game's finer arts.

Sadly though England's ladies could never really find the right buttons to switch. It was all very well intentioned and worthily constructive but goals were never on their menu last night. Jess Carter, the always influential Millie Bright, the eternally busy and industrious Lucy Bronze, eminently skilful Georgia Stanway, the consistently inventive Alex Greenwood, dashing and darting Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp, adventurous Rachel Daly and the incomparably conscientious Alessia Russo up front were all primed and ready to go. But yesterday another long and gruelling season for the ladies seemed to catch up on them.

And finally Spain clinched the only goal of the game. After an impressive spell of commanding the midfield and making their passes stick, Olga Carmona seized the ball outside the English penalty area and drove a powerful shot across Mary Earps in the England goal. From that point onwards the air seemed to have been completely sucked out of the England's players. You knew that this had been a temporary setback but realistically Spain were much the better of the teams and almost had an intuition that this was to be their night. 

So Spain are World football Champions and the English women will return to Heathrow airport wiser than they may have been last year. They are now very much more enlightened about the world game and will presumably prepare for another day with even more confidence. The Super League season on the domestic front is about to be re- launched. It's business as usual for England's ladies and who knows maybe both the men and women may win the World Cup on the same day and time. It is a fond hope and one that has to be clung onto. Well done Ladies.