Lionesses Are One Game Away

England and Manchester City captain, Steph Houghton has said that the Lionesses reaching the Semi Final of the Women’s World Cup is the biggest game in England women’s football history. While I agree with Houghton I would like to go further and say it is the biggest game in England’s football history, period. Certainly it is the furthest either the senior sides have reached for a quarter of a century when the Men’s side were eliminated from the same position in 1990 in Italy.

In that game England fell away to Germany after a penalty shootout. The two iconic moments of that day belonged to the tears of Turin legend Paul Gascoigne, and of course the fantastic equalizing goal from England striker, Gary Lineker. At the time, he was 29 and playing for Tottenham. Born in Leicester he was one of the players the English hopes were pinned on. The not so secret, secret weapon was Paul Gascoigne. The young 24 year old was capturing the imaginations of young boys all over England, myself included. It was the first and last time I had actually been excited about the Three Lions chances on the Worlds stage.

Now, the Lionesses find themselves in a similar position before tomorrow’s game against Japan and they have managed to do all this while being somewhat under the radar, but what is the secret.

Back in 1990 there were six players who played in every game right up to, and including, the Semi Final. Of those six, four sides were represented. A defensive pairing from Nottingham Forest of Des Walker and Stuart Pearce led to an understanding in that competition. Meanwhile, in attacking positions were the two mentioned earlier, Gascoigne and Lineker both from Tottenham, along with Chris Waddle, who although was at Marseille at the time, had only moved from Tottenham the season earlier. That leaves only the Goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, representing Derby County. I am sure the understanding of working alongside a club team mate gives a side an extra edge when it comes to International games. This year, in the Women’s World Cup, do we see something similar?

Certainly there are a great number of representatives from Birmingham, Arsenal and Manchester City club sides, with those three having thirteen players in the 23 woman squad. The other ten come from five other clubs.

While this certainly would add to an understanding on the training pitch and in games I think another factor behind the success is that there was no expectation on the girls leading up to the tournament. The media were not in a frenzy as they would be if the Men’s side were entering a competition but also the amount of games played in a season are a lot less than the Men’s side. So is it while the World Cup sees a tired Three Lions enter, the Lionesses are warmed up and ready to roar?

I'm not sure that is it either, after all you still have to beat whatever is put in front of you. Most of the major sides in the Men’s World Cup come into the tournament after similar seasons, and yet England very rarely seem up for it and put in a performance. Its a difference between being the England Ladies and the England Lazies!

What I do know is that if England do go all the way and win tomorrow they will, without question, be the most successful English side on foreign soil, win or lose in the Final, and that’s something the whole country should and could really get behind.

Jason is a Freelance Soccer Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @PACityboy and www.facebook.com/jasonbardwell1979