Mark Sampson calls Silvia Neid the greatest coach in the history of the women’s game. His admiration is sincere but it has only intensified a long-standing ambition to outwit her on a football pitch.
Neid steps down as Germany coach after the third-place play-off game against England on Saturday and Sampson feels optimistic his Lionesses can spoil her party. Often such squabbles over the bronze medal can be tepid affairs but there is history between these teams.
In England’s view, a tired, three-decades-old narrative – namely that they have never beaten Germany in a women’s game – is long overdue a correction. Both sides had been hoping to be preparing for Sunday’s final in Vancouver but defeats against Japan and the USA respectively, have left them seeking consolatory European bragging rights.
“We can’t win the World Cup, so England v Germany is the next best thing,” Sampson said. “We’re determined to do something we’ve never done before and beat them.”
Then there is the bigger picture. England’s success in reaching a women’s World Cup semi-final for the first time has captured the imagination of a nation but the challenge is to sustain that interest.
“We’d like to think this could be a catalyst to take things on to the next level,” Sampson added. “But there’s an awful long way to go. The team have done their bit, the players have given so much and now it’s a case of passing the baton back to everyone back home. It’s a case of media, supporters, coaches, parents, young girls, accepting that baton and taking the game to the next level.”
He cites Steph Houghton and company as perfect role models. “This team become different people when they pull the jersey on,” he said. “They become the best possible version of themselves.
“We want to achieve something special on Saturday. We’re playing the queens of women’s football – but they’ve just been beaten and Germany don’t usually lose two in a row. They’ve got the greatest coach in the history of the female game and will want to win Silvia’s last match for her. We want to make history.
“The exciting thing about this England team is that they don’t know where the limit is, they want to keep evolving, keep getting better. We feel we’ve put the pride back into English football.”
He hopes the public will say thank you by turning out in force for the women’s FA Cup final between Chelsea and Notts County at Wembley on Saturday 1 August. It will be the first time the domestic showpiece has been staged at the national stadium and represents another stepping stone on the game’s path to credibility. Along the way Laura Bassett hopes to compensate for the searing disappointment of her stoppage-time own goal in the semi-final against Japan by marshalling Notts County’s defence.
“Laura will be absolutely determined to lift the FA Cup,” Sampson said. “She and her team-mates deserve a hero’s welcome when they get home but I’d love it if Britain’s football community could get themselves to Wembley next month. If it’s filled, it will be a real big statement of what this England team’s done and how many people it’s influenced.”
Managers invariably demand increased funding and Sampson is no different as he strives to ensure the Lionesses can compete on the international stage. “There’s been a lot of talk about how much the FA has invested in the women’s game and their support and investment has been outstanding,” he said. “But the English FA is not the only FA doing that.
“I’ve been to France, I’ve seen their youth development programme. And the United States. There are more registered players in the state of New York than the whole of England. That puts it into context, the difficulty we’re facing.
“The powers that be will have to decide if we want to take the game to the next level. Realistically, we’re still not in the world’s top tier. Our domestic competition [the Women’s Super League] is outside the world’s top five.”
This perhaps explains why a clever, deceptively streetwise, coach has suppressed his slick passing instincts to transform England’s class of 2015 into a supremely organised, essentially counterattacking and direct, team of dead-ball specialists who, for all their many virtues, are not great in possession.
“We haven’t had a European Champion at club level for eight years,” Sampson said. “Not all our top-level players are professionals. So there’s still a long, long way to go. We need better coaches, more supporters, more investment. We’ve got to raise the bar and bring more people into our sport.”
An increasing number of Premier League clubs run women’s teams with Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal the pioneers. Sampson would not only like to see every team in the top division following suit but also those further down the League pyramid.
“I hope clubs that don’t have women’s teams have seen something in this World Cup that makes someone say: ‘Why haven’t we got one? Why don’t we have a women’s development section?’
“Without the support of clubs like Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal, we’d find it very difficult to run a professional League. But imagine if every Football League club had a women’s team – wow, what a change we’d see.”
