Olympic qualifiers don't need a re-think, it rewards perfection
There will be no Team GB in Paris next summer after a dramatic final round of UEFA Nations League games, but they didn't earn their spot on the pitch across six matches...
Lucy Bronze sunk to the floor and put her head in her hands. Ella Toone’s smile was instantly wiped from her face. Mary Earps turned around and walked off inconsolable. Lauren Hemp gestured her frustration as she stared at the phone screen. Even the unflinching Sarina Wiegman couldn’t hide her disappointment.
Have you ever seen a team look so collectively disconsolate after a 6-0 win?
Probably not, but such is the brutal reality of a combination of a new, competitive - and dramatic! - UEFA Nations League format, plus the nature of only a couple of Olympic spots for each continent on offer.
For a minute, it looked like the UEFA Nations League finals – and a potential spot in Paris next summer – had evaporated for the Lionesses when Damaris Egurrola sunk the third goal for the Netherlands in Tilburg.
Seconds later, Bronze headed home a dramatic sixth to put England back top of the group, before eDamaris rose higher still to nod home a fourth, with England already done, circled around watching the game on a phone after their dismantling of Scotland had ended.
I’ve been a big backer of the Nations League and it has fully delivered, though not even the most optimistic script writer could have come up with what unfolded between Glasgow and Tilburg on Tuesday night.
Elsewhere Denmark will rue not making Germany pay for an underwhelming draw in Wales, and Olympic finalists Sweden face a relegation play-off as opposed to another shot at a medal. It’s that brutal.
It has seen the best go up against the best, with the smallest mistakes punished, and the fact the same format will be used for the Euro 2025 qualifiers is a mouth-watering prospect, with the alterations of those promoted and relegated either now or in February’s play-offs.
In the end, two of Netherlands, Spain and Germany will be the ones to join hosts France at the Olympics next summer, and that’s fine. England (or Team GB) have no divine right to be there as European champions and World Cup runners-up.
It’s not about the past, but the present, and while the drama of Tuesday night will remain at the forefront of people’s minds, Damaris’s late header was not where this was lost.
Across six games, England never found top gear until they had no other choice but to, and even then they may rue the 40 minutes between their fifth and sixth goals to have not poured more pain on their neighbours and ensure it was taken out of the hands of the Dutch.
They will be disappointed they let the late goal in the Netherlands slip and probably even more so the defeat in Belgium.
They gave themselves a mountain to climb, nobody else did.
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The Olympics is a truly worldwide event and while in England and many other places around Europe, the competitiveness and history of the European Championships, plus the fact it’s solely a football-based event, may see it take precedent in the minds of many, there’s no doubt missing out on Paris is a blow, both on and off the field.
Yes, players will now gain what is probably a much-needed rest if you’re looking for a silver lining, but the reactions of those England players on the Hampden Park turf showed they are not interested in a rest.
Because while football only makes up part of the show at an Olympics rather than being the main event, it’s a truly worldwide global phenomenon where the best of the best from dozens of sports come together in front of the eyes of all five continents.
That in itself is the essence of why qualification is – and should be – so tough. Europe is a hot bed for women’s football right now, but it doesn’t mean it has any more right to a spot where every single country competes than anywhere else.
In truth, Europe gets more spots than it usually would due to being hosted on the continent, and the fact the other continents also get two spots each is absolutely fair, particularly when we saw what South America, Asia and Africa had to offer in Australia and New Zealand.
The main issue is that it probably needs expanding, in more ways than one. Not to benefit England, not to benefit any one nation in fact, but just because the quality is there. The World Cup proved 32 teams didn’t dilute the quality, so a small rise from 12 to 16 nations shouldn’t be too much to ask for.
The 18-player squads needs a rethink too, especially given the questions around the current schedule. For those who do go, they could conceivably be looking at five tournaments in five summers come Euro 2025, and we should be looking at expanding the numbers rather than narrowing them down.
That was a particular problem for Team GB in Tokyo and would have been this time around too. Wiegman has a tough enough time picking just 23 players for England squad, so to drop five and have to take into account the player pool of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would have once again felt somewhat backwards.
Team GB is not a popular concept for many, and the reasons are understandable, but for me I think it’s important Team GB is there, if earned on merit of course. A lot of the complaints regard the fact the squad would be mostly English, but given that’s where most of the best players are, that’s somewhat understandable, no?
That’s not to suggest others wouldn’t make it. Based on form pre-injury, Caroline Weir would have walked into the squad, while the likes of Erin Cuthbert and Kirsty Hanson in particular would make a solid argument, as would the likes of Wales trio Jess Fishlock, Hayley Ladd and Sophie Ingle at the very least.
Ingle and Weir were selected in Tokyo, as was Kim Little pre-international retirement, and all added quality on top of the Lionesses core.
England are European champions and currently one of the best teams in the world, so it’s hardly a surprise it would be an England-heavy squad and why they were the ones nominated to try and get Team GB over the line.
Tuesday night only shone a further light on the gap between the Lionesses and the remaining home nations, albeit Scotland should be much more the sum of their parts than what they’ve shown on recent form, but that’s another story.
But, it’s all ifs, buts and hypotheticals, because it won’t be Team GB, with Wiegman denied by the nation she calls home. Somewhat poetic, in a way. That conversation can be put away until Los Angeles, 2028.
The bigger picture away from domestic-based disappointment is this format worked, and it worked in brilliant fashion. It also gave those at the bottom a taste of success, and has rewarded those who deserved it and punished those who under-performed even slightly.
The Olympics won’t be worse off for no Team GB either. There’s a USA under the guidance of a certain Emma Hayes, a France side who have looked rejuvenated under Hervé Renard competing on home soil, a Brazil team who look like getting better with experience, defending gold medalists Canada, Colombia and their exciting young talents such as Linda Caicedo, plus two of Netherlands, Germany and world champions Spain.
The rest is to be decided, but it looks like there’s every chance Africa’s two spots will come down to the four nations who shone on the world stage last summer, while Australia and the exciting Japan side we all thrived on watching could also still join the party.
A pretty stacked dozen, by anyone’s standards.
"Yes, players will now gain what is probably a much-needed rest if you’re looking for a silver lining, but the reactions of those England players on the Hampden Park turf showed they are not interested in a rest."
its incredible that this point is being used so widely as more of a "actually, this is a good thing" by much of the media in the aftermath.
the sentence quoted above is as much as it should be given mouth service which i appreciate given the knots others are tying themselves into to all but call this a sly tactical move by the Lionesses to give themselves some rest before the Euros. absolute nonsense.
ask 32 year old Bronze if she would have preferred a summer break in Ibiza or a chance to go to one last Olympic games? next time the Guardian interview Mary Earps, i hope they ask her if she thinks - as the Guardian do - that theres a massive silver lining to missing out on perhaps her only chance to compete in an olympics at 31 years old.
we've seen current media who have credit in the bank in this space cop to "the Olympics has never been important to European nations anyway". like, give us all a break. Beth Mead just missed one world cup in her later prime and now will not have a chance at competing for a gold medal in France next summer as she returns to full fitness & smart people are celebrating that 18 players won't be playing six games next summer as some sort of win for players wellbeing. no time for that & i appreciate how little you allow that nonsense into this review.
Just adding Rachel Rowe to the list of Welshies Sarina might have had to deliberate over, she was outstanding for Wales v Germany yesterday, my POTM personally.