“I’m really proud of this team,” she said after the wear and tear at the gigantic Yokohama Stadium. “It says something about the growth of this team that we made it so difficult for America.” “This team can continue to do this, and the players will continue to grow in this as well. We want to show who we are as a team and allow people to enjoy TV at home. We put together a great match. But in the end we are empty-handed and disappointment reigns.”
Wijmann, 51, hopes to be able to bid farewell to Lewinen with an Olympic medal. The final award would have been after a 4.5-year period in which footballers found the connection with the world summit. The orange team won the European Championship in their country in the summer of 2017, six months after Wegmann was promoted from assistant to national coach. As European champions, footballers had to deal with a different style of expectation. Opponents also began to focus more on Orange. Nevertheless, Wegman was able to continue developing her team.
At the 2019 World Cup, footballers reached the final, which showed that the difference with the United States – the number one country in women’s football – is still huge. As a bonus, the orange also held an Olympic ticket to the World Cup. In Japan, she entered a new confrontation with “Team USA”. This time, Wiegman’s team managed to put up a serious resistance. The Orange team grew after a poor start to the game so that they had a chance to score the winning goal 10 minutes from the end, but Lieke Martens missed a penalty. After 120 minutes of football, the penalty shootout went completely wrong.
“This comes as a sledgehammer,” said Wigman, who is now England manager. “Not because this was my last game, but because we didn’t finish. We fought, there was a strong, resilient team on the field. I would have given this team a lot to keep going. But yeah, that doesn’t count us at the top of the sport. We deserved more, but that doesn’t matter either. I can’t help but be proud of what we’ve shown. We leave it behind so much. It was a wonderful, wonderful time, one that I will never forget.”
