Top journalist says Falcons expose England as overhyped and not good enough

Top British journalist and author, Ian Herbert on Monday wrote that the Super Falcons exposed Sarina Wiegman led England women's team as an overhyped side that is not as great as they think they are.

Herbert also condemned attempts to justify Lauren James' reckless tackle on Michelle Alozie.

Wrote Herbert,“A protective shield was thrown around Lauren James on Monday night after an act of recklessness in the full glare of England’s big moment on football’s greatest stage.

“Plenty of grounds for mitigation were thrown out by her manager and team-mates. Most of them are nonsense.

‘She’s still young’ and ‘she’s under relentless scrutiny’, they said of a highly paid professional who is 21, not a 16-year-old. Even that old one about the media being a contributory factor was trotted out, in defence of James deliberately standing on an opponent’s back.

‘They put a lot of pressure on her from the outside — the media. She’s a kid,’ said Rachel Daly.

“Of course, no player ever walks out of a dressing room to say a team-mate’s conduct has been reprehensible — and David Beckham and Wayne Rooney can testify to the fact that acts of madness occur on this stage.

“But James is owed no more cover than a 23-year-old Beckham found after bringing back his leg to kick Diego Simeone 25 years ago.

“They say James’s managers have always tried to protect her because of her particular talent, though the problem for her and every other England player on this occasion was a lack of familiarity with an unrelenting physical threat like Nigeria’s.

“They froze, unable to compute a way around the green shirts which pressed the life out of them, challenging them

with a muscularity which bounced them off the ball.

“As the attacking link play dried up and ambitious passes were cut out, England were reduced to stasis — in retreat, constantly playing the ball back and not once producing what a World Cup requires: world-class football, imagination, something dynamic and unexpected.

“Those England players who stopped in the aftermath to discuss the nearly two hours of torture, against a side who also brought organisational discipline to the occasion, showed little willingness to admit that the performance was inadequate.

“England prevailed — and that’s what ultimately counts — but to hear the players speak of ‘pride’ in the display was to wonder which field they had occupied.

“The inconvenient truth is that the performance reinforced what the group stage had hinted at: that they are overhyped and nowhere near as good as they would have us think.

“In the absence of any meaningful explanation, all you could do was take a stab at a rationale. Expectation brings a burden and England wear a target on their backs now they are tournament favourites.

“The Australians in the streets outside wore Nigerian face paint, and the players they were rooting for danced their way into this stadium, singing, laughing, liberated by the sense there was no great expectation.

“Neither Colombia nor Jamaica, in the quarter-finals, are likely to present as tough a test and the best hope is that this performance provokes this team into something considerably better, to propel them into a possible semi-final against hosts Australia.”