Much-Maligned Jorge Vilda Leads Spain To Victory In Women’s World Cup

Spain has become the second nation to win the men’s and women’s World Cup after the much-maligned Jorge Vilda led his country to victory in the Women’s World Cup final.

Winners of the men’s World Cup thirteen years ago in South Africa, their women’s team, competing in only their third-ever World Cup tournament, have matched their feats in the Southern Hemisphere, defeating European champions England 1-0 at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

The only goal came in the 29th minute when Barcelona full-back Lucy Bronze surged forward into Spanish traffic and lost the ball. Teresa Abelleira swung the ball into the space vacated by Bronze to Mariona Caldentey who waited for left-back Olga Carmona to overlap before slipping the ball into her path. Carmona who scored the dramatic last-gasp winner in the semi-final against Sweden, struck an unerring shot across Mary Earps into the bottom left corner of the net.

For England, only previously defeated once in their last 38 matches, it was a match too far. Their best chances fell to Lauren Hemp who struck the crossbar in the 16th minute and then flashed a golden chance wide early in the second half following a wicked cross by Chloe Kelly.

Spain should have doubled their advantage midway through the second half when England’s other FC Barcelona player, Keira Walsh was adjudged to have handled in the penalty area after a five-minute check by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). However, England goalkeeper Mary Earps smothered the penalty kick by Spain’s all-time record goalscorer Jenni Hermoso. Nonetheless, Spain held on comfortably to see out the game.

For Spain to become world champions deprived of the skills of perhaps the best defender, Mapi León, and the best midfielder, Patri Guijarro, in the world, with their double Ballon D’Or winner Alexia Putellas – named only as a substitute today – on the periphery of the team is all the more remarkable.

León, Guijarro and another Barcelona star, Clàudia Pina, chose to miss the World Cup after refusing to back down from their stance against the Spanish Federation and head coach Vilda. Their concerns were set out in an e-mail sent by fifteen players claiming that the conditions within the national team squad significantly affected their emotional state and health.

Even though others like Ona Batlle, Aitana Bonmatí and Mariona Caldentey came back into the fold shortly before the tournament, it has been an uneasy truce, with the players believed to be intent on implementing change from within.

The previous captains, Irene Paredes and Putellas had been considered to have supported their FC Barcelona team-mates in their demands and were stripped of the armband by Vilda. Instead of one of the two Spanish women to have played in all 14 matches their nation has played at the Women’s World Cup since 2015, it was the 23-year-old, Carmona who lifted the trophy.

Vilda has also become the first male head coach since 2011, and only the second this century, to lead a team to victory in the Women’s World Cup. Four of the last five world titles and the last five Olympic Golds have been won by sides coached by women.

This time, England’s Sarina Wiegman was the only female coach amongst the last eight of the tournament. Her defeat means that the remarkable sequence across 30 editions of the men’s and women’s World Cups in which the winning nation has always been coached by a citizen of the country is maintained. Wiegman also becomes the first coach in World Cup history to lose two successive finals.

The match was watched by another record-breaking attendance crowd of 75,784 at Stadium Australia. This brought the aggregate attendance for the 64 matches to 1,978,274. This amounted to an average of 30,911 per game, the highest average since 2007 and only the third tournament in which the average has finished above 30,000.