It should not surprise anyone that the Spanish women’s team has been proclaimed world champion in Australian lands, after beating England by one goal to nil, in a heart-stopping final, in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Spain is the current world champion in the under-17 category and in the under-20 category, milestones achieved last year.
In theory, therefore, this title corroborates the commitment to the specialty of a country that has one of the most powerful women’s soccer leagues internationally and clubs that support it such as Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid or Barcelona.
Ivana Andrés of Spain lifts the FIFA Women’s World Cup Trophy after victory in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia v New Zealand 2023 final match between Spain and England at Stadium Australia on August 20, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. Credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
However, the success has surprised the company itself and at a local level one can speak of the triumph of an “outsider”. The Spanish team has been appearing on paper for two years due to the controversy that still surrounds the coach, the now triumphant Jorge Vilda, and several of the players with the best poster in the country, who requested the dismissal of the coach for alleged “incapacity”. of the selector to carry out the position.
Summary of Spain vs England in the final of the Women’s World Cup: result, goals and data
The now world champions passed the first phase after comfortable victories against Zambia and Costa Rica, but with a painful defeat (4-0) against Japan, which set off all the alarms and reopened the debate regarding the solvency of the team for Compete against the best in football’s top-level competitions.
However, thanks to the young Salma Paralluelo, a very young forward who was going to be an athlete and who has revolutionized Vilda’s team, the qualifiers were falling on the Spanish side one after another. In the round of 16, easily against Switzerland (5-1) and since then, with the typical agonizing suffering of this type of competition. 2-1, against the Netherlands –extension included– and the same result against Sweden, with the winning goal in the last breath of the match.
Salma Paralluelo of Spain poses with the FIFA Best Young Player Award on August 20, 2023 in Sydney / Gadigal, Australia. Credit: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
The final was not very different. Spain finally learned to win at the highest level and a solitary goal by Olga Carmona, with a cross shot, at the stroke of half an hour, made Spain the absolute world champion, for the first time in its history. He could even increase the advantage if Jenni Hermoso had converted a penalty that the Spanish team had available, but Carmona’s goal ended up being enough.
Thirteen years after Andrés Iniesta scored the goal that made the men’s team absolute world champion, Olga Carmona has achieved the star for the women’s team, completing two magical years of Spanish women’s football.
