The British media for most part of yesterday was awash with the rapprochement between England’s Lauren James and Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie hours after the former’s infamous stamp on the latter in Monday’s Round of 16 clashes at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brisbane.
Now regarded as one of the abiding images of the tournament, James’ stamp on Alozie, which later led to the former being red carded following a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review in the nervy encounter, is now ironically credited with the progress for the Three Lionesses to the quarterfinal.
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It was Alozie who reached out to James on social media and showed there were no hard feelings between the players, tweeting: “This game is one of passion, insurmountable emotions, and moments. All respect for Lauren James.”
The 21-year-old James offered her apology via a reply to Alozie: “All my love and respect to you. I am sorry for what happened.
“Also, for our England fans and my team-mates, playing with and for you is my greatest honour and I promise to learn from my experience.”
But in an analysis by Michael Cox in The Athletic, James’ red card is being regarded as the factor that ensured the Lionesses passage to the last eight, adding that coach Randy Waldrum lost the tactical plot to England manager Sarina Wiegman.
“Football is increasingly consumed through highlights rather than by watching the full 90 — or 120 — minutes,” Cox, author of The Mixer (about the tactical evolution of the Premier League), noted in his report. “This was a contest where the highlights were rather brief. There were few goal scoring opportunities, and just one obvious game-changing moment, when Lauren James was sent off. It didn’t, however, change the game as you might expect.”
After dwelling on the exchange between both teams, Cox, who also authored Zonal Marking (about footballing philosophies across Europe), then highlighted how England got the upper hand soon after James was shown the red card.
“Enter James — or rather, exit James,” he continued. “Her unnecessary red card for stamping on Michelle Alozie put England on the back foot.
“Curiously, it also made them more solid. Wiegman was now effectively forced to switch to a back four, using a deep 4-4-1 formation.
“Nigeria, having found space behind England’s wing-backs, now struggled to do so. And while the better side on the night, it’s also obvious Nigeria simply aren’t capable of taking the game to the opposition.
“England eventually prevailed. But, in truth, they got away with one here. The ‘sometimes it’s harder to play against 10 players’ cliché generally seems entirely illogical. Here, it felt very apt,” he added.