Women's Football: England poised for place in quarter finals

Sep 17 2007 by Paul Garrity, Liverpool Daily Post

ENGLAND will progress to the quarter finals of the World Cup today if they beat Argentina by two goals in the Chinese city of Chengdu.

The 0-0 draw the team secured against Germany on Friday has opened the door to the knockout stages, after it looked a difficult task after conceding a late equaliser against Japan just days before.

But it looks as though the trip to China will be seen as a successful one for the six Everton players in the squad, and more members of the Goodison club’s squad may get a runout against the South Americans.

Fara Williams, Rachel Brown and Jill Scott took the field against the World Champions, and all gave a good account of themselves.

England’s previous record against the Germans was a very poor one, losing 15 times and drawing once. So to get a goalless draw against them was a good achievement, but they had to work hard for it.

"We had a game plan on the day to stop them playing," said Everton midfielder Fara Williams.

"And we all knew that Birgit Prinz was always going to be a danger towards us.

"We managed to stop her playing, and she didn’t even get a shot on goal. We stuck to our jobs and it worked in our favour.

"As a team we tried to control the game, keep possession and keep the ball moving. We had to be patient and look for openings. We’re getting better at that now, being patient and waiting for things to happen.

"Our performance against the Japanese was outstanding and we played better than we had done in a long time. Obviously the result was disappointing and we were confident going into the Germany game. We could have nicked it, as in the first half we could have got a couple of goals."

But even though they got the result required last time out, they all still know that there’s hard work ahead.

"We know what we have to do against Argentina," continued Williams.

"If we score two goals and were guaranteed to go through. Although we know they’re going to be no push over. We’ll be getting prepared for the game as we normally do, and we’ll be ready for it."

But such a good performance last time out will undoubtedly give Williams and her teammates a tremendous confidence boost.

And to reach the last eight of their first World Cup in over a decade, will be an indication of how far the team has come in a few short years.

Fara added: "Now we can make our dreams a reality come Monday if we get the 2-0 result against the Argentineans. But for all of us it would be a dream come true. Getting out of the group and into the quarter finals – it would be massive."

England’s game with Argentina starts at 1pm today and is live on BBC Two.

Meanwhile, domestically, Liverpool Ladies collected their first three points of the season, beating Birmingham 2-1.

With the World Cup in China taking centre stage at the moment, many would be forgiven thinking the league season is on a break.

But both Liverpool and Tranmere are making a start to their season, as are most other sides around the country.

And the Reds previous three fixtures have yielded just one point, so a win over experienced campaigners Birmingham is a valuable result.

It was David Bradley’s side that opened the scoring through Gill Hart, as she cracked a half volley into the net midway through the first half.

But joy turned to despair as Liverpool captain Gayle Formston to put through her own net three minutes into the second half.

But it was Jade Thomas who capitalised on some slack Birmingham defending to score her third of the season to wrap up the points.

"I’m both relieved and satisfied with our victory today," said Reds boss Bradley.

"Even though our other results haven’t gone the way we’d want, they were tight matches. But we showed the strength and quality we have here today and we’re really satisfied.

"Birmingham were a very physical team and hard tackling. So the girls had to dig deep, and at 1-1 we were under a lot of pressure. But after conceding nine goals before today, we’ve tightened up our defence. Now the players are playing to their strengths and not weaknesses.

"We must keep this going. We’ve Bristol at home next week, and we were disappointed with the way things went down there. There’ll be no three goal start for them this time as we have confidence we’ll do well."

In the Northern Division, Tranmere managed to claim their second victory of the season at home to Crewe Alexandra.

Shirley Waring’s side put a number of disappointing results behind them as they came through 4-1 winners with goals from Sarah Manning, Debbie Cartmel and Sue Kenwright (2).