Where will you be watching the match this morning? At home? Down the pub, which has been granted early opening hours to accommodate you? In front of the hastily constructed big screen in London's Victoria Park? Or glimpsed on your mobile as you sit in the pews at your local parish church? If it's the latter, the vicar won't mind. After all, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said we should all tune in if we can. Apparently, it is what God would want us to do.
One thing is for sure: wherever you plan to absorb the Women’s World Cup Final, you won’t be alone. A vast proportion of the country – well, England – will be watching, and living every kick. This morning will be one of those rare moments of national togetherness that only sport can deliver.
Although in truth, in a lifetime of following sport, I cannot remember any one event seizing the popular imagination with the same unexpected suddenness as the Lionesses’s progress in this year’s World Cup. England’s men reaching the 2020 Euros final, London 2012, Headingley 2019: their popularity was not surprising.
But as recently as four years ago, nobody would have foreseen the England women’s football team stopping the nation’s clock. Back in 2019, when the Lionesses lost in France at the semi-final stage for the second World Cup on the bounce, it was not the lead item on the Ten O’Clock News. It was an “and finally” adjunct – a minority interest rather than a shared obsession.
This story is from the August 20, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the August 20, 2023 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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