England grow in confidence again after taking latest key step to World Cup

Late on in England’s 2-1 win over USA, Keira Walsh displayed remarkable serenity by taking the ball on in her own box, but her manager was not quite radiating the same energy.

“I was not calm at all,” Sarina Wiegman laughed. Although the England manager has been insistent on her team playing it out from the back, she remembered thinking “this is a little deep and a little in front of your goal!”

Walsh, however, played it straight out. The fact it came in the face of a US onslaught only reflected the team’s growing confidence and bolstered it.

From that perspective, Wiegman wasn’t overly insistent on calming things either. The tendency in such situations, after a statement win over the standard-setters like that, is for managers to play it all down; remind everyone it doesn’t mean that much.

Wiegman could only go so far with that line, though. She knew it meant more. The England manager was asked whether her side are now the best in the world.

“You are the best team in the world when you have won the World Cup – we didn’t,” she said. “I think we’re in a very good place, but as I say all the time, it’s so close, there’s so many good countries.

“We’ve done really well, but we have to keep doing that, keep working hard and executing our plans.

“I do think you’ve seen our team grow very, very much. But we also take up some things we can really do better, we do our best to be the best we can be, and hopefully that will bring us lots more success – but we don’t know now.

"But we can bring up something that we can turn around games and win them against the best opponents and that's what we showed again today. We showed ourselves that we can do it and that brings confidence.

"We have 10 months [until the World Cup], we have next Tuesday [against the Czech Republic], then the November camp and the Arnold Clark Cup in April.”

US coach Vlatko Andonovski struck a similar theme.

"This game is important for preparation for the World Cup. There is a reason we played it so far out. We wanted to have enough time to fix the things that get exposed. It was a great learning opportunity.”

There were certainly a few lessons. Both sides have issues at the back. The world is going to have to learn how to deal with Sophia Smith.

Perhaps the most relevant part of the game, though, was how England controlled midfield. The expectation was that this would be USA’s area of dominance but it was completely disrupted by the combination of Walsh and Georgia Stanway.

That is something that does represent a real evolution in this England team, of the type that can happen after a side finally achieves real success. This is the deeper confidence Wiegman referenced. An assurance runs through a team.

It is now amplifying Wiegman's work.

"I absolutely believe they have a chance,” Andonovski said of England’s hopes in the World Cup. “They have an incredible squad. They showed once again that they are very good. If you give them a little space they have players that can make a difference. They have an incredible coach, she has done a good job. I wouldn't mind facing them in the final again.”

Until then, we won’t be able to really say who the best in the world are. But England can certainly feel calm about their hopes.