The final of the Women’s European Football Championship will see the meeting of two female head coaches, when Sarina Wiegman’s England and Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s Germany will decide the European Championship on Sunday.
The EC football tournament will culminate on Sunday with the meeting of two giants, when Germany and England will decide the fate of the EC gold. For England, the European championship would be the first in history, while Germany is already chasing its ninth EC gold.
The two also met in the final 13 years ago in Helsinki, and then Germany came away with brighter medals after a 6–2 victory.
The 2009 European Championship final is also the previous European Championship final where both teams were coached by a woman: Germany was piloted Silvia Neidwhen behind the England bench there was currently a Brighton pilot Hope Powell. Also on Sunday, the teams will be piloted by female coaches, when you will see them behind the benches Martina Voss-Tecklenburg and Sarina Wiegman.
On the other hand: since 1993, no male head coach has guided his team to a championship in the women’s European Championships.
– I see that the coaches are role models in the same way as the players. Voss-Tecklenburg and Wiegman lead the way for those who dream of coaching. The success shows that women are equally capable as coaches, Urheilu’s expert Marianne Miettinen comment.
Miettinen completed the Uefa Pro coaching license as the first Finnish woman in 2007, and has since coached in Damallsvenskan and girls’ national teams, among others. Today, Miettinen works as the top football manager of Pallloiitto.
In Finland, no better than in the world, there are no successful female coaches. For example, at the moment only HPS head coach is a woman in the National League: Urheilu also works as an expert Mari Savolainen. However, the European Football Association has become aware of the situation and has taken steps to increase the number.
– Uefa changed the rules so that there must be at least one woman in the coaching team of the national teams. It has also guided our operations in Finland. For example, the same rule applies in the (girls’ junior player development event) Helmariturnana. We are doing systematic educational work, so that one day female coaches will also join the national team, says Miettinen.
Uefa has also created a scholarship system to support the development of female coaches. In addition, it has already organized a mentoring program three times, where the coaches get support from either former or current head coaches from the top of Europe.
Miettinen, who was also involved in the program, became a mentor at the time by Martin Sjögren, who was allowed to leave Norway’s helm this summer after the poorly run EC matches. Savolainen, mentored by English legend Hope Powell, has participated in the latest program.
– One challenge is that often women are too self-critical. They need support, someone who believes and helps, who opens up contacts, who has good tacit information to share and of course a good peer group, says Miettinen.
Finland has also organized its own mentoring programs, one of the most famous of which is the coach like a woman project.
Wiegman has changed since Holland’s days
Sarina Wiegman, who led England to the EC final in the home tournament of England, has been praised in the British press, and not for nothing. Wiegman jumped at the helm of England in the fall of 2021, and the team hasn’t lost that joke. It has scored 104 goals in nineteen matches, while it has scored four times in its own matches. Wiegman has also led his team to an all-time winning streak, as England have won eleven of their previous meetings.
– Wiegman lives under a lot of pressure, he is the first foreign coach in the English women’s national team, and he is able to live under that pressure and achieve results. It is an extremely hard performance, Miettinen praises.
– Even in England, he certainly has a tough machine behind him and a lot of good people by his side, but that doesn’t make him a bad coach, on the contrary. It is wise to assemble a good team where people have different skills.
Before jumping to head coach of England, Wiegman coached Holland to European Championship gold in front of the home crowd. He became the head coach of the team in December 2016 after refusing the offer as an assistant coach twice because he felt he was not ready yet.
European Championship gold was not Wiegman’s only medal as Dutch pilot – under Wiegman’s leadership, the team also advanced to the first World Cup final in its history, which eventually resulted in a loss to the USA and the World Cup silver.
If at the Dutch home games Wiegman was still an inexperienced value game coach, now he has been the head coach in three games in five years – and according to Miettinen, it shows.
– In 2019, I watched what he did in the World Cup finals in Lyon, he sat a lot, analyzed, sometimes went to give instructions and then left. Now he lives fully involved, shows support, vents, shows emotions. The coach shows that he lives with it, and that has partly created an atmosphere as well. Self-confidence is visible in the team, enthusiasm is infectious, Miettinen describes.
Wiegman is not afraid to make drastic decisions. During the Games, he did not choose a captain for the team by Steph Houghton, who suffered from an Achilles tendon injury for almost the entire season. In 2017 in Holland, he dropped the captaincy by Mandy Van Den Berg from the assembly in the middle of the block phase.
Similar bold decisions were also seen in England’s quarter-final against Spain. The team was in a goal down position when Wiegman took off the field by Beth Mead and Ellen White’s – The top scorer in the European Championship and England’s all-time top scorer. Came in from the exchange Ella Toone brought England to the level and took the decision to the follow-up match, where he became the decider Georgia Stanway.
– He is a tactically excellent coach who has found great roles for the players. He has brought new players to the team and he always has a plan for everything.
German reformer
German pilot Martina Voss-Tecklenburg jumped to Germany’s head coach in the fall of 2018 from Switzerland’s helm. In Switzerland, he managed, among other things, to take the team to the first World Cup final tournament in 2015 and two years later to the European Championships. The success also earned him a place in his home country’s national team, where Voss-Tecklenburg was hired to bring eight-time European Championship gold medalist Germany back to the top. Germany won Olympic gold in Rio 2016, but it has been quiet since then.
– I want to win trophies, the new head coach declared at the signing.
In the 2019 World Cup, Voss-Tecklenburg led Germany to the quarter-finals of the World Cup until Sweden sent the team home.
Voss-Tecklenburg is already familiar with prestigious tournaments from his playing career: he represented Germany in three World Cups, one Olympic Games and five European Championships.
– Voss-Tecklenburg is a coach who is close to the players. He also lives along and throws himself in, Miettinen characterizes.
Voss-Tecklenburg has also been described as straight in style. He has not been afraid to reform the national team.
– He has created a clear playing style and boldly made a generational change in the team. Voss-Tecklenburg has brought courage to the team by Lena Oberdorf like young people in, Miettinen praises.
Wolfsburg’s 20-year-old midfielder has started in all of Germany’s matches. A year older Klara Bühl would probably have cooled down on the field against France in the European Championship semi-final as well, but the forward representing FC Bayern got sick with corona during the match. A 19-year-old was seen as his replacement Jule Brand.
Germany has also appeared victoriously under Voss-Tecklenburg, although it suffered a surprise loss to Serbia in April’s World Cup qualifiers. Then the goal remained clean for the next five and a half matches, or a total of 515 minutes. The German keeper who performed brilliantly in the EC final tournament Merle Frohms had to surrender for the first time in the EC tournament only in the 44th minute of the semi-final match.
Wiegman has never lost in an EC tournament. It will be clear on Sunday whether the impressive statistics will be maintained.
EC final England-Germany on Sunday 31.7. at 19:00. Broadcast on TV2 and Areena from 18:00.