Russo, Alessia (1999- )

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    Kerr Scored. The Crowd Roared. But England Wasn’t Done.

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    England advanced to its first World Cup final by leaning on the experience and the resilience of a champion.The entire continent of Australia had been waiting not so patiently for the moment that finally arrived in the 63rd minute of Wednesday night’s Women’s World Cup semifinal between Australia and England.Collecting the ball in her own half and crossing the midfield line, Sam Kerr was off. Head down, driving forward, she took a couple of quick dribbles, then a few more, then nudged the ball ahead of her right foot and fired. Her shot, struck hard and high from just outside the penalty area, soared past the reach of England goalkeeper Mary Earps.Kerr had wheeled away in celebration by then, even before the ball had settled into the net, and the home crowd inside Stadium Australia let out a deafening and sustained roar. Australia had pulled even with England, and for the first time in the match, it seemed as if the English might be on the ropes.THAT’S ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT 🤩GOLAZOOO SAM KERR 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/Gnts261nW2— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) August 16, 2023
    Maybe a previous version of the team would have been. But this England team scored eight minutes later to pull back ahead, and then added a third goal in the 86th minute. It had, in less than half an hour, turned a tenuous moment into its most dominant finish of this tournament, a 3-1 victory over Australia that sent the Lionesses to their first World Cup final, where they will face Spain on Sunday.“We’ve got that in this team,” England defender Lucy Bronze said. “We’ve got resilience. We’ve got an inner belief that, I think, is bigger and better than we have ever had previously.”Bronze was part of the England squads that lost in the World Cup semifinals in 2015 and 2019, disappointments that she has admitted have lingered with her. Getting over that hump in this tournament was hardly a linear path, even after England won the European Championship last year on home soil.England arrived at the World Cup last month without three of its top players, all sidelined with knee injuries, and it has played its past two games without its initial breakout star here, midfielder Lauren James, who served a two-game suspension for stamping on a Nigerian player in the round of 16.Coach Sarina Wiegman also pointed out that her players have faced added attention since winning the Euros, which can bring new challenges and absolutely brings heightened expectations. On Wednesday, though, England looked all the better for that experience — a seasoned team that thrived, rather than crumbled, under pressure.Australia’s Mackenzie Arnold was beaten three times on Wednesday.Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Reuters“I don’t think anything fazes us,” said midfielder Ella Toone, who scored England’s first goal, before halftime. “We’ve faced a lot of challenges this tournament that we’ve just got on with and got through.”Indeed, a theme of this tournament has been England’s finding a way to win, even as it has taken a while to find the dominant form many had expected. In their early matches, the Lionesses relied on strong defense and Earps’s steady goalkeeping as they struggled to score. Against Australia, though, it was their goals that silenced an expectant home crowd.Having the stadium backing the other team was nothing new, of course. Bronze referred back to England’s 2-1 quarterfinal win against Colombia, when the Lionesses fell into an early deficit in front of another crowd that also heavily favored their opponent. The visceral release inside the stadium after Kerr’s goal was at a different level. While those kinds of moments are expected from Kerr — even if she was not entirely healthy coming off her calf injury — defender Jess Carter said England’s back line was still disappointed to have allowed her goal, frustrated because they felt as if they should have handled it better.The next few minutes felt a little bit shaky, Wiegman admitted, as the replays of the goal on the stadium video screens wound up the fans again and the noise continued to reverberate. Kerr got another chance on a header, and then another. Earps appeared to signal to her teammates to settle down. The only way through, England knew, was to stick to the game plan, and hold its nerve.“I thought we did really well, but we have done that really well the whole tournament so far,” Wiegman said. “And then, of course, it didn’t take that long before we scored a second goal. And that helps.”Alessia Russo sensed her clinching goal was in even before it crossed the line.Mark Baker/Associated PressThat may be the quiet strength of these England players: They have won in different ways this tournament, changing their tactics to suit their opponents, adapting on the fly when those tactics aren’t working, holding teams off until someone, somehow, conjures a goal. But it was the way they responded to Kerr’s equalizer that demonstrated above all else why they will be playing in the World Cup final.Forward Lauren Hemp scored in the 71st minute, off a long and searching pass by Millie Bright, England’s captain. Fifteen minutes after that, Alessia Russo delivered the final blow: a low right-footed shot after a driving run up the center by Hemp.Just as Kerr had done, Russo wheeled away to start her celebration even before the ball had settled into the net. She knew, England knew, the job was done, and the final beckoned. On the bench, Wiegman finally let herself relax.“We are not,” she thought, “going to give this away anymore.” More

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      England, Bruised but Unbowed, Reaches World Cup Semifinals

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      The Lionesses, champions of Europe, rallied past Colombia but now face yet another hurdle: a semifinal with host Australia on Wednesday.England entered the World Cup knockout stages still waiting to look like the dominant team it had hoped it could be. Sure, England had yet to lose a game — an accomplishment during this chaotic tournament — but so far its performances had seemed a few rungs short of the level required to accomplish its goals: to reach its first final, to lift the World Cup trophy for the first time.England had arrived in Australia last month without three of the country’s best players, all ruled out because of serious knee injuries. Another starter was hurt in the group stage and missed a game and a half. Then the Lionesses lost their best offensive player at this World Cup, the young midfielder Lauren James, to a suspension after she stamped on a Nigerian player in the round of 16.But on Saturday night, in front of a Sydney crowd that presented yet another hurdle by favoring the upstart Colombians as the host nation’s preferred next opponent, England found a way forward again.Overcoming an early goal with one of their own just before halftime and a second midway through the second half, the Lionesses delivered the kind of performance they had been saying was just around the corner, beating Colombia, 2-1, to advance to the semifinals for the second straight World Cup.There, England will face Australia, which hours earlier had claimed its place by winning an extended penalty shootout against France up the coast in Brisbane.“We have been put up against a lot this tournament,” said forward Alessia Russo, “and we always find a way through.”Russo scored the winner in the 63rd minute, a right-footed finish after an assist from midfielder Georgia Stanway and a momentary lapse by Colombia’s defense that sent her in alone. Her coach and teammates used the word “clinical” to describe both Russo’s shot and the team’s focus, refusing to panic despite falling behind.England’s Lauren Hemp challenging for a ball in midfield.Mark Baker/Associated PressThe stands were late to fill up at the start of the match, as many of the spectators appeared to be lingering outside, part of a raucous crowd in Cathy Freeman Park watching Australia edge France on an outdoor viewing screen. But when they did, it was clear the crowd favored the Colombians, who entered, against all odds, as the last team from the Americas still standing.Those supporters erupted when Colombia midfielder Leicy Santos opened the scoring from the right side of the penalty area in the 44th minute, her shot arcing just over the outstretched right glove of England goalkeeper Mary Earps, who had surrendered only one other goal all tournament.Surprised by the goal, England was reminded by its captain, Millie Bright, to stick to its game plan, to trust that its chances would come, too. Lauren Hemp provided the evidence almost immediately, tying the score only seconds before halftime by pouncing on a free rebound after Colombia’s goalkeeper fumbled the ball just steps from her goal line.England, the reigning European champion and a World Cup semifinalist four years ago in France, entered this tournament as a top contender but a wounded one, having lost forward Beth Mead, midfielder Fran Kirby and defender Leah Williamson to serious knee injuries in the months before the World Cup. The depth that had delivered a title at last summer’s Euros offered a measure of comfort for Coach Sarina Wiegman and her team, but a lack of goals that had marked the team’s run-up to the tournament showed no sign of abating once it began.Apart from a 6-1 win against China in the group stage, England had struggled to score, relying instead on Earps and a veteran defense. England produced single goals in its other two wins in the group stage, against Haiti and Denmark, and none at all in its round-of-16 win over Nigeria, which was only settled in a penalty-kick shootout after 120 scoreless minutes.Two goals against Colombia will not answer all of those questions for England, but the Lionesses turned in a far stronger showing than they had in the previous round. For one day at least, that counted as a positive.“You want to get better as the tournament goes, and I think we did just that tonight,” forward Chloe Kelly said.England will face an even taller task in the next round against Australia in front of another crowd even more eager to see it defeated. It will again be without James, whose two-game ban means she will miss the semifinal, too. But for Wiegman, neither the fans nor the stakes will be England’s biggest challenge.“No, it’s the opponent,” Wiegman said. “And ourselves.” More

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      World Cup: Alessia Russo and England See Big Things Ahead

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      The secret of the goal that announced Alessia Russo to the world, the out-of-nowhere backheel that stunned Sweden during England’s run to the European Championship last summer, was that Russo wasn’t sure it would happen. That the ball went in the net was, in her words, “maybe luck, maybe instinct.”Last week, the goal she scored to open her account at her first World Cup was something else altogether: a silky first touch, an effortless shift of her weight, a confident finish into the lower left corner. That goal was a striker’s finish, the first of what Russo, and England, hopes will be many more.“I play my best football when I’m feeling good and happy and confident,” the 24-year-old Russo said.That on-pitch confidence, though, has not always been evident in Russo’s performances in the gap between that goal and her latest one.In fact, her goal in England’s 6-1 hammering of China ended a six-month international goal drought for Russo. In the interim, she had found herself battling for a place as the team’s starting striker with Rachel Daly. In an interview in England before the World Cup, Russo admitted that it had been a lesson in patience but also a learning experience in what it takes to keep a place on one of the world’s best teams.Alessia Russo, 24, scored her first World Cup goal in England’s last game in the group stage, against China.James Elsby/Associated Press“All I can do is focus on myself, my game, what I can do to get better and how ready I can be going into the summer,” she said. “And that’s all I can control.”Could the knockout stages, then, be liftoff for Russo? Despite the injuries to several key players that marred preparations for England and continued in Australia, the European champions have been building momentum ahead of their meeting with Nigeria on Monday in the round of 16. Midfielder Lauren James has emerged as a star in midfield, and Russo is poised to benefit.“She just really has a feeling for scoring goals,” England’s coach, Sarina Wiegman, said. “She is a good header. She has a good shot. She just is a real No. 9.”The statistics speak for themselves. Russo has scored 12 goals in 25 England appearances, among them an 11-minute hat trick — the fastest ever scored by an England women’s player.Such is her status that, earlier this year, she was the subject of two world-record transfer bids. Her club at the time, Manchester United, rejected both, but she has since joined Arsenal, the suitor that made both offers, on a free transfer after her United contract expired.Her rise, off the back of her performances in England’s triumph at the European Championship last year, has come at a historic time for the women’s game. Record viewing figures. Sold-out stadiums. And, as Russo knows all too well, competitive transfer windows.“It’s what we’ve wanted for the women’s game, for years and years,” she said. She wants the clamor to continue: “I hope to still see it climbing the way it is now. The stages it deserves. The crowds it deserves, which we’re all getting now.”Russo against Denmark. “I play my best football when I’m feeling good and happy and confident,” she said.Rick Rycroft/Associated PressRusso is still one of the younger players on her squad. But she is different in that she is used to being fully professional, something that not all of her teammates have experienced. England’s right back Lucy Bronze, for example, once worked at Domino’s Pizza as she made her way as a pro and an international.“There’s some really, really humbling stories that you hear of older players that have had to work crazy hours and then go to training and then travel to games,” Russo said. “And it’s just like, ‘How was that a thing?’”For Russo, soccer was always an easy choice. She grew up playing with her two older brothers in the yard and, at times, in the house, “until Mom would tell us off for kicking the ball inside.”She began her youth career at Charlton Athletic and later joined Chelsea before moving to the United States to play for the University of North Carolina. She only returned to England in 2020, after signing for Manchester United, the club she grew up supporting.Despite her path through professional teams and elite programs, though, Russo admitted to grappling with her newfound fame after the Euros. Before her team became European champions, she had a “pretty normal life,” she said. And now? “That’s changed.”“Your life,” she said, “completely changes after one tournament.” And stardom, she found — part of the same growth that has raised the value of players and the profile of the game — has proved difficult at times.“The attention that comes with women’s football now is hard to manage as a player,” she said.So after a quiet start to the World Cup, Russo has made her entrance. Next up: a tough encounter during England’s round-of-16 match against Nigeria, which beat the home team, Australia, and helped eliminate the Olympic champion, Canada, in the group stage.This spring, Russo said she was confident that the goals, and the wins, would eventually come. Now both are here, and England is thinking bigger.“You go into every single tournament wanting and expecting to win,” she said. The European Championship, she said, lit a “fire to want to go and win more.” Lifting the World Cup would be the ultimate next step.“I just want to win,” she said, “as much as I can.”Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Reuters More

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      England Routs Sweden to Seal Place in Euro 2022 Final

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      Alessia Russo’s backheel highlighted her team’s 4-0 rout of Sweden and sealed England’s place in Sunday’s Euro 2022 final.Follow live updates of the Euro 2022 final.SHEFFIELD, England — The crowd at Bramall Lane required three viewings before it could settle on the appropriate response. The first, in real time, prompted a jubilant, triumphal roar. The second, on the giant screen in a corner of the stadium as England’s players celebrated below, drew a gasp of appreciation.It was only when almost 30,000 people had the chance to watch the close-up replay, though, that they could see what, exactly, had happened. Alessia Russo, the substitute striker, had not only scored for England with a backheel. She had not only scored with a backheel with a defender on her back, or while also nutmegging Hedvig Lindahl, Sweden’s goalkeeper.What she had done, in fact, was all of the above, and she had done it in the semifinals of a major international tournament, and certainly the biggest game of her life so far.RUSSO WITH THE BACKHEEL NUTMEG TO PUT ENGLAND ONE STEP FROM THE FINAL 😳🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/EGz34224Wl— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 26, 2022
      It was only then, armed with a full suite of information, that the crowd could determine the correct reaction. Bramall Lane, in unison, laughed. Not cruelly, not derisively, but in delight and wonder and disbelief.England does not, as a rule, expect to win games of this magnitude. It certainly does not expect to have fun while doing it.Carl Recine/ReutersCarl Recine/ReutersRusso’s backheel caught goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl by surprise, the ball passing right between her legs. By the time she realized what had happened, Russo and the stadium were celebrating.Molly Darlington/ReutersThat can be attributed to the general undercurrent of fatalism that infuses the country’s sporting psyche at all times, of course, but this team — which humbled Sweden, the world’s second-ranked team, by 4-0 — has its own bespoke ghosts, too. England’s women had, after all, made it to the semifinals of their last three major tournaments. They met Japan in the 2015 World Cup, and lost. They met the Netherlands in the 2017 European Championship, and lost. They met the United States in the 2019 World Cup, and by then a pattern was emerging.By the time Euro 2022 got underway, England’s players were aware that the pressure to end that streak was considerable. The tournament was on their home soil. The Football Association had appointed Sarina Wiegman, the coach of the Dutch team that had broken English hearts in 2017, as manager, at no little expense. The vast majority of the squad was corralled from elite teams competing in England’s booming Women’s Super League.As if that was not exacting enough, England’s imperious sweep through the group phase — scoring five goals against Northern Ireland and a dizzying eight against Norway — served to swell hopes and lift expectations.The players have, in keeping with bizarre tradition, started to receive curious questions at news conferences about whether their success might soothe, in some ill-defined and deeply improbable way, the country’s very real concerns about the price of fuel and the soaring cost of basic amenities and a government in self-inflicted disarray.That confluence of circumstances might have been expected to inhibit England as the prospect of the final, of glory, hovered ever closer on the horizon. Wiegman’s team had struggled in its quarterfinal against a depleted Spain. Sweden threatened to pose a sterner test still. It is not yet a year since the Swedes had competed in the Olympic final. Its team is regarded, by no less an authority than the FIFA rankings, as the finest side in Europe.England’s Ellen White. She and her teammates have outscored their Euros opponents by 20-1.John Sibley/ReutersSweden, the world’s second-ranked team, endured its heaviest defeat ever in a European Championship.Matthew Childs/ReutersAnd for a while it seemed as if this might be another calvary. Sweden carved open a glaring opportunity with its first attack of the game. Inside the first 15 minutes, England had required three fine saves from its goalkeeper, Mary Earps, and the intervention of the crossbar to retain any hope.But while the individual talent at Wiegman’s disposal is, perhaps, only rivaled in this tournament by that of the French, the collective she has crafted is marked by its composure, its serenity, its abiding self-belief. England did not wilt as Sweden battered at its door and pummeled its defenses. It did not allow itself to be overawed, or intimidated, or fretful.Instead, it waited for its opportunity, taking the lead through Beth Mead, the tournament’s leading scorer, a little after half an hour. That might, for a different team, have been the cue to sit back, to hunch its shoulders and grit its teeth. But that is not Wiegman’s way, and so it is not England’s, either.At halftime, the stadium announcer declared that, “as things stand, England is going to the final.” It felt just a little hubristic, the sort of pronouncement that might come to be seen as a source of regret, though not for long. Within four minutes of the start of the second half, Lucy Bronze had doubled the lead, her header drifting achingly slowly past Lindahl’s dive.That goal would, in hindsight, have been enough, but at the time it was not, not enough to be sure. Only with Russo’s improvisational, instinctive brilliance could the crowd — could the players — relax. A few minutes later, Fran Kirby, England’s creative heartbeat, ran through on goal. She, too, was in one of the biggest games of her career. She, too, knew this was serious.But still she chose the indulgent option, lofting a delicate, arcing chip just beyond Lindahl’s grasp, deflecting off her gloves into the net behind her. It was the sort of thing a player tries when they are, despite the situation in which they find themselves, having fun.Sarina Wiegman, who led the Netherlands to the Euros title on home soil in 2017, is one win from doing the same for England.Molly Darlington/ReutersAfter the final whistle, the players lingered on the field. They took the applause from all four corners of the stadium. They listened as all of soccer’s great standards — Dua Lipa and Dana International and the White Stripes — crackled from the speakers.Ellen White, the striker, led the crowd in a chorus of “Sweet Caroline,” her eyes wide and her smile almost baffled. Wiegman, regarded even by her squad as an austere, demanding presence, bounced and jumped and danced with the players. England had been in the semifinals of a major international tournament, and not only had it won, but it had enjoyed itself, and nobody wanted to let that feeling go. More