By Luke Edwards
It was a moment of anger provoked by the intense frustration of a poor team display and an ineffectual personal one. It was a moment of madness that turned Lauren James’s sensational World Cup into a catastrophe.
James’s tournament is almost certainly over. She was sent off before England’s eventual penalty shootout win over Nigeria for violent conduct, which is likely to mean a three-match ban once it has been properly reviewed. She did not make it look like an accident when she planted her studs on the back of Michelle Alozie and put all her body weight down on her right leg as she moved away.
The television replays were damning. She had already used both clenched fists to push herself off her victim after she had been bundled over for the umpteenth time by a Nigerian opponent. And then she used her boot to leave a real mark.
It was a petulant act of violence designed to inflict pain on an opposing player as she lay beneath her on the ground. It was stupid, reckless and spiteful. It deserved to be punished and was. James had, in a flash of red mist, morphed from the superstar of this tournament into a villain.
She can only be relieved that it did not cost England the game and their participation at this World Cup. Flights would have been hastily booked and a humiliating return to England prepared for had her teammates not clung on in extra time and then – miracle of miracles – won a shootout under huge pressure. England would have failed in Australia and she would have been blamed. That is the way these things normally work.
It brought back painful memories of David Beckham’s red card against Argentina at the World Cup in 1998. It served up a potent vision of Wayne Rooney’s sending off against Portugal in 2006. On both those occasions England lost on penalties. This time they did not. That was the only difference.
Lauren James stamps on Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie late in England’s round-of-16 win in Brisbane.Credit: Getty
It was a flash of temper from the 21-year-old we had not seen before. Teammates rallied around her in the mixed zone immediately after the game, insisting these things are part of football, but they would have been unlikely to have been so forgiving had they been knocked out.
England got away with arguably their worst performance in a competitive game under Sarina Wiegman and still, somehow managed to win. This could have been a whole lot worse for James and women’s football in her country.
David Beckham saw red against Argentina at the same stage of the 1998 men’s World Cup.Credit: AP
An early tournament exit would have been a disaster and scapegoats would have been sought. James would have been the most obvious target.
But before we rush to condemn her rush of blood, her immaturity and hot-headedness, it is worth remembering she is a young woman playing in her first international tournament, who had been tightly marked throughout the game. She was followed around the pitch like she had a tracking light on her back.
England were poor. None of the attacking players did themselves justice and so much had been expected from her. It was a lot to take on and she snapped under the pressure.
Others have done the same and it is worth highlighting that neither Beckham’s nor Rooney’s England careers were destroyed as a result of their moments of madness. Beckham suffered immensely at first but rebuilt his reputation and captained the national side through his hard work and talent. He learnt a painful lesson and became a far more rounded character as a result. Rooney’s violence was mainly remembered for the wink from his Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo that accompanied his red card. He also went on to captain his country and broke the goal-scoring record for England in the process.
James is, like them, at the start of her international career. She will have to take her punishment and the criticism, that will sting and bite. She deserves it but she does not deserve to be ruined as a player or a person. She is fortunate England have progressed to another quarter-final at another major tournament. Those that came before her did not have that positive distraction.
This will haunt James for weeks, months, possibly even years. But it does not and should not define the rest of her international or club career. She has too much talent for that.
And although it was bad, she was not helped much by those around her, senior players with far more big-game experience. Indeed, does Wiegman share a smidgen of blame in this story too? Could the England manager have taken her off sooner? Probably. She had become visibly annoyed long before the stamp.
It is not often we have had cause to question the Dutchwoman’s judgement but the failure to make changes, when her team were so out of sorts, was mystifying. She looked puzzled on the touchline, unsure what to do. The moment got to her, too. Nigeria ruffled more than the players on the pitch, they got into the heads of those in the dugout.
Should England reach the World Cup final in Sydney on August 20, they will need to play far better than this. They will also have to do so without their most explosive and in-form attacking player. James will suffer, it will hurt. She will feel she has let everyone down, including herself. But she can come back from this and thrive. It is a stamp that, sadly, has defined her World Cup, but it does not need to define the rest of her career.
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