The 2023 FIFA Girls’s Global Cup got here to a akin Sunday with an exciting matchup at Sydney’s Stadium Australia, the place Spain defeated England 1-0 to earn its first Global Cup name all-time.

Spain survived just about quarter-hour of stoppage future to hold the win, which marked the primary future a fresh Global Cup champion used to be topped since 2011. What’s extra, Spain turns into the primary workforce to be the protecting champion of all 3 FIFA Girls’s Global Cup titles on the similar future, in addition to simply the second one folk to win each the lads’s and girls’s FIFA Global Cups.

A dominant first part for Spain used to be highlighted by means of a left-footed accident from Olga Carmona within the twenty ninth slight that proved to be all that L. a. Roja had to keep off England in spite of a bright struggle from the Lionesses‘ megastar goalkeeper and this date’s Golden Glove Award winner, Mary Earps.

The “World Cup NOW” group — Leslie Osborne, Melissa Ortiz and Jimmy Conrad — mentioned which of those two countries is best arrange for long-term luck.

Osborne: “England, although they don’t have as much youth, they do have a crop of six or seven players [who] are in that age 20 to 23 — Lauren James, [Alessia] Russo, Lauren Hemp … Chloe Kelly — [who] are in that young range that have done incredible things with their clubs. They’ve played on the young teams [and] they’ve won youth players of the year, so that crop of players … they are gonna play even bigger roles in the Olympics and then in 2027 World Cup.”

[Related: Spain’s World Cup victory will usher in a new blueprint for women’s soccer]

Ortiz: “I think Spain is in the better run for long-term success at this given point. You’ve seen some youth players really be the standout for Spain, but not just one — a few. Whether it’s Olga Carmona, who is still fairly young, whether it’s Salma Paralluelo, who is only 19 years old. … Their future, looking forward — especially building off this type of experience — I think is going to go way, way long-term. [I’m] also going to [give] credit to their league in Spain. Now it’s going to just send it into another planet because now they’re gonna have the momentum. The women’s league [will] hopefully be injected with more funding, more support, new player signings, global player signings from this Women’s World Cup [that] I think a lot of these clubs are going to want to bring, so that’s going to raise the competition level of the league.”

Conrad: “It’s a slight edge [for Spain]. … Winning is contagious. You want to be part of a winner; everyone wants to be part of a winning team, so I could see a [team like] Real Madrid, [which] just started a few years ago, be like, ‘You know what, we are gonna start to invest some more money. There is something in this.’ … Right now, Spain are the reigning holders of the U-17 World Cup, the U-20 World Cup and now the full World Cup. … That is why I think they have the edge over England. England is competitive in the young levels, but Spain is actually winning those competitions. You can see what it means when you start to win, and you start to believe that you know that you can and [that] you can stay true to your identity.”

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