The 15-year-old Leah Williamson was sitting on a bench in the Olympic Park on Super Saturday as her Milton Keynes home town hero Greg Rutherford won gold in 2012. Nine years later she was standing in red, white and blue and singing the national anthem as she prepared to make her Olympic debut.
“I had to keep my eyes closed for the national anthem because I felt like I was going to cry,” she says. “I waited for the camera to pass and then got a bit teary.”
If 2012 taught Williamson one thing it was that she wanted to be an Olympian. “I’ve just been so inspired,” she says. “I feel like I say that all the time but my family brought me up just surrounded by sport, any type of sport, any event, and that’s why London 2012 was so amazing because you just dived into it all. To have the opportunity to be here, but also to be part of that club now, Team GB, just feels … it’s very nice.”
The Tokyo Games is not like 2012, there are no fans inside stadiums and none can bask in the glow nearby as the Arsenal defender did. In London, Williamson was with her parents and her brother, who would have travelled to Japan if they could. “It’s sad not having my mum here, she would have been crying,” she says. “And my dad, the family, but at the same time I’m just so proud..”
Williamson was brought in alongside Manchester City’s Steph Houghton in place of Chelsea’s Millie Bright for the game against Japan in Group E partly to spread the load and partly because the ball-playing centre-back made sense against the technically sharp Japan.
“In the first half, we sat off them, but we were very organised in that,” she says. “They didn’t play through us, which was the aim. As soon as you bring on somebody as attacking as Caz [Caroline Weir], we started to possess the ball a little bit higher. That really helped us and I don’t think they knew what to do when she did come on and started overloading the wide areas.
“In the second half we saw GB at our best in terms of trying to dominate the opposition and creating chances and set pieces. The goal was deserved in the end, I think it went with the run of play, but Japan is such an organised team, it would have been good if we’d been a little bit more clinical, a little bit more ruthless.”
After 12 games Team GB are the only team not to have conceded in the tournament. “I’m buzzing with that,” says Williamson. “At the end I think I would have put my foot through a brick wall if I could have to keep the ball out.”
The manager, Hege Riise, has concurred with Williamson, saying. “First in our mind is to attack, we want to score goals, we want to win – but this team has so much pride in defensive organisation and being a good defending team.”
Should Team GB draw with or beat Canada on Tuesday they will top Group E and set up a quarter-final with, most likely, the US or Australia. Should they lose to Canada they are likely to face one of Brazil or the Netherlands. Thoughts on which team it would be better to face in the quarter-finals, however, do not outweigh the desire to win.
“We want to top the group,” says Williamson. “We need to beat Canada for us to go on to the next game and feel good.
That desire is strong throughout the squad says Riise. “We feel like we have a great opportunity now to win the group and we all desire to do that. That’s the main focus.”
Team GB will come across a familiar face in Bev Priestman, who was assistant to Phil Neville with England before she took the head coaching role with Canada. “She knows what our strengths and all our weaknesses,” says Williamson. Riise, however, points to their own mole –– her assistant Rhian Wilkinson won bronze with Canada in 2012.
“She knows the players. Some of them were her teammates, some of them were coached by her for many years, so she has insight into that team,” says Riise. “OShe’s preparing us for the best outcome for us tomorrow. These are two teams that know each other quite well. It’s no secret.”