Miedema Madness

Columnist Vivianne Miedema hopes that the 90,000 spectators at FC Barcelona - Real Madrid will herald a new era for women's football.

90,000 spectators. It's actually quite bizarre. So many people were in Nou Camp last night for the quarterfinals of the women's Champions League between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. A record for women's football. Tonight we play the return against VfL Wolfsburg, in Germany, in the quarterfinals with Arsenal. Also in the stadium where the men normally play, the Volkswagen Arena. Hopefully it will be full there too.

All quarter-finals in the Champions League are played in the major stadiums of the clubs. That happened for the first time last week at my old club Bayern Munich. 15,000 people were there. We will soon play against Tottenham Hotspur in the Emirates Stadium in front of 25,000 people.

That 90,000 at the Clásico between FC Barcelona and Real is of course very special. A very big moment that we will still be talking about in a few years. Perhaps the beginning of a new era. If there is one team that deserves so much attention, it is FC Barcelona. They play great football.

Apart from that, it is confirmation that fans want to come to the stadium for women's football. In the Netherlands, that has actually become somewhat normal around the national team. But when you see how fast it has gone, that's not normal. Our own record with the Lionesses stands at more than 30,000 spectators in the Philips Stadium.

It is discussed in the Orange selection. How nice would it be to play in a full Kuip or a full Johan Cruijff Arena? For me as a Feyenoord fan, the Kuip would of course be the most beautiful. Then I can actually stop after that. No, I’m joking. It will happen, the only question is when. We as players have already discussed this with the KNVB. It's a shame the pandemic came, otherwise it would have happened already.

The European Championship final, next summer at Wembley, was sold out within half an hour, that is also 90,000 tickets. Old Trafford, the stadium of Manchester United, is also a stadium during the European Championship. Beautiful of course, but it is also a missed opportunity. For example, we are playing a group match in Leigh. Only 12,000 people can get in there, while the enthusiasm from the Netherlands is probably greater. Also in the stadium of the Manchester City Academy (7000 places) is played during the European Championship. I just don't get that.

In light of all those numbers above, it's a logical step to also talk about the prize money. In England I linked my name to the 'equal pay' campaign, to which former players Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher also contribute. My position is clear: should we receive as much prize money as the men? No, let's be realistic.

Columnist Vivianne Miedema believes that men and women become equal. “Not just in the sports world, but in society as a whole.”

There is a statue of me in London. Just like seven other women from sports and culture who are seen as inspiration by my sponsor Adidas. My statue at Tower Bridge is bright pink. When I was approached by Adidas, I first thought: huh, a statue, act normal. But when I heard the idea behind it, I was quickly convinced.

There are more statues of animals than of women in London. That's actually pretty crazy, isn't it? That's what Adidas wants to emphasize with this cool promotion: we have to go to a different standard. Such an action should not be necessary in an ideal world, but you have to make people think before things can actually change.

Any major, substantial change in the world is gradual. Three steps forward and two back.

Especially given all the current affairs about abuse of power by men at The Voice of Holland and Ajax. Fortunately, I have never had any negative experiences in my life and career in that area. Women who do experience this have a hard time, let that be clear. But at the same time, I also see them as heroines. In that sense: by standing up now, you are working on a better future for a new generation of women. So that something beautiful can also arise from something ugly. It's not always black and white. There is also a gray area. But you have to stand up if you think something is wrong. That empowers others.

A lot has changed positively in the field of women's emancipation in recent years. The dynamic between man and woman has already turned for the better. When I walked into the gym at Arsenal five years ago, the players of the men's team were surprised. Then it was time to keep your distance and act cool. Now everyone is mixed up and that is the most natural thing in the world at the club. Adidas used to talk a lot about men, men and men in their expressions. That is now very different, with this statue campaign as a good example.

And now to take the next step. I strongly believe that men and women become equal. I'm really not talking about salary, that's so cliché. But it is about the opportunities that girls and women should be given. Not just in the sports world, but in society as a whole.

Any major, substantial change in the world is gradual. With setbacks and struggles. Three steps forward and two back. So it is with gay acceptance. years ago when I came home with my girlfriend, I was lucky enough to have dear family and friends around me. That is why I have never experienced that step as a negative. But I'm not naive. I know very well that it is very difficult for many people, within a different culture or faith.

Arsenal vs Man United ❤️

‘I have been using a psychologist for years, I am not ashamed of that’

In her first column, Vivianne Miedema talks about seeking mental help. "When Ricardo told Kishna and Gregory van der Wiel about their anxiety attacks, they got a lot of comments on social media."

Mental help? I brushed it off in my early years as a football pro. I was a teenager and didn't believe in it. Whoops, just keep going. Talking about your feelings in a room? It didn't have to be like that for me. “Are we really going to do that?” I thought at the time. And look now. Now I think it's ridiculous if a club doesn't employ a psychologist.

I have been using a regular psychologist for years now. I met her at my club Arsenal and we kept in touch even when she left there. And no, I'm not ashamed of it at all. In fact, I would recommend it to everyone. We need to get rid of the idea that you shouldn't show your weaknesses. It's no shame. People who then say: isn't pressure part of the job when you're a top athlete? Oh yes, sure. To a certain extent, absolutely. But we top athletes are also people, aren't we. With own problems. You should be able to feel the freedom to be honest about that. without the outside world seeing it as weak.

When Ricardo told Kishna and Gregory van der Wiel about their anxiety attacks, they received a lot of comments on social media. We now live in a world where anyone can say anything. But people don't know what's going on in the life of a top athlete. Zero point zero.

I'm coming to this topic because the Winter Games are just around the corner. I always look forward to the Games. I grew up with it. But now I am also thinking about the feeling of the athletes. A major tournament always results in performance pressure. Add to that the current corona situation. One wrong test and the big goal is gone. Living with that thought is mentally very tough. That also applied to us, of course, last summer with the Orange during the Summer Games in Tokyo. There were even days when we weren't outside. That really kills. Still, I was very relaxed that tournament, partly because of the help I get.

Retroactively, it would have helped me a lot when I went to the 2015 World Cup in Canada as an 18-year-old girl. I was then bombed out of nowhere into the hope of the country. You can be really tough about that, but the pressure just became too much for me. Even before the tournament started, I was already exhausted. I had just finished my first year at Bayern Munich. I left the Netherlands when I was sixteen, alone. I was definitely homesick in the beginning. From four to eight workouts a week. From that moment on I just kept going. Whoops, the next game. Yep, the next tournament.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 🤩

-21 days 🦁

Viv, 🇯🇵 bound ✈️

There is an incredible variety among Europe’s top strikers at the moment, and that is reflected at Euro 2020. If you take the top goalscorers from the major European leagues, and then compare them to each other, they’re completely different players. It’s Harry Kane in England, Robert Lewandowski in Germany, Kylian Mbappe in France, and Cristiano Ronaldo in Italy. They’re all big names, but stylistically there is huge diversity.

I’ve always studied attacking players to try to improve myself. Growing up, I wasn’t really exposed to much women’s football, so I watched a lot of forwards from the men’s game. When you’re young, you have your idols. Mine was Robin van Persie. To this day, I try to examine players to understand what they do — movement-wise, technique-wise, tactics-wise.

Ronaldo’s record speaks for itself. He is now the top goalscorer in men’s European Championship history. After his two penalties against France last night, he has matched Ali Daei as the highest ever goalscorer in international football. Any footballer, at any level, can benefit from watching him.

I don’t think he gets enough credit for how he’s adapted his game over the years. I went back and did some research on his career — it feels like in every single season he made little tweaks to his game.

We all remember him at Manchester United. I was young then, but I still remember that excitable right winger taking people on, dribbling with the ball and shooting from outside the box. After a couple of years in Madrid, he converted himself into almost a second nine, just to the left of Karim Benzema.

Look back at his goals then: his striking ability and the power he generates is so good. He doesn’t need to put disguise on his shots, because he connects so well. Even if the goalkeeper knows where it’s going, he can’t get there.

But Ronaldo didn’t stop there. He continued evolving. When he went to Juventus, he started playing out on the left wing. He began dribbling again, and having a wider influence on the game. He was playing off a target man in Mario Mandzukic or Alvaro Marata, and then you saw something else happening to his game. It wasn’t just about goalscoring anymore, it was about creating too. To still be developing and changing at his age is pretty unique.

You can see that evolution in his physique too. He’s gone through such different stages. Once he got to Madrid, he really bulked up. He looked very strong, but his top speed was probably lower than it is right now. This summer he looks a little leaner, and he is flying.

We all saw his blistering run to score against Germany, covering 97 metres at 32 km per hour. To do that at 36 is incredible, but it wasn’t a surprise to me — I noticed that in one of the warm-up friendlies against Spain, he sprinted 60 metres in just seven seconds. That’s 32 km per hour. He’s doing this consistently.

He’s taken his game to a new level by making little physical adaptations. He’s worked out what he needs to do to make the difference on the pitch.

I try to do that myself. When we went into lockdown, I had four months training away from the Arsenal squad, trying to keep myself fit. I decided to work on running in-behind, to add a different dimension to my game. I was locked down with Lisa Evans, who is naturally super-quick and has always had that ability. We worked on it together so I could begin to introduce it to my play. Two years ago, I couldn’t have run behind 10 times in a match because I would have torn my hamstring! But now, when I see the opportunity, I can do it.

Of course, you need to have the stamina. Against Hungary, Ronaldo scored two goals in the last five minutes. That shows how mentally and physically sharp he still is.

His second goal against Hungary was not one of his most spectacular. Going through one-on-one, just a few yards out, he shaped to shoot before dummying past the Hungarian goalkeeper, Peter Gulacsi. It looked easy. It looked simple.

For a fellow forward, however, it was beautiful in its efficiency. The little touch he took to go around the keeper — how many other strikers would even try that? People say moments like that come from practising on the training ground, but that’s not right. This isn’t something you can learn in training, it’s something you pick up during your career. It’s something you earn through experience. It’s a sixth sense of knowing what to do in front of goal.

Ronaldo doesn’t panic. He knows that by taking it around the keeper, he turns a 50-50 chance into a 100 per cent goal. His instincts are perfectly attuned, his mind in perfect connection with his body. People say he is robotic. That’s not right either: you can only produce a piece of skill like that if you truly feel football.

When you’re analysing strikers, you can almost separate the tactical, technical and physical qualities of each player. Take Lewandowski and Romelu Lukaku, for example — there is a huge difference in style, but they’re both so effective.

I’ve watched a lot of Bundesliga this season, and Lewandowski — who scored two outstanding, and very different, goals against Sweden last night to keep his country in with a chance of getting out of the group — has such an instinctive understanding of where to be in the box. He scored 41 goals in 29 games — crazy numbers.

Yes, part of that is about knowing where the ball will drop, but it’s also about reacting to what other players do. That’s the difficult bit: you have to know your team-mates, and know your opponent — that’s what enables you to anticipate quicker than anybody else.

When I was at Bayern, Lewandowski was there too. I watched him train. He plays fully focused, all of the time. His concentration is unbelievable: even in the four-on-fours and seven-a-sides, you can see him looking at where the ball could end up. When a team-mate has a shot, his eyes aren’t on that player — they’re already looking at the goal, and anticipating where the ball might ricochet. It gives him a split-second before anyone else moves. The goals look simple, but when you break down all the work that goes into them, they’re far from it.

He does it so naturally. Personally, I don’t think of myself as a pure goalscorer in that way, I’m more of a creator. I’m always telling people I’m not a “nine” — but I score a lot of goals, so no-one believes me. Ciro Immobile is another predator who has shone in this tournament. He scored from outside the box against Switzerland, but it’s his goal against Turkey that sums him up: inside the area, first to react, first to the ball.

Lukaku is a different type entirely. His physique is something else. He’s got the body; he’s got the speed. The moment he faces forward and he runs at you, you’ve got absolutely no chance. He achieves such separation, so easily.

I love how he’s proven people wrong. When he was at United, people took the mick out of his first touch — but look at the way he’s played this season. His recent record for Belgium is absolutely ridiculous: 23 goals in his last 21 games.

Again, he deserves credit for the way he has evolved physically. I’m not saying he was overweight at Manchester United, but he didn’t have the same physique he has right now. For such a big guy, he’s now able to turn very quickly. You see that in his dribbling — he has such flexibility. He’s adding things to his game, and is a completely different player these days.

His athleticism means you can play him upfront alone, and he can run in behind time after time for the whole 90 minutes. You need that in this tournament — especially with so many teams playing a back five. When you’re up against three centre-backs, there’s obviously a lot less space for the striker. Personally, I hate playing against five at the back. To thrive, you need to engage your tactical brain.

There are different ways you can combat a back five: if they play a high block, like Russia tried to do against Belgium, you need the No 9 to make diagonal runs across the lateral centre-backs. It pulls them deeper and disrupts the line. Look at Lukaku’s two goals in that game — they both come from that very run.

If the defence sit in deeper, like Scotland did against England, then sometimes the striker really needs to pull one of the three centre-backs out. That can mean the No 9 coming back into midfield to drag his marker with him, enabling a No 10 or wide forward to run in behind. Kane has been criticised for playing deep, but tactically it’s the right move. His quality is on the ball, he needs to be involved — the issue is that, with England, he doesn’t have the same understanding he does with someone like Son Heung-min at Spurs. When he drops in, there isn’t the same movement in-behind. England are still a developing team, and those relationships aren’t there yet.

France are still trying to find the right balance too. For pure talent, few countries can match the trio of Mbappe, Benzema and Antoine Griezmann. The question is whether they can develop the relationships on the field quickly enough. Benzema joined the group late — though there are signs it may be clicking.

If it does, I’ll be watching. I’m still only 24. There’s still a lot to learn, and I believe I can still get better. Studying your contemporaries can only help you do that. At 36, Ronaldo is proof that the process never stops: keep observing, keep evolving, keep improving.

football is for everyone ⚽️