An emotional Lauren James has taken to social media to render an apology to Super Falcons defender Michelle Alozie over the stamp she gave her during England’s Women’s World Cup win over Nigeria.
Responding to a Twitter post by Alozie, in which she asked for the English player to be shown respect, James said: ‘All my love and respect to you. I am sorry for what happened.
‘Also, for our England fans and my teammates, playing with and for you is my greatest honour and I promise to learn from my experience.’
An England statement read: ‘Lauren is really sorry for her actions which led to the red card and is full of remorse. It is wholly out of character for her.
‘We will be supporting Lauren throughout and will be putting forward representation on her behalf. We fully respect FIFA’s disciplinary process and will not be making any further comment until after any decision has been made.’
Previously, Alozie begged her fans to stop criticizing Lauren for her unprofessional behavior during the game as she thought it was accidental and almost inadvertent.
Alozie tweeted: ‘Abeg, rest. we are playing on the world’s stage.
‘This game is one of passion, insurmountable emotions, and moments. all respect for Lauren James.’
England defeated a resilient Nigerian side in the ongoing FIFA World Cup to progress to the quarterfinals of the ongoing tourney being held in Australia and New Zealand.
The European champions advanced to the round of eight thanks to Chloe Kelly’s game-winning penalty kick in a 4-2 shootout victory after the round of 16 match had gone scoreless and with England’s Lauren James dismissed.
As a result of the United States’ exit in another thrilling shootout against Sweden 24 hours earlier, their success justifies their ranking as the tournament’s favourites.
However, being considered the favorites in a World Cup can be both a burden and a source of inspiration. During their disastrous campaign, the USWNT did little to earn that distinction. One would argue that Spain, Japan, co-hosts Australia, or Sweden are more deserving of the “most likely to” designation than England, whose only noteworthy performance thus far was the 6-1 group-stage triumph against Asian champions China.
Despite the fact that Nigeria outplayed coach Sarina Wiegman’s team for significant stretches of the game and had to deal with James’ 87th-minute dismissal for a senseless stamp on Michelle Alozie, the Lionesses did what winners typically do: they reorganized, dug deep, and fueled off the disappointment of losing one of their best players to force the game into extra time and penalties before winning that test of nerve.
“We didn’t expect it to be easy,” Wiegman said. “I give a lot of credit to Nigeria. I don’t think I have ever been in such an intense game. It was very intense and competitive.”
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