How the English women are getting right what the men are getting wrong

England’s performance in its quarterfinal victory over Canada was intense and disciplined, gritty and resolute.

In short, it was everything the men’s team hasn’t been for quite some time.

The funny thing about the Three Lionesses’ run to the World Cup semifinals is they’re capitalizing on things that are working against the men’s team right now. As a result, the English women sit one win away from England’s first World Cup final berth of any kind in nearly 50 years.

England led 2-0 after 14 minutes on Saturday, then dug deep and defended resolutely the rest of the way. And it was a long way. There were more than 54,000 fans at BC Place in Vancouver, and pretty much all of them were cheering for the host Canadians at the top of their lungs.

Canada was no slouch, either. The team finished third at the 2012 Olympics and only missed the final because Alex Morgan scored for the United States in what amounted to the 128th minute of their semifinal match.

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None of that stopped the English women from grinding out the result in a cauldron of maple red. Sure, they gave up a goal before halftime, and yes, Canada generated more chances overall, but England played strongest when the lights shone brightest.

The men’s team would do well to emulate that. England crashed out of last summer’s World Cup in the group stage and failed to win a group in 2010 that the country’s own notoriously cannibalizing press dubbed E-A-S-Y.

The European Championships have been a similar story. England exited in the quarterfinals in 2012 and failed to even reach the tournament in 2008, despite being grouped with the likes of Israel, Estonia, Andorra and Macedonia in qualifying.

The English women, by contrast, have held their own against the world’s best this past month. Their only loss came in the opening match against France, a 1-0 setback against a superior opponent which might be a semifinalist itself if not for poor seeding practices, and they scored this golazo in beating traditional women’s power Norway in the round of 16.

Women’s soccer has seen great growth in England over the past few years. There have been professional competitions of some form in the country for decades, but the establishment of the Women’s Super League by the English Football Association in 2011 has given the sport a boost. Operating under a two-division, promotion/relegation system featuring 18 total teams, the FA WSL provides an opportunity for England’s best women to compete against each other in 14-game seasons.

The men’s player pool, while much more rooted and developed overall, has been criticized for its failure to branch out. Every single player to feature for England or be called up over the past 12 months plays in the Premier League. Every single one. Top English players of the past couple generations have rarely competed outside the United Kingdom in their primes. You’d have to go back a decade to argue for the likes of David Beckham, Michael Owen and Steve McManaman, and those three all played for the same club, Real Madrid.

As a result, the English men play the same stodgy, physical brand of soccer year in and year out and are only forced to deal with different tactics and talent when playing in the Champions and Europa leagues. While the women are augmented by playing in England, the men are stunted.

England’s rise in women’s soccer is reflective of the rise of the women’s game as a whole. The game has evolved since the first Women’s World Cup 24 years ago, becoming less about power and directness and more about skill and intricacy. That favors countries such as England, where the game is embedded deeply into the population’s identity and culture. After missing three of the first four tournaments, England has reached at least the quarterfinals the last three. Now, it’s only a matter of continuing to develop these budding stars.

There’s still work to be done in that regard. The English women have acknowledged the thrill of playing games in front of thousands of fans at the World Cup as opposed to a few hundred at the local training ground.

There’s still work to be done this tournament, too. England’s semifinal takes place on Wednesday against Japan, the defending world champions. A victory means a berth in the final, but it also means a date with either Germany, a two-time champion ranked No. 1 in the world, or the United States, a two-time champion ranked No. 2 and playing on its home continent.

Regardless of the outcome, the English women seem to be building something special.

England has a realistic chance to win the World Cup. When was the last time you could say that?