23 February 2023 , 10:18
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England goalkeeper Mary Earps looked genuinely annoyed when Belgium's Elena Dhont struck a superb shot in the 91st minute to deny her a clean sheet.
The Lionesses won 6-1 against Belgium to stroll to a second straight Arnold Clark Cup title, but Dhont's stunning effort did deny them a second clean sheet of the tournament and was only the second goal conceded by Earps in an England shirt since the Euros. She even had players jokingly giving her stick for it in the post-match celebrations.
Regular observers know that despite having some huge scoreline victories since Sarina Wiegman took charge, the long unbeaten run is built on the foundations of a tight defensive unit that don't concede soft goals. And after lifting their third trophy in the past 12 months, both Millie Bright and Lucy Bronze both credited one individual in particular with helping build a rock solid base of the team. Assistant manager Arjan Veurink was credited by both after the Belgium win, with helping the defence become arguably the best on the planet.
"Arjan is the unsung hero of the entire team," said Bronze. "A lot of the girls will tell you that he can do everything right across from coaching to managing. He even writes the software for the video clips we use in training, it's insane, he codes it as well.
"He is super intelligent and it is obvious why Sarina brought him to the backroom team with her. Everyone talks about Sarina and I think knows what she is like.
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"But Arjan is behind it all and they work really well together, he is one of the best coaches I have ever worked with."
Bright, Bronze and Williamson have been key to England's defensive successBronze created England's second goal of the night with an excellent cross for Leah Williamson's powerful header and later got on the scoresheet herself with a close-range finish. Williamson's centre-half partner Bright is another stalwart of the defensive unit and she agreed with Bronze's assessment that Veurink's impact on the team has been huge.
"He (Veurink) is a massive influence on us," added Bright. "Being a team that is hard to beat for us is just as important as putting the ball in the opponents net.
"We want clean sheets, so we're gutted to have conceded even though we've just won the whole thing. But that is the nature of our team, we're so competitive and so demanding of one another.
"We know that if you stand still in football you will get left behind so we're always pushing each other. But Arjan has had a huge impact on the team. Defensively I would like to think people can see our improvements over recent years.
"But there is definitely more to come."
If Bright is right and England can become even stronger at the back, it is hard to see many attacks from across the world that will fancy their chances of scoring against the Lionesses at the World Cup.
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