Houghton: Setbacks have made me the player I am - THE GRADUATE
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Ever since, aged 24, she became Great Britain’s unlikely goalscoring heroine at the 2012 Olympics, Steph Houghton’s star has been on the rise.
By 26, her burgeoning status within the game was recognised with the England captaincy, and a year later she led the Lionesses to a momentous third-place finish at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. But while these milestones suggest a smooth and unrelentingly upward career trajectory, Houghton’s early years in the game were anything but serene.
In 2007, having debuted for England at 18, she broke her leg just two days before the squad was due to depart for the Women’s World Cup in China PR. Then, having fought her way back, the versatile defender – still just 21 – ruptured her cruciate ligament shortly before the 2009 Women’s EURO.
These were crushing blows, and the impact – both physical and mental – would have floored weaker characters. Houghton, though, not only survived but thrived, and believes that those injuries shaped her subsequent success story.
“Don’t get me wrong, they were tough to take at the time,” she told FIFA.com. “But because I kept believing, kept working hard, I’ve gone on to have some unbelievable experiences at the World Cup, the Olympics and the EURO.
“I definitely think that setbacks help make you the person and player you become. I came out of that time determined to make the most of the opportunities I had and also to repay all the people – and I was very lucky in that respect – who stood by me and helped me when times were tough.”
There was also an experience sandwiched in between these injuries that offered Houghton a taste of what football could bring her. It came at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Chile 2008, when – along with the likes of Toni Duggan and Natasha Dowie – she helped England beat the hosts en route to reaching the quarter-finals.
“I’d just missed the senior World Cup, so that U-20s was a massive boost for me – just to get away with England, representing my country in that kind of environment,” she recalled. “It’s a tournament I’ll always remember fondly because of that and I still think back on it. It definitely showed me how important it is to enjoy every chance you get to play on that kind of stage.”
England impressed in flashes, but their journey came to an end in the last eight when they were comfortably beaten 3-0 by a USA side starring the likes of Alex Morgan and Sydney Leroux. The manner of their exit was nothing if not predictable because, at that time, losing to any of women's football's traditional giants – USA and Germany most notably – was simply what England were expected to do, and invariably did.
"It definitely showed me how important it is to enjoy every chance you get to play on that kind of stage."
England defender Steph Houghton on the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Chile 2008
Fast forward eight years, though, and Houghton is the standard-bearer for an altogether different England. Last year’s Women’s World Cup provided the ultimate evidence of that transformation, with victories over their Canadian hosts and German nemeses achieved with performances full of class and character.
And their captain, having been part of the set-up for the best part of a decade, is perfectly placed to judge which area of improvement - physical, tactical, technical or mental – has been most important in bridging the gap to those top teams.
“It’s hard to pin it down to just one,” she said. “Physically, I definitely think we can now compete against the very best in the world, which maybe wasn’t the case previously. I think we’ve also improved tactically and technically – you saw that at the World Cup. But the change in mentality is maybe even bigger still because we approach these games with a real belief now.
“You’re making me feel really old by saying I’ve been part of the team for almost ten years, but the progress has been really clear in that time. When I started, I remember the big thing for us was qualifying for tournaments. Now that’s seen pretty much as a given and it’s all about making an impact in the latter stages. The next stage for us now, of course, is winning something - and we’re all determined to do that.”
Sadly, this will be an opportunity denied to them at Rio 2016, with Houghton and her team-mates the victims of political issues that have prevented a regular British presence at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament. Given that absence - “devastating”, she says - and consequent inability to test themselves against the world's best again, the recent SheBelieves Cup, which pitted them against USA, Germany and France, proved especially valuable.
Following England’s rise this year to an all-time high of fourth in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking, these are the only teams still ahead of Mark Sampson’s side in the global pecking order. And Houghton, having been part of the team that competed well against all three, agreed with her coach’s verdict that only “small details” now stand between the Lionesses and a major title.
“I think Mark’s right there,” she said. “But it’s also those small details, the little margins, that separate the very best from everyone else. That last step is probably the hardest to take, so we need to focus on every little way we can improve. I don’t think we’re far off winning something though, and we’ll keep going until we do.”
Such determination and dedication can go a long way. And should Houghton's England team-mates ever doubt it, they need only look to their skipper for a reminder of what these attributes can achieve and overcome.