JAYNE LUDLOW’S WORLD CUP FINAL
Photo by Andrew Dowling [andrewdowlingphotography.co.uk]
Sam Southall
It's the 29th of April 2007 at Meadow Park, Boreham Wood on the northern outskirts of London. It's the second leg of the 2007 UEFA Women's Cup Final, the culmination of a European campaign that had began the previous September.
Two-time Women's Cup winners Umeå IK are behind 1-0, having conceded in the 91st minute in the first leg. But, as the only full-time professional club in Europe, they boast a strong team. It includes Marta, possibly the greatest woman to ever play the beautiful game and then-World Player of the Year.
Their opponents were the clear underdogs, lined up with a makeshift back four and two teenagers up front. It was an unchanged team from the first leg in Sweden. But they weren't a team to be sniffed at and the players knew that they were 90 minutes away from securing an incredible result. The game was the biggest in the 20-year history of the club.
However, the game meant more than just a European title to one player. She rallied her team before the match: "I'm never gonna play in a World Cup. I'm never gonna play in a World Cup final. Wales are never gonna qualify. This is my World Cup final."
She was the Arsenal captain. Her name is Jayne Ludlow.
Having previously appeared for Barry Town, Millwall and Southampton, Ludlow joined Arsenal in 2000. Her first season had seen her score 28 goals from midfield as Arsenal won a domestic treble – it was a clear sign of things to come. By the time the 2006/07 season rolled around, Ludlow’s number of appearances for the Gunners was in the hundreds, she had been the FA Players’ Player of the Year three times and was Arsenal’s vice-captain. However, in the absence of club captain Faye White due to an ACL injury, Ludlow would skipper the side through the 06/07 season and lead the club to record success. By the time the European final had kicked off, Arsenal had already done the domestic League and League Cup double, having picked up 66 points out of a possible 66 in the league, scoring 119 and conceding only 10 in the process.
The game against Umeå was a tight one but it wasn’t dominated by the favourites. Arsenal held their own with Ludlow at the core. Early on, she stole the ball from Ma Xiaoxu near the Umeå box and fired over the bar. It was an uncharacteristic miss in a game of uncharacteristic misses for both sides, but Arsenal only needed to hold firm. The first half ended 0-0.
It’s hard to describe just how good Ludlow was as a player. One would normally turn to statistics or video clips to highlight the Pele-esque directional changes, the Roy Keane-styled box to box runs or the goalscoring ability that brought Freddie Ljungberg comparisons. But most of those statistics weren’t measured and the videos are lost to time. Maybe, just maybe, those comparisons are enough to paint a picture of the player from Llwynpia.
The second half at Meadow Park brought more of the same – Marta, Marta, Marta. Almost everything good that Umeå did that game went through the Brazilian but Arsenal, remembering Ludlow’s rallying cry before the match, mustered and refused to be broken down. The Gunners’ pressing was relentless, the tackles firm, and eventually the chances started to come. Fleeting, Yankey, Carney and Sanderson all created chances and came close. A Sanderson free kick some half an hour before time was fated to land on Ludlow’s head and it did... and the header looped over the bar.
Missed chances had cost Arsenal before. They had reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Cup twice in the preceding five seasons and the quarter-finals twice. For Ludlow this was sure to hurt deeper than it did for the other players – she had been playing for Wales since 1996, but the team wasn’t qualifying for tournaments and Ludlow knew it. The Women’s Cup, therefore, was the biggest title on the line for Ludlow and there would never be a better chance to lay her hands on it.
It seemed a story written in the stars until the 87th minute. Marta went down just outside the box and Ludlow saw a yellow card – whether a foul was actually committed is still up for debate. There was no debating the outcome of the following free kick however. Marta’s shot was spectacular, it headed straight for the top corner. It didn’t go in though; Emma Byrne was equal to it and tipped the ball over the bar. Five minutes of added time went up on the board moments later, but Ludlow’s game was done. She’d be replaced by Faye White, returning from the ACL injury which had led to Ludlow gaining the armband at the beginning of the season.
I’m sure Jayne Ludlow felt little trepidation during those minutes of added time. For the game was essentially over, Umeå had no further chances, every ball fell to a player in an oversized red and white shirt, and the final two chances on goal went to Arsenal.
Neither chance went in, but that doesn’t matter. Jayne Ludlow had captained her team to European glory, she had won her World Cup final. The score, over the two legs, was the classic 1-0 to The Arsenal.
Just 9 days later and in keeping with Arsenal tradition, the team would coast to victory in the Women’s FA Cup final with Ludlow skippering the team. She, characteristically, scored twice in the first half and lifted the trophy at full time, one of six the team lifted that season. The 2006-07 Arsenal sextuple-winning side is recognised as one of the best in the history of the women’s game. It’s a feat that can no longer be replicated in the English game. Jayne Ludlow was the captain of that Arsenal side.
Between October 2003 and March 2009, the team went a record 108 league games without a defeat, including a record 51 match winning run between November 2005 and April 2008. Jayne Ludlow played most of the games. She’d win 26 major trophies in all during her 13 years at Arsenal, picking up 3 individual honours in the process. She made 356 appearances for Arsenal and scored a record 211 goals, only Thierry Henry scored more.