There was a moment against Haiti when Millie Bright knew what the rest of us had already realised: she was having a bad game. Not a shocker, nothing too disastrous, but enough for England’s newly installed captain to feel a little embarrassed.
There was no point trying to pretend there was nothing wrong. After four months out injured, in her first competitive appearance since she injured her knee playing for Chelsea, Bright looked alarmingly out of sorts at times.
There were poor passes, far too many of them. There were some missed headers, the kind she would normally thump clear, taking a bit of the striker with it. Her positioning was off, as was her timing whenever she tried to nick the ball in the tackle.
There was even an awful attempt at a volley in the second half, when, unmarked, in the middle of the area, the ball dropped perfectly out of a chilly Queensland sky for her to smash past the goalkeeper. Her body position was so wrong, her balance so off, that she launched it high into the stand instead.
On that occasion, Bright screamed in frustration, but the moment she realised what the rest of us had already concluded came when, for the second successive time in the space of a few minutes, she tried to play a relatively straightforward pass out from defence and it was cut out by a slightly startled Haiti player.
Indeed, had they not been so surprised that one of England’s best players had just passed the ball to them, deep inside their own half, they might have been better prepared to punish it.
That was a theme of the night really. England were not at their best, but Haiti were not quite good enough to capitalise on their many mistakes either.
Bright was clearly annoyed at herself after that second wayward pass. Her head dropped, her gaze with it. It was as though she was trying to avoid the gaze of her team-mates, but she knew it was not good enough either.
She held a solitary arm in the air to signal it was her mistake; that she was to blame and she was sorry for putting England’s opening group game victory at risk through such tardy, shoddy play.
It says a lot about Bright’s fortitude that she was much better after that. Something clicked mentally. The passing was crisper, faster and accurate. She did not take any chances. She won her headers. Kept it simple, kept it clean, kept the risks low. England’s captain shook herself out of her mental malaise.
Even if there was bound to be rustiness after so long out, even though she was naturally going to be a little less assured without the more naturally skilful Leah Williamson alongside her, she had to be better. It was not good enough from her and even without the armband she would have felt the same.
It was not Bright’s fault that England were out of sorts against Haiti, but it also did not help. When your leader makes mistakes, it tends to spread in a team.
Bright was the obvious choice to replace Williamson as captain, but things did not start well from the moment she arrived late for the pre-match team huddle.
Captaining your country at a World Cup is a huge honour, but it can also be a major distraction. There is added pressure, more eyes focused on you and more to do media wise before and after games too. Bright did not say a lot in her pre-match press conference. The answers to questions are normally so short they never need a comma when written down.
She does not appear to be a natural orator but that does not matter. She has the respect of her team-mates and leads by example – at least she does normally. Nobody takes liberties with Millie, they would not dare.
Nevertheless, if she can be blunt in her answers, so must we be. This was not good enough from her or the team.
England will not win a World Cup making so many unforced errors. But they know that. Just as Bright recognised she had to get a grip, the team got better and looked far less rusty by the end.
Bright will need more games to get up to speed, to get her sharpness and rhythm back. Yet even when so obviously short of her best form, she found a way to come through with a win. She will be stronger for it. We must hope England can do the same.
This was a job done, not well, admittedly, but it was still enough. The Lionesses were no better when they beat Austria in the opening game of the European Championship last summer and we all know how that ended a few weeks later. There is no need to worry, not yet.
