There was no shortage of stars on show as the Lionesses took to the pitch for Tuesday's clash with an Australia side boasting plenty of household names of their own. Be it the likes of Lucy Bronze, Ella Toone, Beth Mead and Alessia Russo in the home colours, or Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, Ellie Carpenter and Steph Catley representing the visitors, there was top-class talent all over the park. And yet, it was a relatively unknown 21-year-old by the name of Lucia Kendall who stole the show.
Many of those who watched the action unfold at Pride Park will not have been familiar with Kendall prior to Tuesday. After all, the midfielder had only just earned her first senior call-up for October's friendlies that were scheduled to celebrate the summer's Euros success. Even regular watchers of the Women's Super League might not have come across Kendall just yet, given she is only a few games into her first season in the top-flight.
But Kendall will have put herself on many more radars now after a Player of the Match display in the biggest game of her career to date. "I had hoped, maybe," Sarina Wiegman said afterwards, asked if she was surprised at how comfortable the debutante looked. "Expected? You never know exactly what you can expect in the first game. I just wanted her to go out there and play and enjoy herself. I think that's what she did."
GettyWhere it all began
A talented cricketer in her youth as well as a promising footballer, Kendall joined Southampton at the age of 11 and would make her first-team debut five years later, starting a journey that would see her become a key player for the Saints during their rise up the leagues. The midfielder scored in the victory over Portsmouth which secured the National League title, bagged a brace a week later in the National League Cup final as Southampton sealed a double and was a stand-out performer in the play-off win over Wolves the following month, as the club achieved promotion to the second-tier at the end of a monumental 2021-22 season.
Kendall took to that new challenge like a duck to water. Her performance level went up a notch in the Women's Championship, now rebranded as WSL 2, and Aston Villa took real notice, snapping the young midfielder up on a free transfer upon the expiry of her Southampton contract back in the summer. Having been trusted consistently on the south coast, Natalia Arroyo, her new head coach, has continued to rely on her in the Midlands, too, with Kendall starting all of Villa's last four games before the international break.
"I'm really grateful for the level of trust that she's shown in me," the 21-year-old said of Arroyo last week. “I'm a young player in the team and so even the first start that I was given at the Emirates Stadium, not every manager would throw you in the deep end like that. But I was really grateful for that opportunity and to be able to show what I can do and I feel that trust from her.
"Being at Southampton for so long, I've played regular senior football from when I was 16, and I think that's given me a really good step. The consistent trust that they've shown in me as a player and belief, and to be able to make that next step, I felt like I was ready for it."
AdvertisementGetty ImagesThe big break
Kendall's steady progress at club level has been mirrored at national team level, too. She's played in essentially every age group with England, making the jump up to the Under-23s at the end of 2023 when she was still just 19 years old. The strong communication and aligned approach within the pathway then helped her make that final step into the senior side this month. The Lionesses have needed to build out the depth in their midfield for a while now, and Kendall, whose start to the new club season has been praised by Wiegman, provided a potential option to help with that.
"It's amazing to see the players go through [the pathway]," Emma Coates, head coach of the U23s, said last week. "I worked with Lucia back in the U18s and U19s. Between myself and Gemma [Davies, U23s assistant], we've probably spent the last four or five years working with her. Granted, it's a very small proportion of time that we spend with her, but to just be part of her journey and then see her make that step across is brilliant.
"We were at St George's Park the other day and I was chatting with Sarina, seeing how she's settling in, how she getting on, and the feedback has been positive. Lucia had a big smile on her face. It's a really nice moment and it's great for the [other U23] players to see as well."
Getty ImagesHow it's going
It all culminated in her England debut on Tuesday and an impressive debut at that. Kendall completed 50 of her 51 attempted passes on the night, created a whopping five chances and was very unlucky not to get on the scoresheet, hitting the woodwork with one opportunity before just not getting the connection she'd have liked on another.
"It was amazing, to be honest," she told afterwards. "I felt at home. The girls were so easy to play with. You've got world-class players on that pitch, so it was easy to fit in. When I was a little girl you couldn't even dream of that, to be able to go out there to a sell-out crowd, playing with a team that had just gone and won back-to-back Euros. It was really special."
To be presented with her Player of the Match award by Bronze at full-time was the cherry on the cake for someone whose performance level may have surprised many, but not Wiegman.
"To be honest, I was not really surprised because she has done so well with Aston Villa in the first part of the season," the Lionesses boss remarked in her post-match press conference. "She came into our environment and straight away you saw her understanding of the game, her reading of the game and she was connecting with players very quickly and very well. Also, she keeps things very simple. Well, it looks simple. It's not simple."
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Getty ImagesBiggest strengths
Kendall's confidence in possession is something that stands out immediately. "She's constantly wanted the ball, constantly showing, even in her own half," Ian Wright noted on punditry for on Tuesday. She's got good reason to have that belief in herself, too, given how good she is on the ball. That was evident in her completing all-but one pass in that win over Australia and creating so many chances.
That all-roundedness she is able to showcase in possession is also a consequence of the various midfield positions she has played in her career. Kendall is able to be so confident in picking the ball up in dangerous, defensive areas because she's played that holding role and had to do that, and she's able to be just as confident threading a pass through for her centre-forward because she's also played as a No.8 and a No.10.
That experience means she has picked up some of the other traits associated with each, too. She's able to make those late midfield runs into the box, she's strong and stands her ground in her duels and she's able to identify where the pockets of space are for her to pick up and cause problems for the opponent.
"I’d like to say that I can play any of those three roles, probably more naturally a little bit more defensive, but I want to be able to play all three positions in that midfield," she noted last week.