July 31, 2022, 10:49 am ET LONDON — Sarina Wiegman and her players know, deep down, that the most important victory has already been won. His spoils can be measured not only by England’s record attendances and record crowds at Euro 2022, but by the bustling pubs and ubiquitous jerseys and, on Sunday, the packed trains to Wembley Stadium for the final. against Germany. It will also be clear in a few years from now, as England captain Leah Williamson said, when this tournament will be seen as a “game changer” for women’s football in England, certainly, and probably across Europe. The problem with elite sports, however, is that it’s not that simple. The impact of Euro 2022 on the general public won’t change, of course, regardless of whether England can take that final step on Sunday and become European champions for the first time, but the way the players remember it certainly will. It is one thing to inspire a nation to glory. It’s another to do it with regret. The victory that matters for England is not the philosophical, the conceptual. It is the one that is achieved in 90 minutes, on the field. Ellen White alternated between cheers and sobs in an emotional run to the finale. Credit…Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images It is also possible. England have swept through this tournament with such confidence and flair that even Wiegman admitted the group stage was “relatively easy”. Her side have struggled just once, in a packed quarter-final against Spain. that game yielded the only goal conceded by Mary Earps as well. The host must be the favorite. The only caveat is that Germany does not make a convincing underdog. Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side have the air of a team in transition, an older generation gradually giving way to a younger one, led by the indomitable Lena Oberdorf, but Germany’s pedigree at this tournament is impeccable: It has been crowned champion of Europe, after all, eight times and has never lost a final in which it reached. This iteration gathers momentum, surely and diligently, during the tournament. He also knows that this is the victory that matters, the one on which everything depends. See more