Lauren James has been the burning torch for England in the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand. James has been delivering match-winning performances in this World Cup starting from England’s second fixture on Friday against Denmark. James immediately caught the eyeballs of the spectators as she scored in the sixth minute of the game. In England’s third game, against China, she continued the scoring as her strike found the back of the net in the 41st minute, just before half-time. 


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Hemp took a free kick from the far right-hand side of the box and found James on the edge. She then lined up a first-touch effort and fired it perfectly into the bottom corner and took England’s lead to three goals. It was an amazing strike and her teammates rushed to her side to congratulate her.


Watch the video here:



Offside stops James from scoring her second goal


Shortly after this goal, Lauren found the net once again, in an even better effort, but the attempt was deemed as offside, a long time after the English celebrated the effort. James had the unfortunate experience of having her goal waved off after a VAR assessment because Lucy Bronze was offside during the build-up.



When James first crossed the ball in, the England right-back was in an offside position. Despite moving back to an onside position before setting up James for the goal, the referee determined that Bronze was still in an offside position because the ball struck a Chinese defender's head. 


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This caused a lot of outrage amongst the players as well as fans as many of them blamed the VAR for the unfair decision. On social media, England supporters attacked the choice, arguing that even if Bronze was initially in an offside position, a new phase of play ought to have started after the ball hit a China defender.



With her top-drawer performances in the World Cup, Lauren James has received a lot of notoriety on social media. During the game against China, a fan poster went viral which called Lauren to be a better player than her brother Recce James, who plays for Chelsea FC.