After a bumpy build-up, England will be glad to let their football do the talking when their World Cup campaign begins on Saturday,
The Lionesses have had a number of issues to contend with going into this tournament and it has not been the smooth run-up they enjoyed gearing up to last summer’s home Euros.
There has been the debate over what armbands captains can wear in the wake of FIFA stopping teams from using the rainbow one in support of LGBTQ+ rights. England players have been at loggerheads with the FA over performance-related bonus, with discussions parked until after the tournament. Prior to that, the FA were involved in their own heated talks with clubs over when players could be released for the pre-World Cup training camp.
Add to that the fact England are without their usual captain Leah Williamson, playmaker Fran Kirby and top scorer at Euro 2022 Beth Mead due to injury, and it is easy to see why the Lionesses’s tag as strong favourites has softened over the past few months.
When asked about the issues leading into the tournament, head coach Sarina Wiegman said on Friday morning: “I haven’t noticed anything about that. When we go on the pitch, everyone is aligned and focused on football. I haven’t seen any other behaviours.
“So, yes, we are ready. We have said all the time we want to be ready on July 22, and I think we are. We are very well prepared and I don’t think there is any stone unturned in preparation.”
England’s opener here presents them with the challenge of facing an unknown opponent. Haiti are competing at their first World Cup after upsetting the odds to beat Chile in a play-off in February. They are ranked 53rd in the world, 49 places below England, but Wiegman has warned against complacency.
“We have a whole team behind us to analyse the opponents, so I think we know everything we need to know about Haiti,” she said. “They have a team that’s athletic, [they play] a very opportunistic, transitional game, some unpredictably also.”
There is a degree of unpredictably about England, too. During the Euros they had a settled side, with Wiegman naming the same XI for every match. Now, partly due to injuries and retirement, the team is much harder to call, and no goals in the past three games has led to more questions about who should start in attack.
Ella Toone and Lauren James are fighting to start as the No10, while Alessia Russo, Beth England and Rachel Daly are vying to lead the line. The Lionesses’s left side of defence is also hard to predict, given Williamson’s absence and Daly’s shift to striker this season.
The FA will hope that preparation has paid off and that the foundations built allow for the rocky few months England have had
“It has given me and the technical staff some really big headaches,” said Wiegman. “It’s very competitive, so I just want them to keep giving us headaches.
“We have had preparation camps, we have a behind-closed-doors match, we had that Portugal friendly. We have tried many, many things. We want everyone to be ready for tomorrow. And, as we know, what’s today? Because tomorrow can change. Someone can get ill or get an injury, so have all positions double possessed.”
Despite their rocky road over the last few months, England will take heart from the fact they have been preparing for this World Cup for 18 months.
Preparations around picking their training base began in January last year. The FA’s women’s technical director Kay Cossington and England women’s general manager Anja van Ginhoven eventually flew to Australia in May, visiting 23 hotels and 18 training venues, boarding nine flights.
England ended up getting their No1 base in Terrigal, about 90 minutes north of Sydney, and they hope that will give them the edge. Unlike other teams, the FA are paying, so the team can stay at the same base all the way through the knockouts. “It is credit to the investment the FA is making into women’s football to say, ‘Let’s get as prepared as we possibly can be’,” said Cossington.
The FA will hope that preparation has paid off and that the foundations built allow for the rocky few months they have had.
“We are here and we have a dream,” said Wiegman. “We are going to give our everything.”
