“It’s about mentally switching off, doing something that can take your mind off football,” Steph Houghton tells 90min about finding the right balance during a major international tournament as the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand fast approaches.
With a substantial break between games and only so much time it is possible to pass through training and preparation, finding ways to stay entertained during the hours of downtime will be something the England squad that travelled to Brisbane last week will have to do over the coming weeks.
In unfamiliar surroundings and with most family and friends nine hours behind on the other side of the world, home comforts become even more important.
“The travel day is probably the worst day of the whole tournament,” Houghton explains. “You just want to get there, unpack, make your room as homely as possible and get to know where you’re going to be for a couple of weeks before the first game.”
The Lionesses touched down on Friday and have based themselves at a resort on the Sunshine Coast, where they will train and face Canada in a final behind closed doors friendly, before their opening Group D game against Haiti in Brisbane the following Saturday on 22 July.
Most of the 23 players selected were part of the squad that won Euro 2022 on home soil last summer, a very different kind of experience as a home tournament. Only a handful were at the last World Cup in France in 2019, a short hop compared to Australia, and just Lucy Bronze, Alex Greenwood and Jordan Nobbs survive from the 2015 World Cup in Canada.
“It couldn’t get much further [away from home] being in Australia,” Houghton admits. “But I think how each team adapts to the new environment is part and parcel of a tournament. For England, especially, adjusting to new time zones and maybe not being to speak to your family as much as possible because you’ll probably be asleep when everyone is at work.
“Ultimately, it’s just adjusting and getting the training sessions in, getting used to the environment and making a home from home. The best teams adapt as quickly as possible, lean on each other and stick together. There will be 40 or 50 people [including staff] that are going through the same thing, missing home, family and friends.”
It’s what makes the downtime between training, travelling and games so important. Alessia Russo, Ella Toone, Katie Zelem and Maya Le Tissier, the latter with the squad as a reserve, are fans of a strategy board game called Partners, while others enjoy playing cards.
Anything that the squad can get involved in together will help pass the time and forge closer bonds.
“In previous tournaments, it wasn’t so much games but more watching Love Island, getting together and watching rubbish TV from back home,” Houghton laughs.
“There will probably be a pool table and table tennis [at England’s base], so there are always little tournaments going on in and around the camp.”
But despite the challenges that exist, which are the same for most of the teams involved, having the opportunity to play at a World Cup is unlike anything else. Houghton has been to two European Championship and three World Cups with England, as well two Olympics with Great Britain, but only one of those tournaments is the ‘pinnacle of any footballer’s career’.
“The World Cup, by far, is the best tournament,” the Manchester City skipper says. “Before I went to a World Cup, people would say, ‘Steph, it’s so different’, and having experienced three, honestly, there is just a different feel about a World Cup…the amount of attention, the buildup.”
For five of the players in England’s this World Cup will be their first taste of a major tournament, getting that opportunity on the biggest stage of all.
One expected to make headlines and potentially be England’s next tournament breakout star, in a way that Fran Kirby was in 2015 and Ella Toone and Alessia Russo were in 2022, is Lauren James.
READ THE LATEST LIONESSES NEWS AHEAD OF THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
“I’m looking from a captain’s or leader’s point of view, it’s important to take the pressure of her as much as we can so she can perform. We just need her to go and play her football because when she has the ball at her feet and she’s dribbling at players, I don’t there’s many better,” Houghton says.
“It’s one of her strengths that she makes it look easy. She just has this will to drive at players, using her tricks, and is really quick when she’s dribbling with the ball. As a defender, it’s hard when someone is moving the ball from side to side. She’ll try to take you on the outside and then cut on the inside. Some people probably know her for her dribbling and ability to take players on, [but] she’s one of the best finishers in the [WSL]. Whenever she gets a chance, she tends to put it away.”
Houghton acknowledges that there is ‘potential’ for 20-year-old Katie Robinson to be an impact player off the bench, but suggests that gaining experience will be just as important for the Brighton winger even if she doesn’t play that much because she is part of the ‘future’.
It is a similar story for Esme Morgan, a player Houghton knows very well from playing alongside her at Manchester City: “Esme is definitely one for the future. She’s technically very good and will become a leader going forward. She always wants to learn and get better, and it’s good to have those types of players who are like sponges and take in as much information as possible.”
The other first-timers in the squad bring something a little different. Laura Coombs made her first England appearance in eight years only a few months ago at the age of 32, while Manchester United’s Katie Zelem is selected at 27 after narrowly missing out on Euro 2022.
“Of all the players that got selected, I was so happy for both Coombsy and Katie Zelem,” Houghton reveals. “That little bit of experience and leadership is what the team does need and they can definitely bring that in the ways they do at club level.”
Ultimately, there is a World Cup up for grabs that England are among the favourites to win. But there is a bigger picture as well, one that saw interest in domestic women’s football spike after the 2019 World Cup and then explode in the wake of Euro 2022 last summer.
“I can’t imagine what this game will be like if England come back with the trophy, I really can’t,” Houghton admits. “…because of the effect of the Euros and the amount of girls that started to play football and the crowds coming to watch us in the WSL.
“But it’s not just all on England to do well, that would be a lot of pressure. To bring people to [WSL] stadiums, there is a lot more work that needs to done to build the fanbases at club level and make sure that games are sold out and people can watch them [on TV].
“For me, I’m excited by it because I think England are going to do really well, so hopefully that does have a massive knock-on effect for people to be really interested in our games and come and watch on a Sunday. Hopefully, the WSL keeps on getting bigger and better.”
