West Palm Beach (United States) (AFP) – Coach Thomas Tuchel on Friday said World Cup hopefuls England will not use scorching heat and vast travel distances between venues as excuses as they target a “long” tournament campaign. England face New Zealand in a pre-tournament friendly in Tampa Bay, Florida, on Saturday, and have been preparing with training sessions in hot and humid West Palm Beach.
“We don’t want it to be an excuse. It will be tough. It will be hopefully a long World Cup,” Tuchel told a press conference. “It will be a lot of travelling, it will be a lot of adversity from the heat, from humidity.” Tuchel admitted he was “a little bit worried and concerned” by photographs of the recently relaid Tampa Bay grass pitch for Saturday’s friendly, but said poor conditions would likely not affect his team selection. England plan to make 11 substitutions at half-time, he confirmed. “Let’s decide when we are there. If there are any issues we can always react to it,” said Tuchel.
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Hoping to end 60 years of hurt, England enter the tournament — co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada — among a group of favorites led by the likes of France, Spain, and defending champions Argentina. Following their New Zealand tune-up, and a friendly against Costa Rica in Orlando on Wednesday, England will head to their training camp in Kansas City, where temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees F) and thunderstorms are forecast in the coming days.
The Three Lions will kick off their tournament on June 17 against Croatia in Dallas, where the mercury is set to hit 35 degrees C (95F) next week. If England progress beyond their group, they could face a testing trip to Mexico City for a high-altitude last-16 clash, with Miami a possible quarter-final venue too. “That’s also the task for us, and that’s also what you want to achieve — that atmosphere where you stay calm, where we stay patient, and where we adapt to the circumstances,” said Tuchel. “That’s just what it takes to go through the tournament.”
And despite the heat expected during the tournament, the manager made it clear that he would not abandon his hard-pressing tactical systems. “There’s a value in recovering the ball high, even if it brings risk, even if it is highly intense,” said Tuchel.
England, who reached the final of the past two European Championships, are in Group L, which also contains Ghana, Panama, and Croatia. An experienced Croatia beat a young England side in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup. This time, Tuchel said he was delighted by the amount of tournament-winning experience in his squad, which contains around a dozen players who won a trophy this year. “We’re very, very happy that we have a lot of winners… it just lets your confidence grow in a genuine way, so it’s not artificial,” said Tuchel. “Players know that they can handle the pressure. Players know that they performed in finals.”
The manager said he had a “clear idea of 14-15 starters that can start for us and should start for us and can carry this team” against Croatia. Ezri Konsa is fighting for a starting role at center-back, along with the likes of Marc Guehi and John Stones. Speaking before Tuchel at Friday’s press conference, Konsa admitted that “most of our players are not used to playing in this kind of heat.” “But we’ve got to get used to it very quickly.”
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