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Smith: Pressure on England
Rebecca Smith against Japan. Getty Images
June 30, 2011
DRESDEN, GERMANY – Football Ferns captain Rebecca Smith says all the pressure is on England heading into their key FIFA Women’s World Cup clash in Dresden on Saturday morning (NZT).
The VfL Wolfsburg defender says New Zealand are focussed on getting a result from the match but relatively relaxed without England’s burden of expectation.
“I think there’s a little bit of pressure but most of the pressure is on England,” Smith said.
“They’re the team expected to win. They are a much bigger nation than us, they are a much bigger football nation than us, they are much higher ranked and after drawing their first game they need to win this match.”
After an opening 1-2 loss to Japan, New Zealand sit bottom of Group B just a point behind their next two opponents England and Mexico who drew 1-1 in Wolfsburg.
As well as keeping the Football Ferns within touching distance of second place, Smith believes a first up draw for England – a side ranked 10th in the world and early favourites to progress from the group with the seeded Japanese – has helped New Zealand’s cause in other ways.
“I think England were expected to win against Mexico as well, so not being able to do that builds extra pressure for them into this game.”
The Football Ferns trained in soaring temperatures on Wednesday and will have their captain’s run at Rudolph-Harbig Stadium on Thursday in cooler weather closer to that expected on match day.
Smith says New Zealand wasted little time dwelling on the opening loss and have collectively and individually moved on to the task of claiming a prized English scalp.
“We always want to win and we are always disappointed after a loss, especially how we lost against Japan. But the performance we put out against the fourth ranked side in the world was pretty impressive and we draw a lot of confidence from that.
“What we did well we will keep doing well and the little things we need to change we’ve been working on in training.”
The match kicks off at 4.15am on Saturday morning (NZT) with coverage live on Sky Sport 2.
FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011
New Zealand v England
Dresden, Germany
Friday July 1, 6.15pm (4.15am July 2 NZT)
Live on Sky Sport 2
New Zealand: (from) 1-Jenny BINDON (gk), 2-Ria PERCIVAL, 3-Anna GREEN, 4-Katie HOYLE, 5-Abby ERCEG, 6-Rebecca SMITH (c), 7-Ali RILEY, 8-Hayley MOORWOOD, 9-Amber HEARN, 10-Sarah GREGORIUS, 11-Kirsty YALLOP, 12-Betsy HASSETT, 13-Rosie WHITE, 14-Sarah McLAUGHLIN, 15-Emma KETE, 16-Annalie LONGO, 17-Hannah WILKINSON, 18-Katie BOWEN, 19-Kristy HILL, 20-Aroon CLANSEY (gk), 21-Erin NAYLOR (gk).
Coach: John HERDMAN
England: (from) 1-Karen BARDSLEY, 2-Alex SCOTT, 3-Rachel UNITT, 4-Jill SCOTT, 5-Faye WHITE (c), 6-Casey STONEY, 7-Jessica CLARKE, 8-Fara WILLIAMS, 9-Ellen WHITE, 10-Kelly SMITH, 11-Rachel YANKEY, 12-Karen CARNEY, 13-Rachel BROWN, 14-Eniola ALUKO, 15-Sophie BRADLEY, 16-Stephanie HOUGHTON, 17-Laura BASSETT, 18-Anita ASANTE, 19-Dunia SUSI, 20-Claire RAFFERTY, 21-Siobhan CHAMBERLAIN.
Coach: Hope POWELL
