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Anna Green on arriving in Dresden

Football Ferns fullback Anna Green writes about shifting to Dresden, civic receptions and the the additions of two All Whites legends into the team management.

After a disappointing loss to Japan in Bochum, we had one more day there where some of us went to the pool in the morning and others had a training session. The hotel was busy with the arrival of the Canadians and French ahead of their game there. It was a cool chance for some of the girls, especially Ali Riley, to meet up with some of the past or present teammates, and get the low down on their FIFA Women’s World Cup experiences so far.

Once we were all packed, we hopped on a plane and left for Dresden, our next World Cup venue. For some of us who went to FIFA U-20 World Cup last year it wasn’t our first time in the picturesque city, as we had played Brazil here.

It was fun knowing what to expect, as it was pretty much most of the team’s favourite spot from last year. Dresden is an awesome place. It’s full of really old buildings and everything (including our hotel) is really central, so it’s easy to get around and just walk into town or along the river.

Our first day here was scorching hot again, just like Bochum. We got settled into the rooms and then, for the first time this trip, got into our number ones and headed into the city to meet the Mayor. The England team and us all went up onto a balcony overlooking the main city centre and listened to some speeches.

After the speeches our team, lead by Kristy Hill, sang our song, which everyone seemed to enjoy, including a few ladies on the street that stopped and danced. That afternoon we had training. It was good to get the legs going again and get focused on our game plan for the England game.

Today was a lot colder though and it kind of felt like we were back home in winter weather. After breakfast a few of the other girls and I decided to go into town. We had a look round at some of the older buildings and watched some of the street entertainment, which included three very well dressed up mimes. After that Emma, Katie and I just went into the mall and wandered around as It was still cold outside. After a look round we walked back to the hotel for lunch. This afternoon we have our last training session before the England game tomorrow. It’s at the stadium we will be playing at so I think everyone’s pretty excited to go and see what it’s like and get a feel for the ground.

Since the Japan game we have had two new editions to our little group. Wynton Rufer and Ceri Evens. Ceri is a sports psychologist and SURELY everyone knows who Wynton is. It’s been really good having the two of them around as Ceri has a way of just making everyone positive and feel really in tune with each other, something that’s been important for us, especially after such a close loss to Japan.

It’s also been really fun having Wynton around. He has so many good stories and he’s such a good storyteller, also everyone just really values his opinions and observations about the team. I know that I feel really lucky to have people that are such experts in their fields around and about in our team environment.

Finally I just want to say how excited I am about the game against England. I know that everyone in our team is really looking forward to getting another chance to play on the world stage, and show everyone back home just how far we have come as a team and as individuals. Hopefully loads of you back home will brave the early morning and tune into Sky Sport to watch us play

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