It’s ‘The Night Before It All Begins’ (24th July 2014) as the England U20s prepare for their meet up before heading to Canada…
Hello there and thank you to all of you out there who are reading this and therefore supporting us!! But who is us and who am I?? .jpg)
Well, my name is Lizzie Durack and I am one of the goalkeepers for the England U20s Women’s World Cup team (aka “the us”) travelling to Canada with the aim of becoming World Champions!
(A very serious bunch are the England U20s!)
The aim of this blog, is first and foremost to demonstrate to the English public and all of our supporters out there, the sort of hard-working and dedicated team that we are in the hope that we can build a strong fan base going into the World Cup. In order to do that, some of the girls and I, with the fantastic help of She Kicks, are going to give you a special insight into the daily ‘goings on’ of our team. And tonight is where it all starts….
(England U20s – 100% serious about their training and their football and this World Cup)
Well that’s a bit of a lie actually, because really for all of us on the team, both staff and players, we have been preparing for this World Cup for a few years now. But it would have been pretty boring for all of you if I’d started this blog two years ago and explained all the continuous weights sessions, ice baths, meetings, trainings, blow outs, laughs, tears, injuries and sacrifices that have led up to this moment, so instead, I’ll start now.
Tomorrow, the team meets up at Bisham Abbey National Training Centre (left) for one night before flying out to Toronto on Saturday, and I’m writing this lying in bed, finally packed (and hopefully organized) thinking forward to what the next month could bring. None of the girls on the team have ever been to a World Cup at any level, so the upcoming weeks will present us with A LOT of unknowns. Thankfully, we have a wonderful team of experienced staff, led by head coach Mo Marley, that will help guide us through this immense experience in our lives.
I can safely say that for all of us, this is a dream come true, and as clichéd as that is to say, it’s one of the only times we may be able to truly say we are living our dreams, so I hope you will forgive the corniness!
(Below, the U19s side that reached the final of last December’s European Champs to qualify for 2014 U20 WWC)
Anyway, I’ll keep this one short as I’m being collected at 7.15am tomorrow morning, and really should get some sleep. But please stay tuned for more blogs soon and don’t hesitate to tweet me your questions (with the tag #SupportTheU20s)!
Come with us on this awesome journey and we will do our very best to do you all proud!
Yours in football,
A nervous, excited and proud Lizzie J
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
