Well, there were a lot of bleary eyed young female footballers pulling up to Bisham Abbey National Training Centre in the morning, after an early wake up to get driven down to meet up! For all England meet ups, cars and vans come to collect groups of girls that live near each other. For example this morning’s Liverpool Crew consisted of Nikita Parris, Paige Williams, Lizzie Durack, Ellie Stewart and Martha Harris (who has an incredible ability to curl up into a ball and fall asleep pretty much anywhere!!).
On arrival we go through the usual procedure of checking in with the medical team and collecting kit. A world cup is a bit like Christmas-come-early for us because, thanks to Nike, we get a heap of new kit!
Before long, we head into our first meeting of the trip, which involved a very important talk from Glenn Lavery, our FA Media specialist, reminding us of all the Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to social media and interviews. Then after a team lunch, we got all geared up for a practice match in the afternoon.
While we are away, our amazing Sports Scientist Andrew Hulton monitors our wellbeing by using heart rate monitors and GPS devices during training and practice games like today’s. Also for this particular trip, because the weather in Canada is expected to be hot and humid, we weigh ourselves before and after every training session to monitor how much fluid we lose during training, and therefore how much water we must drink after training.
The game brought out both positives, that we hope to continue with, and negatives, that we will closely address before our first game. After a warm down on the pitch, we all went off for our all important ice baths!
After a dinner of chicken, fish, pasta and veg (yes, we eat A LOT!), we sat down to watch and analyse today’s game. There was a lot of healthy debate, and we definitely walked out of the meeting feeling good about how we are playing as a team.
That was the official ending to the day, so most of the girls spent the rest of the evening packing their bags, watching ‘Bridesmaids’ (what an awesome movie) and deciding what trainers to wear to the airport!
As you can tell, it has been a very long day for all of us here on camp, so it’s wonderful to be finally curled up in bed for our last night’s sleep on home soil before we fly off to Toronto, Canada tomorrow afternoon!
But before we sign off, I thought I’d give you some #FollowFootball info, please give all of us a follow on twitter and continue to support us on this exciting journey!
Yours in football,
The England U20s Women’s Football Team
Megan Walsh – @Megs1994
Caitlin Leach – @C_Leachh
Lizzie Durack – @LizzieDfootball
Paige Williams – @paigewilliams03
Aoife Mannion – @aoifemannion_
Meaghan Sargeant – @MSargeantt
Martha Harris – @MarthaH19
Gabby George – @gabsgeorge
Ellie Stewart – @EllieStewart96
Leah Williamson – @leahwilliamsonn
Sherry McCue – @sherryMcCue
Katie Zelem – @katiezel
Abbey-Leigh Stringer – @abbey_leigh_
Jade Bailey – @JadeBailey_
Jess Sigsworth – @jessSigsworth5
Hannah Blundell – @HanBlundell
Beth Mead – @bmeado9
Nikita Parris – @LilKeets_x
Natasha Flint – @flint_tasha
Jess Carter – @_JessCarter
Mel Lawley – @MelissaLawley_
Let’s get following and #SupporttheU20s!
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
