Getting there. Day 3 sees Lizzie & her teamies rock up in Toronto… #SupporttheU20s
Blog #3: Bye Bye England, Hello Canada!!!
The England Women U20s have left the country! Today we finally put on our smart new official England tracksuits and headed off to Heathrow Airport to make the seven-hour flight over to Canada.
I’m sure for any of you who have ever flown anywhere, it can be quite stressful checking in and making sure your bag is under weight and that you’ve packed everything. Well, imagine that for one person and then multiply it by 21 players and 9 staff members, the stress levels were definitely peaking! As you can see from the photo we do not travel light, with not only our personal luggage but also all the playing and training kit, medical kit and video analysis equipment. A quick shout out to our Team Operations Manager, the wonderful Laura Grassick, who managed to get us all checked in and organized with a smile on her face!!
For many of the girls on the team, the flight was the longest one we’d ever been on, and with a mixture of anxiety and excitement, we all boarded the Air Canada flight bound for Toronto.
A few facts about our England Women’s U20 Flying Experience:
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We all wear these very attractive plane socks to avoid swelling and to make sure blood circulation through our lower legs is as normal as possible. 
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We aren’t allowed to sleep!! This was definitely a tricky one for me, as I usually try to pass the time on flights with an extended nap, but unfortunately, we were strictly instructed to stay awake to make sure we could get into the Toronto time zone as quick as possible.
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Drink, Drink, Drink!!! We try to drink as much as possible to lessen the dehydrating effects of flying
It was a fairly routine flight from London to Toronto, except for our team Doctor, Tam, who was called to help an elderly lady on the flight for a medical emergency. Well in Tam!!!
When we arrived at Toronto airport, we were immediately greeted by our FIFA representative, who fast-tracked us through a special Women’s World Cup border security line. I think for a lot us this was the first indication that this tournament was a much bigger deal than anything we had experienced before.
It was a short ride to our Toronto hotel, where we will be staying for the next week, and the rest of the evening was spent having dinner and settling in to our very nice big rooms (with queen size beds!!).
Before I sign off, just a quick side message: It would be great to get as much fan interaction as possible with the team, so we would love to hear your questions and your suggestions for what you would like us to talk about in the blog. I will post answers to any questions we’ve been asked at the bottom of each blog. We want to make this as interesting as possible for all our supporters out there, so please get in touch!!
Yours in football,
England U20s Women’s Football Team
Question Time:
Kevin Belgium (@ceedawn10) – I’d love to know more about the ‘don’ts’ when it comes to interviews and social media (from what you talked about in the last blog)
Answer: First and foremost, our aim as a team is to show you guys that we are in fact a TEAM and a friendly one at that, so we are told not to refer to ourselves too much (its always about the TEAM!) and to never be rude to journalists even if we’ve just lost or had a bad game. There are are a few other things and some smaller things as well, like don’t chew gum or have earphones on during an interview. We all sign a Club England code of conduct that lays out all the guidelines to ensure we uphold our values as a team and as a country.
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
