After five days of training in the Florida heat and humidity, England play their first friendly before the World Cup against New Zealand tonight.
Thomas Tuchel has been busy putting his players through their paces since flying out on Monday. And now comes the first opportunity for players to stake a claim to a place in his starting XI.
The Three Lions’ first World Cup game isn’t until June 17, against Croatia in Dallas, but Tuchel is keen to get them acclimatised to the heat.
Tonight’s game against New Zealand kicks off at 9pm UK time and will be a good chance for the players to build fitness and for the manager to take a look at his squad. Follow everything here with Mirror Football…
New UpdatesToday19:17 BST
Mirror Football’s own John Cross is in Tampa this evening.
Make sure you follow along for all of his updates.
Daniel OrmeToday19:15 BST
If you’re looking to have a bet on this evening’s game, Mirror Football has you covered.
Make sure to use our brand new tool which has recommended a 10/1 bet builder for England fans.
Daniel OrmeToday19:12 BST
Thomas Tuchel has promised to ‘take care’ of the Arsenal players in the squad following their Champions League defeat.
“Of course it’s painful for Ebs but of course I will take care of it, the group will take care of him and I think the extra week they had will help a lot,” he said.
“I’m very happy that they got the title in England. I think that took a lot of weight off their shoulders and they were aware they did what they could and they were very close in the final.
“I don’t think I will need to lift them. They’ve absolutely had a great season. I’m always happy to do it if I have to but they should know that a final just comes down to one or two shots in a penalty shoot-out which means it cannot be closer. At some point a winner has to be found.
“I have lost some finals in a penalty shoot-out and it’s the closest way to lose and it hurts of course, it hurts a lot to lose big finals but a penalty means you did evrything right, it couldn’t be closer.”
Daniel OrmeToday19:10 BST
England have been busy acclimatising for the World Cup, but they can do nothing about the weather they will encounter in the coming weeks.
Thunderstorms are a distinct possibility and FIFA does not want to postpone and rearrange games, meaning there could be long delays.
Meanwhile, Professor Mike Tipton – an expert on the physiological and psychological responses to adverse environments – has told Mirror Football how games will be impacted by the heat and humidity.
“You’ll see less sprinting, less work, which is why more of the early rounds at the Club World Cup ended in penalty shoot-outs, because there are certain strategies you can’t adopt,” he said.
“People who play in heat regularly are going to have a competitive advantage because they simply know who to play in those conditions. If you’re relying on people running 10km in a game then you’re going to struggle to achieve that.”
(Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The stadium staff at the Raymond James Stadium have been putting in their practice for this evening’s game including the graphics.
Let’s hope we’re seeing this a few times tonight:
England will play in Tampa this evening(Image: Getty Images)
Remarkably, England are facing the lowest-ranked side in the upcoming World Cup tonight.
New Zealand are ranked 85th in the world by FIFA, below Haiti (83rd) and Curacao (82nd). They breezed through qualifying in Oceania, but suffered early exits in 1982 and 2010. This time they’re in Group G along with Belgium, Egypt and Iran.
New Zealand are managed by an Englishman in Darren Bazeley, who will make history as the first manager to be in charge of a nation at Under-17s, U20s, Olympics and now a senior men’s World Cup.
“Through the years, I’ve been to six World Cups, two Olympics, Confederations Cups, I’ve never been to a senior World Cup so that’s a first and I’m super excited,” he told Mirror Football’s John Cross in April. “I’ve watched every World Cup since I was four years old, but never been to a World Cup and I’m really excited to go there.”
New Zealand head coach Darren Bazeley in charge of New Zealand(Image: AP)
One of the big themes of this World Cup will be the heat – and how teams cope with it.
England boss Thomas Tuchel revealed that they have consulted with Team GB experts on the subject and they are also embracing technology to try and stay ahead of the game.
Fitness trackers, cooling vests and palm cooling devices are all being used by the Three Lions, who have been getting used to Florida’s heat and humidity this week.
“The warm-up games will be good for that as well and to get that exposure just best we can, we’ve got an amazing team behind the team and how much research they’ve done and tried to cool down and recovery and all that sort of stuff so that’s top, top level,” Jordan Henderson said.
“Hopefully that can give us a little edge as well when we get into the tournament but it’s the same for everyone so we’ve just got to go and try to just concentrate on the football.”
(Image: Getty)
It seems that the pitch at the Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, won’t be ideal tonight, having only just been laid.
However, Thomas Tuchel says his selection won’t be affected by the playing surface.
“I saw a photo from a journalist which made me a little bit worried and concerned, but let’s decide when we are there,” Tuchel said on Friday.”If there are any issues, we can always react to it. The plan is to play 45 minutes with two complete teams, to expose everyone to the same amount of minutes.”Then we can continue for the next three days with the same load of training. That is the plan and at the moment we are sticking to it.”
Felix KeithToday18:58 BST
Hello and welcome to Mirror Football’s live coverage of England’s friendly against New Zealand.
This represents the Three Lions’ penultimate chance to get a measure of their squad before their first group game against Croatia.
Boss Thomas Tuchel is likely to name a somewhat experimental side for the game, with some of the lesser-known players potentially due to start.
The game gets underway in Tampa at 9pm BST. Make sure you stay tuned below: