A university campus will serve as the rather appropriate backdrop to an examination of England’s precise potential on Saturday night. Lying within the precincts of the city’s seat of learning, Moncton Stadium stages a pivotal Group F game against Mexico as Mark Sampson’s side aim to collect their first points of Canada 2015 while answering some awkward questions.
Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat by France not only left the Lionesses bottom of the group but provoked considerable uncertainty. Did England’s cautious containment tactics represent something close to a managerial masterstroke against the side ranked third in the world or were they, as some cynics reflected, a reversion to the bad old days towards the end of Hope Powell’s time in charge of the national team? Was Sampson simply unlucky to see his hopes of a cleverly calculated point dashed by a goal scored from outside the penalty area or were France a disappointing shadow of the team they can be?
Much promises to be resolved against a direct, attack-minded and individually improvisational yet defensively vulnerable Mexico. In the 63-year-old Leonardo Cuéllar, once a star of his country’s men’s team, Sampson is up against a vastly experienced coach almost twice his age.
“The Mexicans will be a difficult test for us,” said the 32-year-old, who has been studying footage of Cuéllar’s opening 1-1 draw with Colombia. “They’re very open. They’ve got players in forward areas who can cause you problems and they’ve got clever players in midfield protecting a very aggressive back four. It’s typical South American front-foot defending.
“It’s up to us to get the balance right and take the opportunities Mexico might give us to expose them. Last time the two teams met it was 1-1 at the 2011 World Cup, so we’ve not got a record of beating them and it’s going to be another tough game. Three points could be very important at this stage of the tournament.
“Four points is probably enough to get you through the group in second place so we’ve got that target as a minimum requirement and are plotting our way through with it in mind.”
With a game against Colombia in Montreal to follow on Wednesday, England remain on course to reach the knockout stages but cannot afford a stumble on Saturday.
It is a message Fara Williams has reinforced in the dressing room. As one of Sampson’s senior players, the Liverpool midfielder – deployed in an unfamiliar holding role in a defensive 4-1-4-1 formation against France – serves as a key lieutenant alongside Steph Houghton, England’s captain.
“We’ve moved on from France,” says the 31-year-old. “I had a few words to say about that. They came with a bit of emotion – and a bit of experience from previous tournaments. It was about not letting any negative thinking affect us. So we quickly had to take the positives. It’s important we remember it’s not the end of the world that we lost to France.”
There is a sense that England – and their coach – remain in rehabilitation after last November’s 3-0 friendly defeat by Germany at Wembley. Until then, facing weak World Cup qualifying opposition, Sampson adopted an ultra-attacking approach based broadly on the principles practised by his mentor and one-time Swansea City colleague Roberto Martínez.
Against France, though, his team seemed to have morphed into a Sam Allardyce XI. Concentrating determinedly on what they needed to do when their opponents had the ball, they appeared to have forgotten how to react when possession was finally won. By the final whistle the Lionesses had directed only one shot on target.
With Sampson’s squad having arrived in Moncton accompanied by a 19-strong support staff, including a psychologist, a chef, an exercise scientist and two video analysts, little off the field has been left to chance.
Yet on the pitch there is much the coach cannot control as his players strive to rediscover a latterly elusive creative spark. “We can certainly stop good teams, it’s just finding a way of winning,” says Williams. “Of finding a way of getting back into games when we’re a goal down. Sometimes winning isn’t pretty, and we’re certainly a team that can win ugly, but we know we’ve got goals and exciting players in our team. I hope our players get a chance to express themselves against Mexico.”
The failed attempt to hold Les Bleues to a draw involved considerable self-sacrifice. “A few of us had individual roles and responsibilities to the team. We’ve got to pay a lot of credit to those players that gave up the strengths of their own game to try and execute the game plan. I’m sure my position will change against Mexico. Hopefully I can get more of the ball.”
It appears Germany have much to answer for. “We were a bit too open last November,” Williams concedes. “We were countered in areas we didn’t want to be countered in. But we learned a lot from it, we knew we had to respect France and have a plan. Mexico are good but they’re certainly not as good as France, so we’ll definitely be hoping to attack a lot more. You’ll see a different, more exciting, side to us.”
Williams suggests such thrills will emerge from within a counterattacking framework. “We’re very good defensively, really hard to break down and we limit opposition chances,” she says. “But we’re definitely dangerous on the counterattack. We’ve got pace and quality strikers. We have to use those strengths.”
The importance of patience and strategic thinking cannot be over-stressed at a stadium surrounded by university libraries and lecture theatres. “Mexico isn’t necessarily a must-win,” she says. “If we draw, we’ve still got another chance against Colombia. You don’t panic. We’ve been looking at teams in past competitions who have lost their first game and gone on to win the trophy.”
