And that’s your lot from this one. Generally excellent stuff from England, the first 15 and the last three minutes aside, and they will go into the group closer against Colombia with some confidence.
Cheers for reading, and goodnight.
Mark Sampson calls Kirby a ‘mini-Messi’. He also calls her “special...calm and focused.” He of course then goes on to praise the rest of the team, as you might expect.
Well, that was a needlessly tense last few minutes, but the preceding 91 were largely excellent for England, who are very much alive now in this World Cup. Plenty of good performances, notably from Kirby, Jill Scott, Moore and Carney after she came on.
England are now second in the group, ahead of France on goal difference but a point back from Colombia. They will still need to beat the Colombians in the final game, but they’re looking good to progress now.
Full-time: England 2-1 Mexico
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
90 mins + 4: More nervy defending from England, the ball falls to Ibarra about 30 yards from goal but she bafflingly tries a shot when she had other options, and Bardsley gathers that one with ease.
90 mins + 1: Nervy last few moments now for England, as Mexico counter with far too many England players upfield. Corral cuts in from the right and shoots, Bardsley doesn’t hold it and shovels it straight into the path of Ibarra, who puts the rebound home.
GOAL! England 2-1 Mexico (Ibarra 90+1)
Ah.
90 mins: Four minutes of added time.
89 mins: Late change for Mexico - Ibarra comes on for Ocampo.
88 mins: Mexico suddenly look quite lively, but it’s about an hour too late. Mayor stabs an effort at goal, but Bardsley has no problems keeping that one out.
85 mins: Oh. Well. There you go. Ignore that. Alex Scott comes on. Meanwhile, Robles slightly mishits a cross and it floats towards goal, but just drifts over the bar.
84 mins: Possible problem for England as Bronze hobbles off, holding her back. No sub just yet though, probably because Sampson doesn’t want to use Scott unless absolutely necessary.
82 mins: Lovely stuff from England. Duggan does her work down the left, knocks it back to Greenwood who flips over a perfect cross to the back stick, and Carney is there to head home. She might have been a few inches offside, but you can hardly blame the lino for missing that one.
GOAL! England 2-0 Mexico (Carney 82)
And that should be that.
Updated
81 mins: More excellence from Kirby, thoroughly sitting her marker down with a wonderful turn, but Aluko can’t connect with the low cross.
80 mins: It’s like a shooting range out there now, like one of those things where you fire at cans at a fair. Do kids do that these days? Anyway, Kirby cuts in from the left, shoots with some curl on it with her right foot but Santiago grasps and paws the thing away.
78 mins: There’s Carney again, delicately dinking a cross over to the far post, but alas the absolute last woman you’d want at the back stick, the miniature Kirby, is there and can’t get up for the header.
77 mins: Sub for Mexico now - Cuellar’s off, and Maria Sanchez comes on.
76 mins: The subs have really made a difference for England. Greenwood’s was of course imposed on Sampson, but she’s been terrific, providing extra thrust down the left, while Carney has given a bit more control in midfield.
No coincidence that goal came after Carney came on. She's working her magic in space that #ENG were previously punting the ball over/through
— Georgina Turner (@georgina_turner) June 13, 2015
Updated
74 mins: England threatening again. Duggan collects a poor header away, she can’t quite get it under control then Aluko gets in her way a bit but takes the ball, and she swivels, shoots....over the bar.
72 mins: England cooking now. Duggan brings the ball down on the edge of the area and hammers a shot straight into Ruiz’s stomach.
70 mins: And there it is. Carney plays the ball to Duggan on the edge of the box, she loses it but the ball breaks to Kirby, who beats one defender then toe-pokes towards goal, it hits the post and rolls over the line.
GOAL! England 1-0 Mexico (Kirby 70)
Finally!
Updated
69 mins: England free-kick to the right of goal. Greenwood goes for the shot but it’s not powerful enough and straight at Santiago. Surely a cross would’ve been better there.
67 mins: Carney comes on, and somewhat surprisingly it’s Jill Scott who comes off. She’d been excellent, but it does indicate that Mark Sampson is properly going for it now.
66 mins: Yikes! Ocampo swings over a corner from the right that beats Bardsley and smacks against the bar! The rebound is skimmed over, and this time it’s England who are fortunate.
65 mins: Eeesh, Santiago gets incredibly lucky as another strong cross comes over from the right, Houghton goes up, the keeper hesitates and is caught neither here nor there, but the England defender can’t get a proper header on it and Santiago sticks up a hand and somehow keeps it out.
64 mins: Bloody hell. First booking of the day goes to Garciamendez for clefting Bronze in twain as she tried to run down the right.
62 mins: Looks like Karen Carney is about to come on. Could be for Kirby, who has been much quieter in the second half.
Updated
61 mins: End-to-end now, this. Mayor collects the ball on the right and cuts in, shooting on her left foot, but Bardsley gathers with little bother.
60 mins: Aluko goes uber-close twice in a minute. First she shoots from a narrow angle on the right which is straight at Santiago, but then she gets the ball around 12 yards out, shoots on the spin and again Santiago saves, but it squirts under her and dribbles just...just...just wide. Madre mio.
58 mins: Close for England again. A free-kick on the right is fizzed into the box by Greenwood, Bronze barrels in at the back post but Scott sort of gets in her way and nothing comes of it.
56 mins: A long ball over the top skips through beyond the England defence, Bardsley comes out but misjudges the bounce and runs past the ball. Luckily for England it was well wide of goal, but that was a classic example of a player not used to the bouncy artificial turf.
55 mins: Corral, who has looked Mexico’s primary threat this far, cuts in from the left and shoots, but it floats over the bar.
53 mins: More slight frustration from England as Williams hits a shot that was arrowing towards the corner of the net, but it takes a deflection and goes wide.
52 mins: Actually, forget that stuff about Rafferty being fine - she’s coming off, and Alex Greenwood replaces her.
51 mins: Corner to England on the right, but the short corner worked only results in a cross from Williams that’s cleared at the near-post.
49 mins: Rafferty tries to usher the ball out of play and is fouled by Mayor. She goes down, and you’re always nervous when that happens to someone with three cruciate knee ligament injuries in her past...but she looks OK.
47 mins: Eeeesh, England nearly fall behind in slapstick circumstances, as Bardsley doesn’t clear a rather spicy backpass particularly well, it hits Bassett and falls into Cuellar’s path, but Bardsley mops up her own mess by making a good save with her legs.
46 mins: We’re away, and Kirby gets going straight away, attempting a shot from a way out that heads wide, but Santiago saves anyway.
LISTEN: #ENG v #MEX half-time report from @kaitborsay & @lynseyhooper in Moncton https://t.co/fAeGCEoYHB via @audioBoom
— The Offside Rule (@OffsideRulePod) June 13, 2015
Second-half is about to start - and a change for Mexico. Valeria Miranda has come on for Sierra.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Brazil are 1-0 up over Spain in Group E. South Korea play Costa Rica later.
Few thoughts on the first half from Daniel Stauss: “Aluko was 6” from spectacular. The Mexican keeper didn’t even budge. Sweet fancy Moses indeed! Williams is very quietly having one of those games that makes everyone around her better. Nothing flashy, she’s just putting in an amazingly efficient shift. Great work from her.”
Well, England were terrific for the last half of the, erm, half, but they haven’t managed to take advantage of their dominance. Aluko and Kirby have been threatening, Bronze has done good work down the right while Williams is controlling things from the middle of the park. More of that and they should carve something else out in the second 45. Should.
Half-time: England 0-0 Mexico
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Updated
44 mins: Sweet fancy Moses! Aluko picks the ball up on the left and barrels at some slightly terrified defenders, then she pings a shot at goal, Santiago is rooted but it smacks against the bar. A couple of inches lower...
43 mins: Free-kick for England out on the left, Williams puts it into the box but can’t find Jill Scott. Hardly surprising since she manages to combine being a footballer with a successful soul singing career.
41 mins: Another shot for England, as Moore finds space on the edge of the box and measures an effort at goal, but Santiago gets down to her left and stops it.
39 mins: Kirby looks like a complete pain in the arse to play against, constantly buzzing around and running at defences. Then a Sunday league moment as Corral runs the ball just out of play on the left, the lino’s flag goes up, the England players stop but the ref doesn’t spot it initially. Corral, like butter wouldn’t melt, carries on until she’s told otherwise.
37 mins: Rafferty and Aluko combine down the left, but the return pass to the latter is wasted with a heavy touch. Still, England very much on top in these last ten minutes.
Updated
34 mins: Close! Fara Williams gets the ball some 40 yards out, looks up and decides to dip her bread, trying a long shot that very nearly loops over the keeper, but instead just dips beyond the bar.
33 mins: Houghton skims a diagonal out to Duggan on the left cover of the area, which she chests down and tries a shot, but it’s easily saved and Aluko was probably in a better position in the area.
31 mins: Kirby gives Sierra twisted blood with a cracking turn down the right, and England are gradually becoming the better team now.
Meanwhile, Jogi Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuurve is kicking back and filing his nails as Germany go 6-0 up over Gibraltar...
Joachim Löw doing his nails during the game pic.twitter.com/G3EJhZfaWH
— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) June 13, 2015
30 mins: Penalty shout for England - the ball bobbles around the area, loops up and Duggan tries an overhead and it strikes Robles on the arm. No dice though from the referee, and it would’ve been a harsh one.
27 mins: Most of England’s most threatening work is coming down the right. The impressive Bronze once again makes tracks down the right and feeds Kirby, who beats her marker but then skews the cross just out of play.
25 mins: Risky pass along her own backline by Bassett, forcing Houghton to hoof the ball clear in no particular direction. Still the odd nerves creeping in, here.
22 mins: Best chance of the game so far. Bronze does brilliantly down the right for England, she feeds it inside to Scott on the edge of the box who in turn squares to Kirby, but her left-footed shot is weak and Santiago saves. Should’ve done better, but an excellent move from England.
Updated
20 mins: Again the ball is fed into Aluko on the edge of the box, but again she can’t quite get it under control. The Mexicans are tenacious in the tackle, which theoretically is handy for them but should encourage Aluko et al to run at them.
18 mins: Robles aims a loopy effort at goal that Bardsley gathers. England counter down the left and beats Ruiz, but her low cross to the near post is gathered by Santiago in nets.
17 mins: Word was before the game that Mexico were quite disorganised and haphazard in defence, but no such thing so far - they’ve got the old two banks of four plus another one or two for luck behind the ball when England try to build an attack.
14 mins: Another free-kick from deep on the left, again Sierra skims the ball over and Bardsley comes for it, hesitates, then stays at home. Hmmm. Edgy stuff. The ball is eventually half-cleared, a shot comes in but it skews way wide.
11 mins: Free-kick for Mexico deep on the left, which is tossed into the area by Sierra, Rangel gets up for the header but Bardsley saves with relative ease. Bassett, looking slightly terrifying with that big shiner, tries to gee her teammates up.
Updated
10 mins: Moore clips a pass down the right looking for Aluko, but as she tries a stepover on the edge of the area she loses control of the ball. England just looking a little disjointed so far.
8 mins: Mexico win a corner out on the right which is half-cleared to Perez on the edge of the area, and she tries an extraordinary volley lob thing that loops high in the air and drops onto the top of the net. Bardsley probably had that one covered, mind.
6 mins: Mayor tries a ball down the line looking for Cuellar, but Rafferty grapples and holds her off and just about shepherds it out. Actually, it might have been a free-kick. The telly didn’t bother to make that clear.
4 mins: England look like the plan is to get it forwards pretty quickly - Bassett goes for a long pass over the top looking for the run of Kirby, but the pass is too long.
2 mins: Bronze advances for England but gives the ball away in midfield, which Robles intercepts and drives forwards, but Bassett does well to get across and block the eventual shot.
Updated
1 min: Does look like it’s a diamond for England, with wee Fran Kirby behind Duggan and Aluko.
And we’re away! Mexico kick off...
Laura Bassett’s black eye is still showing up a treat. This is how she got it, in case you haven’t seen.
The teams are in the tunnel. Most of the players look quite tense, apart from Karen Bardsley, who’s virtually dancing. Is that good? Could be good.
Quick dip into the archives: here’s Anna Kessel’s interview with Fran Kirby, the surprise selection in the team tonight, from back in December:
Everything that Fran Kirby touched turned to gold this year. One of the most talked about players in women’s football, the 21-year-old striker possesses the kind of natural, instinctive talent that excites. Reading’s top scorer with 29 goals in 22 matches has the highest tally across both FA Women’s Super Leagues. Impressively, this summer she became the very first player from the second tier of women’s football to secure a professional contract and England call-up, scoring on her international debut against Sweden in August.
But as we discuss an incredible breakthrough year for the forward, there is a more urgent, heartbreaking, tale that Kirby wants to share. Just three years ago Kirby quit football altogether. She left Reading, the club she had been at since she was seven, walked out of an England Under-19s camp, turned down a football scholarship to America and gradually withdrew from life.
Everything became a struggle: getting out of bed, getting dressed, eating. The talented footballer, whom coaches had tipped to be an England star 10 years earlier, was battling severe depression. As Kirby slammed on the brakes and watched her life screech to a halt, everything shut down.
At the age of 14, Kirby’s mum, Denise, the driving force behind her daughter’s football career, died without warning.
Updated
Mark Sampson’s had a haircut. He looks sharp, and his suit is nicely-pressed. Alas the interviewer didn’t ask him about the Alex Scott omission, but we’re assuming a slight injury.
Incidentally, that Colombia win over France earlier was quite the upset, and came with the help of a dozy referee...
Sure, this is a handball if you want to split hairs about what "hand" and "ball" mean. #COL #FRA #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/rRLXY55y82
— Soccer Gods (@soccergods) June 13, 2015
That formation looks like it could be quite fluid - could be a midfield diamond with Kirby behind Duggan and Aluko, but could also be a 4-3-3. Anyway, Sampson made mention of them being quite tactically flexible earlier in the week:
We can play a 4-3-3, a flat 4-4-2, a 4-4-2 diamond,” says the popular figure who began his career working under Roberto Martínez at Swansea and later managed Bristol Academy. “That give us a real advantage because the players are very comfortable with those formations and we’ll certainly be implementing every single one at different stages during this tournament. It’s great to have those weapons in our armoury.”
Team news
England
Bardsley, Bronze, Houghton (C), Bassett, Rafferty, Williams, J Scott, Moore, Kirby, Aluko, Duggan
Mexico
Santiago, Robles, Garciamendez, Ruiz, Rangel (C), Corral, Mayor, Ocampo, Sierra, V. Perez, Cuellar
So, interesting stuff from Sampson. No Karen Carney, but Jade Moore, Fran Kirby and Toni Duggan all start in what looks like a pretty attacking line-up. Alex Scott (who went off in the first game), Katie Chapman and Ellen White are the ones to drop out.
Updated
Pre-amble
Weird how teams can just change, not only in personnel, but in character. During the qualifiers, England were freewheelin’ goal machines, banging home 52 times in their ten games, all of which they of course won. And yet, in their first game of these finals, they turned into an ultra-conservative goal-preventin’ machine (which in itself is not the worst thing in the world so long as you, y’know, prevent some goals), Mark Sampson choosing a rough 4-1-4-1 formation to try and stifle the French.
And, well, it didn’t work. The inspiration/cause of the change seems to be the friendly against Germany last November, in which England were given a firm shoeing and were perhaps lucky to only lose 3-0. “We were a bit too open,” Fara Williams said this week. “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.”
Claire Rafferty concurred: “We will change tactics for Mexico. We’re going to have to go and win against them. We need as many points as we can to get through. The tactics will be very different.” One would imagine the likes of Lianne Sanderson, Karen Carney, Jordan Nobbs and Jodie Taylor will have a reasonable shout of coming back into the team.
So, that’s good then. France are, after all, ranked third in the world while Mexico are down in 25th place (England are sixth), and admittedly the sides they faced in qualifying were largely terrible, so perhaps you can’t blame the theory, just the execution. Just the one shot on target tells the story there.
Still, a win became all the more important after the other result in this group today. France’s 2-0 defeat to Colombia earlier on means a win is pretty important in this one, otherwise England will find themselves absolutely having to beat the South Americans in their final game and still it might not be enough. Indeed, a defeat will see them out of the tournament, matching the men’s ‘achievements’ in Brazil last year in going out before the group stages are done with. A draw will leave them scrabbling, but three points will basically mean their final fixture is a straight shoot-out.
Incidentally, this game is on BBC3, a channel that most people have access to but is still not one of the big ones. Rather than this, on BBC2 the Beeb have chosen repeats of Dad’s Army and Mock The Week, as well as a film that they could’ve put on at any time. I guess they will say they are providing relatively extensive coverage of the tournament in general, but come on, eh?
Still, it’s on, and it could be a relatively tense evening. Let’s see how it goes down.
Kick-off: 9pm BST.
Nick will be here shortly. Meanwhile, read Louise Taylor on how England and Mark Sampson are taking the positives after their defeat to Mexico.
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?
