England Women to make changes for Mexico clash

Sky Sports News HQ's Geraint Hughes brings us the latest from England Women's World Cup campaign in Canada...

England Women’s assistant coach Marieanne Spacey has confirmed that there will changes to the team for their next World Cup match against Mexico.

Manager Mark Sampson revealed on Tuesday not only that there would be changes, but that he had planned to make them even before their 1-0 defeat to France in their opening match.

Spacey told Sky Sports News HQ: “We’ll be looking at Mexico and we’ll be looking at Colombia in a different way and looking to have a different set up to maximise the squad players that we have got.”

Sampson, while clearly still digesting England’s opening Group F defeat, said that he already knew who would play against Mexico - and that he would be telling the players to play that game with a very different approach to the France match.

I thought it was an unusual statement to make in the heat of defeat, so I asked: “Do you know the team for Mexico?”

Sampson replied with an unequivocal “absolutely.”

Mexico are ranked 25th in the world, some 19 places lower than England. The Lionesses will be wanting to secure second place in Group F at the very least and not leave it to the lottery of a third-place finish and a ‘best loser’ spot in the knockout stages.

So goals will be needed, but more importantly a win.

Spacey added: “It’s a game you want to win and we have to take every game now as one we must win and not one we are going to lose.”

Meanwhile organisers have apologised for mistakes in the build up to the opening round of matches in Moncton.

Despite the venue being the smallest of the six being used at Canada 2015, with a capacity of just over 13,000 spectators, over 1000 people were still outside queuing well into the first half of England’s encounter with France.

Natalie Melanson Breau from Canada 2015 National Organising Committee told SSN HQ: “Of course first match days there are things we need to improve on and we are reviewing our operation as we speak to address some specific issues… we’re going to improve, we’re looking at everything we can do to improve.”

There are also some concerns that Saturday’s games in Moncton will have fewer people in attendance than the 11,500 who watched Tuesday’s matches.

Organisers hope the fact that it is a weekend will encourage supporters to buy tickets. What’s being termed as a ‘relaxed Arcadian’ (Atlantic Canadian) attitude is being blamed as people from the area tend to turn up very late at sporting events, often without tickets.