Susanna asks Graham and Georgia how England got on in their first FIFA Women's World Cup match and what they will need to do against Denmark to ensure a more dominant performance as well as looking into how USA, France and Japan got on against Vietnam, Jamaica and Zambia respectively.
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00:00 England may or may not have been involved in a small little tournament over the weekend
00:03 and they've got another fixture coming up at the end of the week.
00:07 So their first game which saw them playing a World Cup debut against Haiti and they won
00:11 1-0.
00:13 So let's start with that situation.
00:16 I think we were all potentially expecting that it wasn't going to be a complete wipeout.
00:21 But 1-0 does seem a relatively surprising result.
00:25 Georgia, you were, you actually came on to shift after that.
00:29 So if you haven't checked out some of our articles on player ratings, please do on National
00:33 World.
00:34 But what did you make of England's performance?
00:38 Not much.
00:40 Yeah, like I think I was one of the people who were saying it was going to be a whitewash.
00:48 No disrespect to Haiti at all.
00:49 I just thought this would be England's chance to really, you know, throw themselves into
00:53 it.
00:54 I think I predicted a 4-0.
00:55 Oh God, just completely wrong.
00:58 You know, just England just could not find their groove at all.
01:02 I mean, thank God for that penalty because I think if they'd drawn that match, that would
01:06 have been panic stations.
01:08 I think, you know, as much as we've said in the past, our draw here and there is not a
01:11 big deal.
01:12 That goes out the window at the World Cup, obviously.
01:14 You need a stronger start as possible.
01:16 And just, I don't know what it was.
01:18 It was just like the lights weren't on for England.
01:22 Like there was just so, I think my highest rating was a 7 and that was Mary Earp's.
01:27 I gave that also to Georgia Stamway purely because she won the match, basically.
01:32 I think between her and Earp's, that's why England got the win.
01:37 But everyone else just flat, just not the England we know, not the England from the
01:43 Euros.
01:44 It was so strange.
01:45 I mean, hopefully it's a bit of a hiccup and they'll get there in the end.
01:49 Not that, you know, time's not on their side or anything, you know, they kind of need to
01:52 put their ideas up, but yeah, odd.
01:55 I mean, the fact that I had a watch party at the weekend as well and I was expecting
01:59 like shirts to be flying and beer to be thrown and it was just the tamest thing I've ever
02:03 been to.
02:04 And yeah, hopefully they kind of pick it up because that was, don't think worrying because
02:10 at the end of the day, it's a win.
02:11 And if they go all the way, no one's going to remember that 1-0 struggling win.
02:16 But it was still at this moment in time, it's slightly concerning, I think.
02:21 Yeah, definitely.
02:22 Graham, what did you make of, because obviously a lot of our talk is going to be how England
02:26 did, but actually you were saying loads with respect to Haiti.
02:29 I mean, they managed to secure like a very narrow 1-0 loss in the end.
02:33 So what did you make of Haiti's performance?
02:37 I mean, first and foremost, I just want to point out, like when I get things right, I
02:40 like to really hammer it home.
02:41 When I said it would be 2-0, but I do want to say that it's written in, not print, but
02:46 online print, whatever you call that, and digital form, that I said England would struggle.
02:52 It would be really nervy.
02:53 We would win 2-0.
02:54 That Georgia Steinway would open the scoring with a penalty.
02:58 And I said Rachel Daly would secure it later on.
03:00 So I was almost right.
03:01 But one player that I did pick out as soon I thought would cause us problems was Melchie
03:06 Dumeney, who I thought was outstanding.
03:08 I thought she was best player in the park.
03:11 I think it's no surprise that like the, you know, the players go to the World Cup and
03:15 some of them become like stars sort of overnight.
03:18 I think if you watch French football, which I don't that much, and even I'd heard of her,
03:23 you've known about her for a while.
03:24 The fact that Lyon's picked her up like before the World Cup is really smart.
03:28 That's really, really smart.
03:29 Like because she's going to be away after that.
03:34 So performance to loads of different clubs.
03:36 Lyon have got it.
03:37 It's fine.
03:38 It's sorted.
03:39 But I thought Haiti were a lot better than people give them credit for before the game.
03:43 I wasn't massively surprised.
03:44 I think the big worry for me with England and the performance at the weekend is I think
03:51 we'll be all right against Denmark.
03:52 I actually think we'll be far better because I think as a team, we're all about like one
03:57 touch passing sort of triangles, the movement down the wings and being a bit physically
04:02 stronger at the top with the likes of Russo and Lauren Hemp, who's obviously doesn't look
04:07 the most physical, but she kind of is like her strength in running is like big.
04:10 Same with Chloe Kelly.
04:11 Lauren James is strong and physical as well and makes intelligent runs.
04:16 But I think when you look at Haiti, they were just stronger than us and had more energy
04:21 than us.
04:22 They pressed higher up.
04:24 The runs that Domenech was making was like really intelligent.
04:28 That kind of caught out what was a really rusty looking Millie Bright.
04:33 I didn't agree with Jess Carter and Millie Bright being your back two.
04:37 That's got to be Alex Greenwood.
04:38 Unfortunately, if you're not taking May Letizia, which we discussed weeks ago, I mean, Serena
04:42 was better than me, but I'm here to give an opinion that is mine.
04:47 I think the problem that comes in later on is Haiti are not going to be the most energetic
04:51 or strongest team, but that appears to be what we struggled with.
04:54 I think when you come up against like a USA, that's going to be a problem.
04:59 It's funny if you look at the stats, like we actually had more fouls, got more yellow
05:04 cards than Haiti and yet a lot of the chat around the game was how physical Haiti were.
05:10 And they were, I think we committed more fouls because we struggled with it and we ended
05:14 up like having to hack them down and kind of losing the physical battle.
05:18 But I also thought like, you know, forget the physicality and forget the pace and the
05:21 power that they had.
05:22 Some of the runs they were making in transition were really, really, really, really intelligent
05:26 and really, really clever and worked out well.
05:28 You could obviously see they'd worked on it.
05:31 I'm not too worried for England against teams of a level of Haiti.
05:35 I think it'll be narrow and difficult.
05:38 And we obviously struggle against teams like that who are a bit more physical, good in
05:42 the transition and have obviously done their homework and sat around Kiro Walsh as well.
05:47 I think we'll be fine against Denmark.
05:48 I think we'll be fine against China because I think they offer more of a footballing aspect,
05:53 not less energy, but maybe not as much energy, not as much sort of physical strength.
05:57 Maybe haven't done their homework as well.
05:59 I've never really been impressed with Denmark and I wasn't really impressed with China.
06:03 But I think the problem comes in when you're playing against like a USA and USA are 10
06:07 times more better in the transition, better physically, more energy, more clinical in
06:13 front of goal.
06:14 That's where your problem is going to come in.
06:16 But you know, we weren't that impressed with England and Austria last year and things changed.
06:20 So play devil's advocate.
06:21 Let's not worry just yet.