England’s Lucy Bronze with teammates during training (Picture: Reuters)
Last year’s first Arnold Clark Cup triumph for England was unbelievable and the chance to defend our trophy this week is the perfect start to World Cup year.
The new competition, and more pointedly winning it, gave us a fantastic platform to build from as we went on to win the European Championship and make it an unforgettable 2022.
The calibre of teams we managed to attract to England for the inaugural tournament – Spain, Germany and Canada – was superb and the fact we managed to triumph, and so early in the reign of manager Sarina Wiegman as well, set us up nicely for what was to come in that magical summer.
This year’s set-up gives us three more strong opponents and we kick-off tomorrow against a Korea Republic team who have also qualified for this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
There’s also another World Cup team in Italy and an emerging Belgium squad, who we played just before the Euros last year.
Each of these tests will be good preparation for the sides we’ll face in Group D in Australia, only two of which we know at this stage; Denmark and China.
England player Chloe Kelly (left) and Leigh-Anne Pinnock presenting an award at the Brit Awards last week (Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty)
The Koreans are a useful outfit who contain two Brighton players from the Women’s Super League, Geum-min Lee and Ye-eun Park. We play European teams so often that it will be nice to face a different test.
Sarina has options in every position ahead of the World Cup and it was the same before the Euros. We were always going to have to adapt and change once Ellen White and Jill Scott retired after that tournament.
But Pep Guardiola once said with a team it is about keeping a core of players and adding to that in a bid to have continued success. We have a nice mix of youth and experience now, a good blend, and hopefully it keeps everyone on their toes with places up for grabs for the summer.
You could say there is that added little bit of pressure on us now as European champions.
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We will certainly be one of the favourites, if not the favourite, to win the World Cup so the Arnold Clark Cup should give us a real indication of where we are at. It was less than seven months ago we were lifting the trophy at Wembley of course but now, in just five months’ time, we have another major tournament to fight for. It’s certainly unusually in terms of timescales.
We are still buzzing from the Euros really, so to have the World Cup so close is incredible – an even bigger tournament that we want to go and win is just months away.
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We keep talking about the Euros success as that is still fresh in our minds and I’ve seen my team-mates become even more in demand since then. I can’t turn on the TV without seeing one of the girls!
Chloe Kelly – scorer of that extra-time winner that clinched the trophy for us against Germany – has seen her life change immeasurably with that goal and she was the perfect character to be up on stage presenting Wet Leg with the Group of the Year accolade at last Saturday’s Brit Awards.
Lionesses have been popping up everywhere. Goodness knows how big things are going to be in the build-up to the World Cup – even bigger and more hectic than the Euros I imagine. I can’t wait.
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‘I can’t wait.’
