There has been a lot of talk heading into our round of 32 game with Mexico, most of it has been about the altitude and how are on earth are England going to prepare and adapt. Tommy tickles has since come out and said that it is impossible to b prepared fully for this encounter, given the little amount of time the Squad has to acclimatise. That said he has assured us all that we will be as ready as we can possibly be, and that we have done everything we can do to try and progress to the round of 16 where we would face either Brazil or Norway.
Much of the talk in the lead up to the game has been negative, and some absolutely ridiculous, some sports channels have been sending their presenters to go running at altitude to show the viewing public how difficult it is to run in these conditions, my question is why? Why would you waste your time getting someone to do that, when it is abundantly obvious that you will struggle to breathe at so many miles above sea level, why on earth would you put your employees through that. If I was to walk into work and my boss said I want you to run up a mountain just to see how much it affects your breathing, I think my answer would be, how about bollocks, although it would be pretty pointless in my line of work unless they were thinking of opening a new shop on top Ben Nevis, but given the way retail is going lately it wouldn't surprise me.
Probably the weirdest story I have heard so far is, that to try and tackle some of the effects of altitude sickness the England squad would be able to take Viagra, now this could possibly be a wind up and of course I haven't bothered to research it, it is probably bollocks but the idea of Tommy Tickles giving his players the little blue pill and instruct them to go out there and stick it on the Mexicans and remind them that they don't like it up em, makes me chortle, nonetheless.
A lot of people have also been talking about how good the Mexican's have been in their own backyard, banging on about how many games they have gone without losing, but let's get it right they haven't played anyone big, now that may seem to some to sound a bit cocky, but regardless of all the other shit surrounding the game, the shit we can't do anything about, England should be favourites to win this game. It is obviously going to be tough and as Tommy Tickles pointed out, we need to keep them out at all costs in the first quarter of the game as that is when they are going to come for us, hopefully we can survive this predicted onslaught, get a foothold in the game and gradually grow into it, hopefully making the most of any chances we can create.
This is going to be our toughest test so far, but given the way Mr Tickles has built our squad and in terms of the way he wants us to play this could be the perfect game for us to catch a team on the counter attack. For me though the sooner this game is done the better, get in get the job done and get out, then recover and look forward to a massive quarter final. This of course has all the makings of an early exit for England, a team like Mexico that has made the most of their home surroundings and been very good so far in this tournament cannot be taken lightly, and I wouldn't be surprised if they beat us. I am however hoping for a piece of magic from one of our big players again, whether that is Kane or Bellingham or maybe even someone who is yet to make their mark on the tournament as yet, but whatever happens, no matter if the game gets moved, or the kick off gets delayed because of the thunder and lightening, I hope we give a good account of ourselves and hopefully, in the end our quality shows through.
Come on England!!
