Faye White’s Women’s World Cup Diary

The former England captain and Arsenal star gives us an in-depth look at her Women’s World Cup journey…

2007 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

China was exciting, certainly. We’d been working for many years to get to that point, but you have that sense of anticipation, not knowing what’s to come and how you’re going to handle everything. The closer it gets you just want it to come around, to get in the squad and make sure injuries don’t hamper the team so we can give a good account of ourselves.

During the tournament it’s just a whirlwind. So much happens: from moving locations, to different climates. China was so difficult to acclimatise to with the weather and time differences. You don’t realise these things until you’ve done it once, you just feel like you’re in a bubble.

As an experience, it was amazing. We went into it still wanting to get to the level of the top teams, so it was about giving a good account of ourselves. When it was over I think we could look back and say we achieved that.

2011 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

You definitely learn all the time, especially when you’ve done it before.

The media attention was a bit higher, so we wanted to show we were a force to be reckoned with. The expectation
built in 2011, we’d got to the quarters in 2007 and we wanted to do better. We had so much strength in our depth of squad; it kept you on your toes because you didn’t know what the team would be.

During a tournament, if things don’t go your way you need to be able to quickly change and focus on the next hurdle, rather than dwell on what’s gone. It was strange though; we’d improved and we were minutes from going through to the semi-finals.

It’s the little things, you need a bit of fortune, but for a lot of the quarter-final against France we had that. They were the better team, we had players struggling on the pitch with injuries but we just couldn’t hang on. Things happen so quickly during a game, you just have to learn from it.

RETIREMENT

After that game against France in 2011, it was really tough for everyone. It wasn’t really the right time for any big announcements – once you’re out of a major tournament, you have to let everyone process it and deal with your own emotions too. As it turned out that was my last game for England. You just have to take the positives and make sure things improve next time.

2015 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP BUILD-UP

England’s qualification for Canada 2015 shows the development is there and the planning is working. Qualification has changed; there are more teams now, which make it easier, whereas when I played, it seemed to get harder every tournament!

The pools of players were growing but Europe got less spots, now it’s very different. But it just shows how much better England has become. It might have hampered Mark a little, he’s had to arrange friendlies to really test the team but I think they’ll be ready.

You can’t take any team for granted now; maybe 10 years ago it was a little different. We had Argentina in 2007 and beat them 6-1 – we knew we just had to do the job. But in 2011, Mexico got a draw against us. All the teams are getting stronger, not just the teams at the top.

Getting to a major tournament is a product of years of hard work. So much goes into it; it’s about adding, building and improving to ensure a strong future. All the players in the squad now have experience of tournaments in their early twenties; I was 28 at my first World Cup!

The players will be going in thinking they can go all the way, you have to take that approach. We’ve beaten Sweden lately, but we’re still to overcome the Germany hurdle. It’s about believing you can do it and we didn’t quite have that when I was in the team. The only way you can get that belief is by going out there and getting those wins.

NEW CAPTAIN

I spoke to Steph Houghton when she was announced as captain. In that role you are projected on to a different level; you have to know how to deal with that. Her character will decide how she deals with different things in Canada but nothing can really prepare you for your first tournament as captain.

You have to react to every situation in a suitable way, you don’t know what is going to happen and it would be natural for her to put more pressure on herself. I did that a bit more than I should have done. You have to be in meetings, have extra media commitments and things like that. There’s certainly a lot more to contend with.

But, she’s a bubbly girl and she’s got the captaincy quite young. She’s got a good character and I think she’s got the shoulders to carry such a responsibility. But I’m close with her so she knows she can call me!

TOUGHEST OPPONENT

Birgit Prinz was the toughest I faced, Abby Wambach too. Those two definitely stand out, Wambach broke my nose back in 2007!

CANADA 2015

I think you have to look at Germany. They were wounded in 2011 when they had the pressure of hosting; they had a young team at the Euro’s in 2013, but they know how to win. That’s one thing I wish I could have bottled up and brought over to us.