Marcus Rashford and Morgan Rodgers are keen not to use a potential change to England’s World Cup Round of 16 kick-off time against Mexico as an excuse. FIFA is moving the start of the game forward by six hours after heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected around the original start time at Azteca on Sunday night.
The scheduled kick-off time of 1am BST will now be 7pm local time in Mexico City, which is noon. These reports come just 24 hours after Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that pubs across the UK could open later in the day until 5am due to the possibility of extra time and a penalty shootout to decide the match.
Rashford responded to rumors of a substitution: “I think for us the preparation for the game is the same. It has to be the same. We have to be focused. We have to be ready for whatever happens.”
“I think that’s one of our strengths as a group. Everyone, including the players and the staff… are ready to meet whatever challenges are thrown at us. So obviously it’s not ideal, but it doesn’t really matter.”
Rogers says this is “just another obstacle to overcome.” He said: “We’re going to take this situation as it comes. Whatever it is, whatever the challenge is in front of us, whatever problems we face, or different things that might be a little difficult, we’re going to go at it as hard as we can, be prepared as a whole team, come together and talk about what’s going to help us, what’s going to be difficult, and just try to get through it.”
The Aston Villa player added: “I’ll be ready regardless of the time. The sooner the better because I want to play. I need to think about what’s going to happen and the build-up. I just want to play the game. The adrenaline helps and it makes me want to play. I’m always looking forward to it. I’m not worried about it, but I’m not happy when I wake up, to be honest. We’ll deal with it in the best way we can.” It’s another obstacle to overcome as much as possible. ”
But the main problem facing England seems to be altitude. “I understand that I cannot adapt to a high level,” coach Thomas Tuchel said.
“That’s a big advantage that Mexico has. It takes too much time. There are only three days between (beating the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last 32 and playing against Mexico). It’s physically impossible to adapt to quite a high altitude.”
“We’ve known that for a while, so this is just a thing, just a disadvantage and we’re going to have to deal with it. I think we’ve shown an attitude that we’re ready for it and we’ll go from there.”
