Marcus Rashford and Morgan Rogers are keen not to use a potential change to the time England kick off their World Cup round of 16 match against Mexico as an excuse. FIFA are due to bring it forward by six hours, with heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast around the original start time at the Azteca on Sunday evening.
A scheduled 1am BST kick-off time would become 7pm, which is midday local time in Mexico City. These reports come barely 24 hours after Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that pubs across the United Kingdom would be able to open later for the match, until 5am, due to the possibility of extra time and a penalty shootout to decide the game.
Rashford responded to the rumours of a change by saying: “I think for us it’s the same how we prepare for the game. It has to be the same. We have to be focused. We have to be ready for anything.
“I think it’s one of our strengths as a group. Everyone, including the players and staff… we are ready for whatever challenges get thrown at us. So obviously it’s not ideal but also it doesn’t really matter.”
Rogers says it is “just another obstacle to overcome”. He said: “We’ll take it how it is. Whatever it is, whatever the task is in front of us, whatever problem we face, or different things that might be a bit difficult, we’re just going to attack it full front and be ready as a whole team and be together and talk through what can help us, what can be difficult, and just try and overcome it.
The Aston Villa man added: “We’ll be ready regardless of the time. Earlier the better because you want to play. There is enough thinking about what is going to happen and the build-up – you just want to play the game. Getting that adrenaline out there will help us and get us going and playing. We’re looking forward to it whatever the time is. I’m not concerned about it, but won’t be happy if it wakes me up, I’ll be honest. We’ll deal with it as best as possible. It’s another obstacle to get over.”
Altitude, however, appears to be the main issue facing England. Thomas Tuchel has said: “My understanding is that we cannot adapt to the altitude.
“That is just a huge advantage that Mexico will have. It just takes too much time. We have only three days in between (the last-32 win over DR Congo and the Mexico game). This is physically just not possible to adapt to the altitude, which is quite high.
“We knew that before, so this is just something, it’s just a disadvantage, with which we will have to deal. I think we showed the attitude that we are ready for that and from there we go.”