Mom wants Birchall to go at England.
By: Shaun Fuentes.[/size]
English-born midfielder Christopher Birchall has said that his mother Jennifer has asked him to go get England. The Port Vale man was giving his impressions ahead of Thursday’s match in Nuremburg when he indicated that while his favourite player may be England midfielder Steven Gerrard, he has no intentions of letting anything up and his father Phil, born in Liverpool and mother who is Trinidad-born are fully behind him. They are expected to be singing both anthems in the stands but obviously will be more vocal when the T&T anthem comes on.
“I’m Just really excited for the game. I am a person who doesn’t suffer from nerves and that will help for tomorrow. The confidence in the camp is high and we have nothing to lose really. We have to play our best football and hopefully get something out of the game. Everyone is expecting England to win it but that’s not the feeling in our camp,” Bichall told TTFF Media.
And as to what exactly the parents told him less than 24 hours before kick off?
“Just to give it a good go, work as hard as I normally do but put that extra in because we will need it against England because I’ll be up against the best midfield in the world in Gerard, Beckham and Lampard. It’s the biggest game in the careers of all of us,” he added.
And he believes the “Soca Warriors” are far more positive about their chances now than they would have been even a few weeks ago.
“Getting that result against Sweden gave us a good lift and it did show us that we can compete with the best in the world. And I think we can play better on the day. We have more attacking threat than we showed last Saturday.”
He spent the last night not taking too much about what the media or the fans have had to say about the game.
“Really it’s just to take my mind of the game a bit because when you think of it too much that’s when you can get a bit nervous. I will hang out with the rest of the team and try to use as little energy possible. We need everything for this game,” Birchall ended.
The entire team remained in good spirits as they went through their last session at the match venue on Wednesday evening. Leo Beenhakker also met with the press and caused much laughter when he responded to a claim from a British reporter that all the fans were predicting even a 6-0 win for England.
“Keep on dreaming,” Beenhakker said. And while it was announced out of the England camp that Wayne Rooney is fit to play a part on Thursday, the Dutchman added that he was simply happy for the young lad but by no means alarmed and he assured his players will maintain their same focus and approach into the game.
