Williams: 'A massive result'
Monday, 04 April, 2011
Midfielder pleased to compete with the world's best team.
England star Fara Williams believes playing, and beating, teams such as the USA only bodes well for the future as the squad continue to prepare for this summer’s World Cup in Germany.
Williams was player-of-the-match at Brisbane Road on Saturday as goals from Rachel Yankey and Jess Clarke secured an impressive win against one of the pre-tournament favourites and now the Everton midfielder is hoping to build on that victory.
"I think this is a massive result,” she said.
“We have shown over the last few years that we are starting to compete with the big teams.
"We proved how good we were in the first half when we got the ball down and played it quickly around them. I think we showed how far we have come in the second half to see the game out when things got a bit scruffy.
"We all had a good game. Getting on the ball is something I like to do and in the first half I was allowed to do that through the bravery in our defence and them wanting to play out. Other players wanted to get on the ball, too, and that made it easy I guess.
"We had a good week in training; the girls had been up for it all week.”
With just one more preparation game to be played before the World Cup, Williams believes that Head Coach Hope Powell has a strong group of players to select from and competition for places in the final squad will be fierce.
"The bench is strong,” she added. “There's a lot of experience throughout the squad. There are loads and loads of players that are capable of starting and we've got players on the bench who have started in World Cups and European Championships, so there's tough competition.
"Every game you play for England now, you've got to have a good game because you're looking over your shoulder at the younger players coming through and Hope has proved that she's not afraid to bring those players on and takes no prisoners with the girls out there.”
A win against the team rated as number one in the world can only help build confidence too and Williams admits she enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the best.
"We always want to play the best teams,” she said.
“Sometimes it's difficult when you play lesser teams because it's easier and you can't really judge where you're at in terms of your fitness and your capabilities, and I think playing the top teams shows how good we are, how far we have come and it builds confidence.”