VIDEO: Scott confident of progression
Friday, 08 July, 2011
Alex Scott says England believe they can reach World Cup semi-final.
Click here to watch the full FATV interview with Alex
England are 90 minutes away from creating history.
Victory over France on Saturday, a game you can watch live on BBC2, will catapult Hope Powell’s side into the semi-finals of a World Cup for the first ever time, and defender Alex Scott says the players are in confident mood.
“I think there is a real belief [among] this team that we are capable of getting beyond this stage and beating France and we are going to need that belief in the game from every single player,” she told FATV.
“We should be getting out of group stages and reaching this stage in a World Cup or any competition. We know as a team this is what we’re capable of doing.”
England reached the last eight by topping their group courtesy of victories over New Zealand and Japan, after opening with a 1-1 against Mexico. Momentum is an important factor in football, particularly tournament football, and the Three Lions have improved with every game. Disappointed not to have capitalised on their first-half dominance against the North Americans, they then came from a goal down to beat the Kiwis and last time out they picked up a deserved win over the fourth ranked team in the world.
Against Japan they hinted at the quality of football they are capable of producing, when goals from Ellen White and substitute Rachel Yankey helped England to a 2-0 win. Scott is hoping her team-mates can carry that momentum into this quarter final.
“We know there’s been talk about us, that we haven’t played our best football,” she said. “As players, we know that we’re yet to reach a level that we know we’re capable of. But I think that every game we’ve progressed and we’re getting better and better, as long as you do it at the right times.
“We [were not] happy with our performance against Mexico, but then you look at the Japan game and it’s the best we’ve played in the tournament so far. But, then, we still know there’s more to come from us, so, hopefully going into this game against France we are going to take it up another level as a team.”
Scott was a member of the England squad that reached the last eight of the 2007 World Cup in China and she said there is a desire among this year’s group of players to go one better here in Germany. Four years ago they lost 3-0 to USA, and the right-back, who plies her trade in the States with Boston Breakers, has since admitted that perhaps England were slightly in awe of their American counterparts. Morale-boosting victories over USA and Sweden, two of the world’s top five teams, on the eve of the tournament have erased the possibility of an inferiority complex developing at this World Cup and Scott realises the need for every squad member to ready themselves for the game against France.
“They’re a technical side,” she said of her quarter final opponents. “They’ve got very gifted players, but then so have we. We feel like we’re going into this game on an even playing field and anything can happen.
“We know going [into] this game it’s going to be about all of us and each one of us needs to bring 110 per cent. We can’t just have one or two players playing at their best; we need every single one of us to get us through.
“Going into this tournament we had such an inspirational talk given to us by [England Under-21 Coach] Stuart Pearce. I think that talk has really stuck with the players. It was him that said if we are going to win this World Cup it’s not going to be about eleven players, it’s going to be about every single one of us, all 21 players and every staff member that is going to get us through this whole journey.”