Germany v England
Four Nations Tournament
England, China, USA and Germany
5.30am, Sunday 28 January 2007 (GMT)
Guangdong Olympic Sports Centre, China
Four Nations Full Schedule - Click Here

Two games into the Four Nations Tournament and one of England's most consistent performers has been Charlton Athletic defender Casey Stoney.

42 caps into her international career, Casey has played in the last three games aftercoming on at half-time in the dramatic 1-1 draw against France in Rennes that sealed qualification for the World Cup.

"At 24 I've been lucky to play a lot of games for my country but at times my versatility has maybe counted against me" she told TheFA.com.

"This trip has been a great experience and to get a run of games has given me a big boost.

"Over the last 18 months Hope has empowered the players to give their views and discuss issues amongst us and this has encouraged dialogue between the coaches and players.

"Before the USA game I was the oldest member of the back four and Hope and Misia (Team Sports Psychologist) wanted me to use my experience and talk some of the younger players through it.

"When we went a goal down the players kept talking on the pitch and showed great resilience to equalise. The coaches got the tactics spot on and at the final whistle, we felt like everything had come together over the 90 minutes."

Casey is one of a number of players in the squad who has graduated from The FA's National Player Development Centre, a grounding that she believes helped her career take off.

"I was at Loughborough for two years and the only disappointment was that I couldn't stay longer" she said.

"At 21 I needed to start earning some money as it was just my mum and me but it was first class.

"I had my food and accommodation paid for, was training with a ball at my feet every day and The FA paid for me to do a Personal Trainer course, which is now how I make my living.

"As a country we are still playing catch-up against the likes of the Americans who will sometimes spend 6-7 months together a year, but for any young player who has the opportunity to go there, I'd say do it."

Tomorrow pits England against the might of Germany and Casey admitted that confidence had been raised by the USA result.

"No-one is getting carried away in our squad but we all want to improve on the game in Aalen in October.

"The Germans have looked very dangerous in their first two games without scoring and we'll need to push up against them so they don't have room to play. We know we're capable of getting results and now it's about being consistent."

As a young child Casey first started playing football with her neighbours in an Essex cul-de-sac and earned international recognition with a call-up to an England U16 traing camp.

"Football has been my life since then and to play in a World Cup would be the realisation of a childhood dream" Casey added.

To see how England and Casey fare tomorrow, you can tune in to Eurosport 2 at 5.30am GMT and TheFA.com will bring you a full match report and post-match reaction.