Chamberlain to reacquaint herself with old team-mates

Friday 29 May 2015
Siobhan Chamberlain in action against China in April

Having played against Canada five times since March 2011, Mark Sampson's England Women will be pretty familiar with Friday night's opponents - but there is one Three Lions player who will know the Canucks better than most.

The Lionesses take on John Herdman's side in Hamilton, Ontario, in their final World Cup warm-up match.

And goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain will be coming up against seven former team-mates, having spent the end of 2010 playing for Vancouver Whitecaps.

Canada v England

A Women's International
Tim Hortons Field
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
7pm (Midnight BST) Friday 29 May 2015

She said: "I loved my time there and it was definitely beneficial. It was the first time in my life that I trained every day with a club team and had a full-time goalkeeping coach. I found it really useful.

"I'm still in touch with a lot of the girls from Vancouver. I get on really well with them but we don't really chat about football, we just talk about everyday life. It will be nice to see them all again."

One goal has separated these two sides in three of those aforementioned last five meetings, a statistic which suggests England and Canada know how to nullify each others' threats.

As assistant coach Marieanne Spacey alluded to earlier this week, from a tactical perspective there will be little that will surprise either side - and Chamberlain concurs with the former England striker when she says her team-mates will benefit more from experiencing the atmosphere that will be generated inside the 22,800-capacity Tim Hortons Field.

She explained: "Hopefully the game will sell out. It will be great to get fans behind women's football ahead of the tournament. Canadians are very enthusiastic so I'm sure it will be quite an intimidating atmosphere for us. 

Siobhan Chamberlain training in Canada

Chamberlain training in Canada

"When we get to Moncton to play France in our first World Cup game, that is a massive French-speaking town so we'd expect them to have a lot of fans at the stadium and this game against Canada can help us try to replicate that partisan atmosphere.

"It will also allow us to get some minutes under our belts because it has been a little while since the League broke off. It will help us get used to the heat and we can fine-tune certain things Mark wants us to work on.

"You know it's always going to be a close game against Canada. They have got some fantastic players."

Chamberlain pulled off a world-class save the last time these two sides met - in added time of the Cyprus Cup final in March.

Lianne Sanderson's 67th-minute goal clinched the trophy for England, but Chamberlain's intervention was just as crucial, and she believes it is the most important save of her career to date.

She added: "It's definitely up there as one of the best saves I've ever made. It was definitely the most important because it was in the last minute of a final.

"It can be hard to stay focused when you're not that busy in a game. It was quite a close game but I didn't really have that many shots to deal with, so it was even more pleasing to pull off that sort of save in those circumstances.

"But you try not to get too carried away as a goalkeeper because you can go from hero to zero in a split second and vice versa.

"So you try not to get too down when things go wrong and not get too elated when you pull off a decent save. You try and manage the highs and lows."

England have been in Canada since Monday and Chamberlain says the whole squad is relishing playing in another World Cup.

She said: "Toronto isn't one of the host cities so that allows us to focus on the Canada game and what we need to do there. But it's really exciting to be here.

"Once we get to Moncton and see all the World Cup banners that is when it will start to feel real.

"We can't wait for it."

England open up against France on Tuesday 9 June followed by Mexico on 13 June and Colombia on 17 June.

By Glenn Lavery in Hamilton, Canada