England and Argentina are familiar foes in tournament football and U20s coach Paul Simpson has revealed his squad were given a history lesson ahead of Saturday’s World Cup opener.
The Three Lions senior team have won three and lost two of the five meetings at World Cup finals through the years.
Simpson’s youngsters watched footage of some of those matches, including England’s 1-0 win at Sapporo Dome in Japan in 2002, against an Argentina team that featured now Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino.
The 21-man England squad includes Spurs players Kyle Walker-Peters and Josh Onomah, but Simpson admits there were a few surprised faces at seeing a long-haired Pochettino in action.
“I don’t think the Spurs players knew Pochettino played in that game,” he said.
“There were a few incidents, he had a header that [David] Seaman tipped over the bar, so there was a little bit of surprise – I don’t think they knew that he was at that level as a player.
“Hopefully some of what we’ve shown them can help them to be successful at the weekend, they are fully aware of the challenge.
“If you put an England player in a game, never mind against Argentina, but in any World Cup finals game they are going to be motivated for it and I’m really looking forward to the competition getting started and the players are too.”
As part of England’s preparations they made a whistle-stop trip to Japan, before continuing on to South Korea – a nation they visited in November for a mini-tournament.
And Simpson’s has no doubt his players have acclimatised to their surroundings.
“The way that we planned the whole season was that we went and did a trip over in South Korea before the turn of the year, so they’ve already been out here,” explained Simpson, who has replaced injured defender Rico Henry with Ezri Konsa of Charlton Athletic.
“It was just slightly different in that they landed and had a day before they then went straight into games, so they struggled with the jet-leg then.
“They have experienced it and coming into the Japan-leg of the trip that was a good opportunity for them all to get used to the difference in temperature, the difference in humidity, the time difference, so they’ve been given the best opportunity possible to get used to it.
“It’s a huge honour to be here and be part of the group. I really do feel privileged to come and take part in a World Cup finals, as all the players do.
“We all know we are in a really fortunate position and the players earned the right to be here by qualifying for the [European U19 Championship] semi-finals last summer.
“The whole season their preparation has been spot on to be able to come to the World Cup and try and do ourselves justice.”
