Sancho out, England stay upbeat
KOLKATA: Jadon Sancho is returning to joining Borussia Dortmund, said England coach Steve Cooper a day before Tuesday’s pre-quarter final against Japan here.
After Brazil’s Vinicius Jr wasn’t allowed to travel, the departure of this versatile attacking midfielder is another example of how helpless countries can be against club power.
“Borussia Dortmund requested that he be released and he is headed back to Germany. It’s a disappointment for him and for the tournament because people enjoyed seeing Jadon play. I can only imagine that Dortmund wanted him back because they want him in the first team at the weekend (against Eintracht Frankfurt) because I can’t think of any other reason to take a player away from the World Cup,” said Cooper.
Every time Cooper has interacted with the media since reaching Mumbai, Sancho has cropped up. And Cooper’s answers were a lesson in sangfroid. On Monday he came closest to making his feelings obvious about missing the player whose three goals and two assists helped England top group F.
But England aren’t looking back, said Cooper. “We will always be about the team. We have 20 players now who are capable of playing for England and we can’t wait to get back at this excellent stadium.”
Most coaches would say that but Cooper’s already used 20 players in three games without there being a perceptible drop in intensity or ability barring a spell in the second half against Mexico.
Japan coach Yoshiro Moriyama explained why. “Many of them play in Premier League teams or in Germany and if there were to be a market value to the teams, England would be worth 20 billion and my team 1 billion,” he said. “But football is not played like that.” The league stage is done and it’s the business end of the U-17 World Cup. One team that caught my attention during the group stage is Iran. To be drawn in a group with Germany and Costa Rica, they were expected at best, to get the third spot.
But their demolition of Costa Rica and Germany was unexpected. But the tournament doesn’t end here – in fact it starts now. Iran should go past Mexico in the round of 16 but they will have an uphill task facing either