HURL POWER
Bronze doesn’t want to be sick as a parrot this time
LUCY BRONZE remembers the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach when England last played Japan in the World Cup.
The Lionesses fell to an injury-time goal four years ago in Canada, denying them a place in the final, when Laura Bassett sliced the ball into her own net.
The two countries meet in Nice on Wednesday with the aim of winning Group D.
But memories of the pain felt in Edmonton remain etched in the Lyon defender’s mind.
And for Bronze, 27, the queasiness was very real with the effects still being seen a few days later.
She said: “I don’t remember a lot about the semi-final.
“I was really ill that day. I threw up a lot. Pretty much all day. It ended up pretty blurred. That’s why I was subbed.
“I think it was food poisoning. The cramps stopped me from playing. My body just went into shock.
“I had been sick before, during and afterwards around the bench area. It was horrendous.
“Then we went back to the same stadium a few days later to play the third and fourth-placed play-off game and my sick was still there.”
However, Bronze believes that the defeat may end up being the making of this England side. She added: “We did have the disappointment but it was one where we had to go through it.
“I still remember the match as being one of the best we played in that World Cup. We deserved to win. In some of the others we rode our luck a bit.
“Japan are a great team – they’ve been to the World Cup final twice and maybe we weren’t quite ready.
“Now we are more prepared. Back then it was so new to us, even getting to that semi-final was huge.
“The play-off game against Germany put Japan to bed, getting a bronze medal which we’d never done before.
“You remember the painful games, you remember all the big games that you’ve lost but that memory has long since been put behind us.”
England will kick off as favourites having beaten Japan 3-0 at the SheBelieves Cup two months ago. Bronze said: “They had a weakened side but we didn’t have our strongest side out as well.
“We changed it and showed we can win. They were missing players but we know we can do better too.”