England are to face Japan, New Zealand and Mexico in next year’s FIFA World Cup finals, after being drawn in Group B by Adriana Karembeu at the Frankfurt Congress Centre.
Four groups were drawn from 16 teams, with Germany (as hosts), Japan, USA and Brazil occupying one group each due to their ranking as top seeds of their regions.
The remaining 12 nations were drawn at random, however no one group could feature more than one team from each geographic region with the exception of Group A, which features two teams from Europe - Germany and France.
Speaking of the draw, England Head Coach, Hope Powell, commented: “I’ve got to be relatively happy; it could have been worse, we could have been in Group A or C.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Related stories:
Football: Find out who England will face in the 2011 World Cup
Football: Glasgow City carry on in style with 3-0 win over Liverpool
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
“We played New Zealand recently in The Peace Cup and we played, and drew with, Japan in the 2007 World Cup. They are a tough side and technically very good.
“Mexico beat us at the Under 20 World Cup in the summer and they are a rapidly progressing nation. We don’t know enough about their Senior team, but we’ve got plenty of time to do our homework.
“The priority is to get out of the group, that’s our first aim. Every group looks fairly tough and we’ve all got our work to do. All the games will be tough in a major tournament.”
The World Cup Finals will run from June 26 to July 17 2011, with the 32 matches played across nine different venues, the most stadiums ever to be used at a Women’s World Cup.
Anticipation is rapidly building in Germany, the reigning European and World champions, where 350,000 tickets have already been purchased even prior to the draw.
England’s first group match is against Mexico on Monday, June 27, in Wolfsburg.
Jessica Whittington, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Image credit: iStockphoto.com
