Laura Bassett has likened England’s World Cup idyll to life in television’s “Big Brother” house.
After six weeks spent traversing Canada via Toronto, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver, the Notts County centre half and her team-mates are now in Edmonton preparing for a ground-breaking semi-final against Japan in the Commonwealth Stadium.
“We’re in a bubble,” says Bassett. “We’ve been together here for six weeks now, working and living with the same people, day-in day-out, it’s like being in the Big Brother house.”
Outside influences have rarely intruded but, suddenly, things are changing. The Lionesses’ achievement in becoming the first English women’s side to reach a World Cup semi-final has provoked such interest at home that Bassett and company are having to re-adjust to life as celebrities.
“It’s new territory for us,” says the 31-year-old. “It really seems to be kicking off back in England, we’ve had so many messages of support. It’s lovely but its something totally new.
“We’re used to seeing Premier League players in the newspapers, so when we were shown a collage of front- and back-page stories from home about us it was a bit of a shock. We were: ‘Look at our faces, look at our hair, we look a right state!’
“It’s been an experience that’s taken us out of our bubble for a little while. It’s a great feeling to know that everyone at home is behind us. We want to keep that support going by carrying on our journey over here. The last two games [a round of 16 victory against Norway and the quarter final defeat of Canada] have been massive in the history of English women’s football. Now we want to create more history.”
As befits the World Cup holders, Japan have won all their fixtures at Canada 2015 but Bassett and company are encouraged by the fact that back in Germany 2011, they did lose once en route to the trophy. Tellingly, that reverse came in a group game against England.
“I played in that 2011 game and so did a number of the other girls in the squad here,” says Bassett. “We still remember the euphoria after it of having beaten a brilliant Japanese team. We then played them again in a friendly that we drew 1-1 but were unlucky not to win.
“So we’ve got positive experiences against them, but, of course, this is on a much bigger stage and we’ll have to raise our performance levels. We’ve shown in the last two games though, that we can come up with the goods when we need to.
“Japan are world champions for a reason. They’re a great side but we want to be in that final on Sunday and we’re going to do everything we possibly can to get there.”
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