England is about to step into one of the most hostile environments in world soccer, and Marcus Rashford is not sweating the details.
The Three Lions face co-hosts Mexico in the Round of 16 on Monday, and the match just got a new wrinkle. Originally scheduled for 6 p.m. local time in Mexico City, kickoff is now expected to be moved up to noon local time. The reason? Thunderstorms are forecast to roll in later in the day. For England fans back home, that means a 1 a.m. BST start becomes a bleary-eyed 7 a.m. kickoff instead.
Rashford was asked if the scheduling shift puts England at a disadvantage. His response was pretty much what you’d expect from a guy who’s played in Champions League finals and World Cup knockouts.
“No, it doesn’t matter,” Rashford said. “It’s a game of football at the end of the day. It might be a small adjustment that we need to make, but in the end, it doesn’t change our outlook on the game and what we’re trying to do.”
Fair enough. But the bigger conversation around this game hasn’t been about the clock. It’s been about the air.
The Altitude Problem That Won’t Go Away
Estadio Azteca sits 7,220 feet above sea level. That’s high enough to make deep breaths feel shallow and running for more than a few minutes feel like a slow punishment. Mexico’s record there is absurd — two losses in 89 matches. Two. England has never won a competitive match in Mexico City. The stats alone are the kind of thing that can get into a team’s head before they even step on the bus.
Rashford isn’t ignoring it. But he’s also not letting it become the story.
“We’ve all been playing football since we were kids. We’ve played in different environments, different atmospheres. Some easier than others, some terrible to play in and disgusting. It’s up to us to try and find a way to come out on top.”
He’s not wrong. England has players who’ve played at altitude before, who’ve dealt with hostile crowds, who’ve handled bad weather and bad pitches and bad everything. The question is whether that experience adds up to enough on a field where Mexico feeds off the thin air like it’s home cooking.
One Game, One Goal
Rashford kept coming back to the same point. It’s football. Eleven vs. eleven. The rest is noise.
“Sometimes you need the player next to you and the player next to him. It’s all the same. We have to work together, work as a unit and try to bring as close to our best as we can and we’ll be fine.”
The rescheduling is not ideal. The altitude is not ideal. The crowd at Azteca is definitely not ideal. But England didn’t come this far to worry about thunderstorms. They came to win a World Cup. And as far as Rashford is concerned, a few hours of schedule shuffling won’t change that.
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