On a wet and windy night in Manchester, Ian Foster runs through an itinerary that is taking the head coach of England Under-20s men’s team to Marbella and Bali over the next week. “It’s tough at the top,” he jokes. Warmer weather aside, Foster’s quip has substance, as the ripple effects of staging a winter World Cup in Qatar continue to be felt in international circles.
England commenced preparations for the Under-20s World Cup in Indonesia with a 2-0 win over Germany at Manchester City’s Academy Stadium on Wednesday. Samuel Iling-Junior, the former Chelsea academy graduate who has broken into Juventus’s first team this season, scored twice as England overcame a difficult start to deliver a controlled and comfortable victory. The squad now heads for the Marbella Football Centre where they face USA on Saturday and France on Tuesday. And that will be that in terms of a World Cup warmup: three fixtures in seven days. Foster then heads from southern Spain to Bali for next Friday’s World Cup draw.
