Coach Tuchel took England to Palm Beach for 12 days before moving to Kansas City. And for more than one player, acclimatization wasn’t easy…
Declan Rice is used to defending himself against every type of opponent, understanding how to beat them. The World Cup has yet to begin, but there is one who is the iconic England midfielder who dreams of the cup (here our focus on the English) failed to defeat: the Florida sun. The images of Rice “scorched” from his days working in West Palm Beach, with his face and arms red from sunstroke, immediately went viral. Helped by the fact that the Arsenal midfielder posed in those conditions for the official photos of the tournament. And he said, still red but this time embarrassed, that he received the worst criticism not from the English press but from his mother.
RED OF…
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“My mom really tore me apart,” Rice said with a smile. “The first day we arrived in Florida, we knew we had to get used to the heat and humidity. But we come from England, where there are all four seasons in one day and where it’s hot but also cold. In Florida, however, we found a constant 30 degrees. The sun really beats you. I think everyone saw those photos: I was red as a pepper.” Rice wasn’t the only England player to deal with the Florida sun, where Tuchel took his team for 12 days to better prepare for the World Cup climate. Among the sunburned companions, Anthony Gordon also went viral, whose official photos in a particular pose have revived the online debate on his alleged resemblance to Lady Diana. “Look at our faces and arms, you can tell from there how much we’ve worked” said the Arsenal midfielder.
NEW HOME
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Red faces and arms are not the only thing that England brought from Florida to Kansas City, the Missouri city where Tuchel’s team landed yesterday and where they set up base camp for their entire World Cup. The days in West Palm Beach, as well as getting used to the heat, served to shift attention to this tournament, leaving the season with the clubs behind, to restart the Three Lions group, to create team habits and hierarchies. The welcome to Kansas City was training under the scorching sun at 28 degrees, the official temperature being at least 35, and a thousand jubilant local fans rewarded with selfies and autographs. In the end Rice did not speak to the almost 200 journalists who arrived for the occasion, but the FA’s message to bring sun cream seems to be aimed at the players as well as for the training guests. Otherwise who feels like Mama Rice?
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