I know Goans will back us: England coach

MARGAO
England's Young Lions have been on a roll at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. One of the most offensive sides in the tournament, they will face USA in the quarter-finals at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Saturday. And England coach Steve Cooper feels his team will find support of the locals when they play their last eight match against a tricky
opposition.
"This U-17 World Cup in India has been an exceptional experience so far. It has really lived up to the expectations so far and looking forward now, we are really happy to be in Goa. Just one of the venues that the England team wanted to visit because they knew the interest in English football and the support we will get of the local people," Cooper told The Goan.
Talking about the domestic structure back home which has seen the young English Lions perform commendably well in recent times, Cooper said, "We obviously have a strong academy system in England with all the 92 clubs playing professionally in our domestic leagues. The England teams have been real benefactors of the good work going on. I think the results in the summer have shown that. The U-20s winning the World Cup, the U-19s winning the Euros. This group in India getting to the final and losing late on to Spain (continental finals on a shoot-out). The U-21s reaching the finals of their Euros as well."
"It is the recognition of the talent in England. It is all a long term plan. It is important to continue to build and focus on our work," he added.
What are the key elements that have seen the Young Lions progress to the knock-out stages in the ongoing competition? "We are just trying to play our way. We have created an identity now with our England teams in the way we are playing. That works for us in two ways really. One is to give us every opportunity to be successful in the tournament that we are participating in, like this one. But we also want to play in a way that will help us in the long term, to get better in our way of playing and allow us to progress and be experts at the way we want to play," Cooper said.
Cooper was asked if losing attacking midfielder Jadon Sancho to club commitments had impacted the side the wrong way. He said, "It is about looking forward. We've got 20 players here in Goa who can all play at the World Cup level. They have shown that. We have managed to get every outfield player on the pitch and every one of them has performed really well. That bodes well, not just for this tournament but for the future of this group as an
England squad."
Talking about the Indian experience at the World Cup, Cooper said: "I thought India (debuting at a FIFA tourney) did a very good job. I think they were unlucky to not get a couple of results. Certainly in their second game (lost to Colombia 1-2), they scored and were so unlucky to concede straight after. We made it a point to watch the India games because we thought it was respect to the host nation. I thought their coach (Luis Norton de Matos) did a very good job."
The Young Lions are fully focused on the next job at hand and the coach says that his cubs are raring to take on the USA, a team he respects much. "We will to stick to our plans and try to respect the opponents as much as we can as that I think is only right. But we stick to our beliefs and try and get the right game plan together,"
Cooper said.