Declan Rice felt England delivered exactly what was asked of them in a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica on Wednesday, revealing that Thomas Tuchel demanded far more intensity from the squad. Rice opened the scoring within the first 10 minutes in Orlando, with Anthony Gordon converting a penalty in the second half and substitute Ollie Watkins heading home a third late on.
The dominant performance against a limited Costa Rican side keeps England on track for their World Cup opener against Croatia on Wednesday. It marked a significant improvement from the subdued 1-0 win over New Zealand on Saturday, and Rice says that was precisely what Tuchel requested.
“The manager was onto us before the game to ramp it up,” the Arsenal midfielder told ITV. “Intensity with the ball, counter-pressing, and I thought the performance tonight was top from everyone. Even the boys that came off the bench, it was outstanding in the second half. Really good last game before it all starts.”
Rice was highly positive about the team's cohesion, highlighting the link-up play with Gordon and Nico O’Reilly as an encouraging sign. “I think we’ve adapted, you can see the heat’s not really a problem now, the first week or 10 days has been about adapting to the heat,” he said. “Playing with him and Nico, we’ve been speaking all week about how we’re going to rotate and be fluid, and you’ve seen that in the first half. As a group we’re building confidence and fitness going into the first game. We’ve got more training sessions, we’re going to keep building, and it’s really good.”
Tuchel was equally pleased with the performance and result, indicating he got exactly what he had asked for from his players. “We did very well, we deserved to win, we should have had more goals,” the manager said. “We could easily have scored more, created a lot, but the attitude, the energy, and the intensity were on a very high level. Everyone did well, it’s not about one individual player today, it was a very good team performance. We wanted to have this push to the next level, and we clearly got it. Everyone in the stadium could feel it. We did a lot for it, we worked hard, counter-pressing was good, defending, attitude, togetherness. Everything on a very, very high level.”
Certain positions in Tuchel’s team remain undecided, such as left wing between Gordon and Marcus Rashford, and the number 10 role between Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers. However, the boss stated Wednesday night did not resolve anything for him. “No. Tonight just makes my mind very calm because we’re on absolutely the right way,” he said. “I’m very proud of what I saw today from the team spirit and behaviour. The guys who came in were super influential. The guys who came out were pushing from behind on the bench. Exactly what we wanted.”
Asked if he knows his starting XI to face Croatia next week, he replied: “No. I will now find XI for tomorrow’s game, and then I have another six days. Today was exactly what we wished for and exactly what we wanted.”
The win over Costa Rica was the final official friendly before the campaign begins, but England have another behind-closed-doors contest on Thursday against Miami United, where Tuchel’s players have one more chance to impress.
