How do you prepare psychologically for a World Cup final?

Focussing on pre-game team talks ignores the importance of long-term planning

As England’s players line up in the tunnel, waiting to walk onto the pitch for Sunday’s World Cup final against Spain, you can almost hear the TV anchor’s final question to the posse of studio pundits:

“So, what will Sarina Wiegman have said to her team before they left the dressing room?”

The emphasis on pre-match team talks is basically baked into sports coverage. In the same way that Jose Mourinho’s changing room tirades were viewed by Amazon’s ‘All of Nothing’ documentary as almost the only way of motivating his players, televised build-up to the Lionesses’ latest major tournament final might have you believe that the side’s psychological preparation for the game rests solely on Wiegman’s team talk.

The reality, of course, couldn’t be more different. Put to one side the 20-year association England women’s teams, across all age groups, have with accredited sports psychologists. Forget the managers, from Hope Powell to Phil Neville and Wiegman, who have backed the provision of specialist psychological support at senior level for over two decades.

Even without the enviable track record, a few words from Kate Hays, England’s head of psychology for women’s football, speak volumes. When I talked to her earlier this year and asked her about how she prepared players for their history-making encounter with Germany at Euro 2022, there were no references to one-off mantras or tubthumping changing room speeches. Instead, the focus was simple: keep doing what we’ve been doing.

“It sounds boring, but it was really about maintaining consistency in our approach,” she said.

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“It wasn’t about changing things necessarily because of the moment or because of the opposition: the consistency in approach is actually what's important.

“It's about having a real understanding of what the strategy is, how you go about your business, how you prepare, how you plan, how you review, how you debrief, how you set up, how you manage your time, what your schedule looks like, and keeping those things - all your different ingredients of success - consistent through the duration of a tournament so that behaviors don't start to change with proximity to games and emotions don't start to become uncontrollable, and that people are able to self-regulate within an environment that's structured and safe.”

Hays’ words were unerringly echoed in a conversation I had with Jon Marzetti, England’s Test team psychologist, in the run-up to this summer’s Ashes. I asked him about how he was planning to adapt his approach to what his colleague, Marcus Trescothick, had described as the ‘unique pressure’ of a home series against Australia. Again, the response was clear: trust the process.

“The challenge for the summer is to keep a lot of what's happened in the last 12 months the same, even if the potential is for it to feel different,” he said.

“The level of media scrutiny might feel different to some of the other Test matches in the last 12 months, but I think the challenge from a psychology point of view is to remain consistent and retain clarity.”

Marzetti also touched on the role which long-term communication plans play in preparing players to perform under pressure.

“I think most of it (the ability to play under pressure) comes from the messages from the coaches and the leaders in that environment,” he said.

“I think the messaging over time has allowed players to go into those moments of pressure with ultimate clarity on what they're being asked to do…knowing how the environment might respond to me if I do fail.”

As England take to the pitch for the final time in this summer’s tournament, those quotes are worth remembering. If Wiegman’s players seem mentally prepared for the biggest game of their lives, their state of mind - whatever the TV studios try and tell you - will have very little to do with their coach’s parting words.

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