England's Next Step: Tuchel's Demands Ahead of Costa Rica Test
Thomas Tuchel is done with easing England into this World Cup. The sun, the sweat, the jet lag – that was Florida’s job. Now, a week out from Croatia, he wants a team that looks like it’s ready to start a tournament, not just a training camp.
The back‑to‑back European Championship finalists have spent the past days in the sticky, energy-sapping humidity of West Palm Beach, using the conditions as a weapon rather than an excuse. They slipped away to Tampa on Saturday for a sweltering, low-key 1-0 win over New Zealand, a game Tuchel split into two different XIs and filed under “necessary, not memorable”.
Costa Rica, though, is different. Not because of the opposition’s pedigree – they have not qualified for this World Cup – but because of the timing. This is the last public look at England before the curtain finally rises.
Tuchel: ‘We want to take the next step’
Tuchel’s message is clear: the gentle phase is over.
“No-one needs a break, everyone is available. That’s the very good news,” he said, outlining a squad that has come through the first friendly unscathed, with only Bukayo Saka’s workload carefully managed after an Achilles issue.
No new injuries. No complaints. No hiding places.
“One day for recovery, two good training sessions and ready to give it a push tomorrow,” Tuchel said of the Costa Rica game. “Push means more than 45 minutes – players will play 60, maybe some 70.”
That single word – push – is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Tuchel wants more than fitness. He wants a shift in gear: “physical and from intensity and also from style of play, from ball speed and everything. We want to take the next step, and we feel ready for it.”
The plan is ruthless in its simplicity. Costa Rica in the oppressive Orlando heat. Back to West Palm Beach. Then a quieter, controlled test behind closed doors. No distractions. No noise. Just work.
Behind closed doors, no let-up
England fly to their World Cup base in Kansas City on Saturday, but some players won’t be allowed to drift into travel mode. A behind-closed-doors match against Miami FC on Thursday has been arranged to top up those who need more minutes and to sharpen details Tuchel does not want broadcast to the world.
“Maybe we try some stuff,” he admitted when asked if set pieces would be on the menu against the USL Championship side. The emphasis, though, remains on physical load and precision planning.
“Basically, if you played only 20 minutes (against Costa Rica) I have the chance to give you another 50 or 60 on the next day,” Tuchel explained. England will control the substitutions, the length of the match, the rhythm of the exercise. This is not a friendly; it is a tailored session with an opponent.
“We are in charge, I think, of the substitutions. We are in charge of the length of the matches, and we can totally dictate as to who is available to give everyone at the end of the pre-camp the same load.
“Then we can start in Kansas on the same level for everyone.”
By the time they land in the Midwest, Tuchel wants a squad aligned not just tactically but physically – no one undercooked, no one overused.
Heat, travel, and a slow-burning start
While the World Cup officially kicks off on Thursday with co-hosts Mexico facing South Africa, England wait. Their campaign does not begin until next Wednesday, a June 17 clash with Croatia in Dallas that already carries the weight of a tone-setter.
Group L then throws up Ghana and Panama, opponents who will test different aspects of England’s game: power, discipline, patience. Tuchel’s response is to control everything he can in the days before the real thing starts.
The heat of Florida. The managed minutes. The private run-out against Miami FC. The insistence that Costa Rica is not a farewell exhibition but a statement of readiness.
Pre-camp, as Tuchel put it, “is finished” the moment England leave West Palm Beach. The adventure starts two days later in Kansas.
The question now is simple: when the plane lifts off for the Midwest, will this look like a team merely prepared – or one already primed to go deep again on the biggest stage?
