Who will win the World Cup?
Irwin: The United States are still the team to beat. Al and I met when we were on football scholarships at Indiana University in 2001 and, the first time we trained, we got an insight into how big the women’s game was in the US.
There were so many players from the women’s team playing with us, which for starters was something I’d never seen growing up on the mean streets of Reading, and they were unbelievably good too. I remember running in for a long ball with one of them and being taken out so badly that I couldn’t play for a week. It was a rude awakening that women’s football had well and truly arrived, and you underestimate them at your peril.
It made me think ‘wow, this is the real thing’. They were a million miles ahead of us in England then, but we have been catching up. Having this World Cup the year after we won the Euros is the perfect storm for more success on the pitch, and raising the profile of the game even more off it. I am absolutely going for England to win.
Al: Same here. England have changed a few things, got a few new players but still got a great manager. I can see us going all the way.
Who will be the star player and\or win the Golden Boot?
Al: It’s made for it to be Sam Kerr’s tournament. She’s a player I hear a lot about, so I’m going to back her at her home tournament.
Irwin: I’m hoping for a big tournament from England’s Lucy Bronze, because stopping goals rather than scoring them is what I am all about. But I am going for one of the US players, Alex Morgan or Megan Rapinoe, to shine.