Newcastle United star Dan Burn isn’t feeling the heat at the World Cup just yet
Dan Burn with his former Newcastle United teammate Chris Wood during the international friendly match between England and New Zealand
Dan Burn is hoping he can finally achieve one thing that has been missing from his England career so far – and do it on the biggest stage of all.
The Newcastle United defender was a half-time substitute for England on Saturday night as the Three Lions continued their preparations for the World Cup with a friendly against New Zealand.
Burn is a great story from lower league to the World Cup even though he admits it has yet to sink in but the game against the Kiwis helped him get in the mood. England won 1-0 but it was more of a training exercise while now they will step up a gear for preparations for the World Cup campaign.
Burn said: “It doesn’t feel like the World Cup yet, but coming in and seeing the fans, the hype of it all and getting excited about it, so, yeah, I was happy with how it went. I think we dealt with the heat pretty well, got a win and a clean sheet. We can build on that.
“It was more sort of refreshing on the things that we did well, especially in October and November, and going through our principles. We knew it wasn’t going to be an unbelievable game today where we were firing on all cylinders.
“We have had a long time away from each other, but we’ve had a good week of training, so it was more about bringing out the stuff we spoke about this week in training in the games. I think we saw plenty of that and now it is about turning that up for the Costa Rica game and into the first game.”
England boss Thomas Tuchel is unhappy that FIFA have used England’s goal against Uruguay in March as an example of what is not allowed in terms of penalty box grappling.
Burn says they are ready for the extra scrutiny and he is ready to work on his own ability to score at set-pieces, having come so close to breaking his duck on the international stage against New Zealand. Burn has bagged a number of vital goals for Newcastle – no more so than the Carabao Cup final opener at Wembley – but has yet to score for the national side.
He added: “We know there is going to be a bit more scrutiny on it, but we haven’t spoken about it in detail. As I said, I am sure when we get to Kansas there will be things where we have to sit down with referees and see what is allowed and what isn’t.
“I had a few headers against New Zealand and definitely should have scored one, so I was disappointed with the one that hit the post, but I’m just trying to get that first goal.”
Burn has been on one hell of a rollercoaster ride in his career, and he used one to acclimatise himself for the United States this summer.
Tuchel encouraged players to go on family holidays at places in the same time zone if they wanted to get a break in before the tournament. Burn took his family to Disneyland in Florida and says it has given him a “head start” when it comes to being ready for the World Cup both in terms of the difference and hot weather conditions.
Burn said: “I didn’t notice the heat that much [against New Zealand], if I am being honest. I have been here a week before, I did Disney with the kids because I wanted to get a bit of a head start.
“Honestly, I think that helped. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t like a Saturday afternoon in Newcastle, but I felt a lot better than I was expecting to.
“I wanted to do that because I am not used to the heat as much. About half the squad did that and half the squad didn’t, but I feel better for it.
“We probably haven’t had the weather that we wanted this week, it has been a bit cloudy and rainy, but the last two days especially there has been a bit of heat. Personally, it hasn’t affected me as much as I thought it would, but I can’t speak for anyone else.”
Burn admitted he loved the Disney experience and one part in particular: “The rides! My kids loved the rides. Guardians of the Galaxy is the best ride. If you go to Disney, that’s the one.”
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