Mead responds to Morgan's tea celebration ahead of England's clash with USA

Beth Mead says England's clash with USA is a chance for them to show they are capable of adding World Cup glory to this summer's Euro success.

Mead was announced as England women's Player of the Year yesterday after securing the Golden Boot at the European Championships in July - scoring six goals and providing four assists for her side on the way to lifting the trophy.

The Arsenal attacker was also part of the Lionesses team which suffered World Cup heartache at the hands of the USA back in 2019, when Alex Morgan performed her now famous tea drinking celebration after scoring the winner.

Mead admits the defeat was a tough one to take at the time but believes the loss has spurred England on to prove they are good enough to compete with the current world champions.

"I think we said we were more coffee drinkers than tea drinkers to be fair," she joked. "Obviously it was a good game, but a tough result to take. Being part of that game, we took it hard, but looking back at it now, it's made us more hungry and more motivated to prove ourselves against a world class USA team.

"We're looking forward to the challenge, to see where we are and hopefully we can put in a good performance."

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Ahead of the game, women's football in the USA was rocked by an independent investigation which found that sexual misconduct and both verbal and emotional abuse had become "systemic" in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Mead says she was "sickened" when she read the findings of the report and confirmed there are plans for England to display a gesture of solidarity with the USA team.

"When I found out I was quite sickened about the situation," she said. "It's a worldwide problem but women need to be taken seriously a lot more. I'm very proud of the victims who actually stood up and said it. People need to start doing better. The US governing bodies need to start doing better. Worldwide, we need to do better. We're in contact with the USA team and some of their players. We're working on something to support them."

Boss Sarina Wiegman also expressed her disappointment with the report's findings, saying: "It's horrible and unacceptable that it's still happening. I feel very, very sorry for all the victims. It's really the time now that we step all up and stop these things, whatever the abuse is."

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