COOKING UP A STORM: England conquer biggest problem as weather threatens to delay kick-off AGAIN ahead of crunch Norway quarter-final

The weather forecasts in the United States have become an exact science. And you can bet that England boss Thomas Tuchel is following updates very closely before Saturday’s quarter final in Miami.

We have currently got around 33 degrees and the threat of a thunder storm - but it is not due to hit when England play

Norway

at 6pm local time. One thing is for sure, the

Football

Association are tuned into the forecasts after the hour-long delay in

Mexico

City. That is because teams have to be well prepared - and England have already been hit twice this summer.

Even before the World Cup, they had a lengthy delay in Orlando when a huge storm hit ahead of their friendly with Costa Rica. That was easily solved. England’s players stayed in their nearby hotel and only arrived at the stadium when the storm was passing.

In Mexico last Sunday, they ended up arriving at the Azteca just over an hour and a half before the game was due to start because they got their forecast and timings right. That is the biggest thing to conquer: make sure you are well prepared and get your timing right.

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The beauty of this part of the

world

and weather

apps

is the reliability because you could track the weather so accurately in Mexico City. So much so of course that FIFA even tried to bring forward the kick-off partly because of the weather and partly because of fan safety. Four fans died in crushes after Mexico’s previous game with

Ecuador

.

In the end, the kick-off stayed the same and the game was only pushed back an hour. But actually, despite the Azteca being an old stadium and having quite small dressing rooms, they have adapted and got warm-up areas behind.

That is where players can get on exercise bikes, there are recovery areas and players can take on board fluids. The warm-up area in the Azteca saw players stretch, get on exercise bikes and they will be ready to do the same in Miami.

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It is very common to have weather delays - but very unusual for them to actually last very long. Last summer,

Chelsea's

Club World Cup tie with Benfica in Charlotte was held up by nearly two hours and the game itself finished 4 hours and 38 minutes after it started.

Charlotte is actually a hot spot for extreme weather and storms and the modern MLS stadium is set up for delays. It is a similar story for England’s stadium in Miami on Saturday. Miami has a history of tornados and England’s training base in Kansas City is a real hot spot - so it would be fair to say that England are braced and prepared.

What actually happened in Charlotte was the

Chelsea

players - including

Reece James

who is in the current squad - used exercise bikes, kept spinning their legs over and there is a warm-up area where mats allow players to stretch.

Fans do not blink an eye at delays because they are used to it and are ready for it on the concourses. Former

Aston Villa

boss Dean Smith, now in charge of Charlotte, says stadiums, players and teams in America are very much used to delays.

Smith said: “You just get used to it. And you can be sure that would have been the message ahead of the World Cup for all the teams. Of course it can be frustrating but it is very different and a lot of it is psychological. But you keep warm, make sure that muscles don’t seize up and stay focused.

“It depends state to state on the rules but players adapt to it and that will be the same for England and the World Cup. The facilities in the stadiums are second to none.”

The weather delays are dictated by electrical storms in the

United States

. When lightning strikes within a ten mile radius, most states then suspend play for 30 minutes. Players are taken off the pitch and the weather protocol resets for another 30 minutes each time lightning strikes in most states. That happened during England’s training camp, at their training ground in Florida and on the first day they arrived in Kansas City.

The England coaching team are actually more used to it and braced for it than you might think. They have got their heads round it.

Former

Canada

boss John Herdman, born in County Durham and now working in Indonesia,

told Mirror Football last year:

“Do everything you can to prepare. But also be ready to be stuck on the tarmac and be ready to have a laugh about it.

“If you’ve had to move hotels because of a flood or the training camp has been hit with a tornado, then don’t give the players an escape route or give them an excuse. Get better at dealing with the chaos. There’s two schools of thought.

“And I’m not sure either is right or wrong but, if you ask me, you have to embrace it, don’t overthink it and maybe that’s the right way in what will be very difficult, challenging conditions no matter how much preparation you do.

"You can prepare as much as you like but I think the trick might be to embrace it rather than over-organise it. The teams that rock up with the right mindset might have such a big advantage."