Reece James and England's World Cup Journey

Reece James knows this road now. The Chelsea captain has been here before with England, deep into a major tournament, only this time the scenery is very different.

Three years ago it was Wembley, familiar routines and short journeys, six of seven games played under the arch on home soil at the UEFA European Championship in 2021. Now it is a World Cup stretched across a continent, with England criss-crossing the USA, Canada and Mexico in a competition swollen to 48 teams and a schedule that feels endless.

The stakes are the same. The demands are not.

James is one of two Chelsea players in this England squad, joined by fellow Cobham graduate Trevoh Chalobah. The defender received a late call from head coach Thomas Tuchel after Tino Livramento – another product of the club’s academy – was ruled out through injury. It underlines Cobham’s reach: three right-backs, three careers shaped in the same youth system, all converging on the biggest stage.

Long tournaments can drain even the most hardened professionals. Travel, hotels, the stop-start rhythm between games. James is clear that managing the gaps between kick-offs is as important as managing the 90 minutes themselves.

“There’s lots of activities and down-time, stuff you can do when you’re out, just to try to refresh and stay motivated for such a long period away,” he explained, outlining the quieter side of tournament life that rarely makes the cameras.

Yet nothing recharges a squad quite like noise.

Across North America, the travelling support has turned neutral venues into pockets of home. England’s following has been loud, colourful and relentless, and James knows exactly what that does inside a match.

“The support is huge,” the Blues skipper said. “Sometimes that plays as the 12th man in difficult games. The support means everything to the players. Families and friends travelling all over the world to watch their loved ones play.”

You can hear that in the way England have started. A 4-2 win over Croatia in their opening Group L fixture set an early marker, goals and confidence flowing in a game that could easily have been tight. The performance carried the swagger of a team comfortable with expectation, and of a captain who has grown into the role for club and country.

Now comes a different kind of test.

Tonight in Boston, under the lights at 9pm UK time, England face Ghana in their second group match. The setting is new, the opposition awkward, the margins likely thinner than in that open contest with Croatia. This is where tournament campaigns either gather momentum or stall.

For James, for Chalobah, for the Cobham contingent scattered across this World Cup, the task is clear: keep the focus, ride the travel, feed off the noise. The miles are long, the schedule unforgiving, but with England already up and running, the question is no longer whether they can handle the journey.

It is how far they intend to take it.