Georgia Stanway pauses for a moment. "I'm not afraid to say it," she says, almost to herself as much as to anyone in the room. It's her own short affirmation that this, the eve of a World Cup semi-final against the tournament co-hosts Australia, is the right time to open up on how she has dealt with problems in the past and now knows how to remain calm.
"Once or twice a week, I speak with a mentor and that's something that I've done for a few years now. I'm not afraid to say it." Then the pause. "I went through a time at [Manchester] City where it was a little bit up and down in terms of my mentality, my position. Everything was changing, and that person was my go-to in terms of getting clarity on my position [and] what I wanted to achieve in that season."
It was at the start of the 2020-21 season and the postponed Tokyo Olympics was a year away. "My goal was to get to the Olympics," says the Bayern Munich midfielder. "I set out a plan at the start and was like: 'This is what I want to do, this is what I want to achieve? Whether it be goals, assists, whether it be making sure my house is tidy on a weekly basis - just random things that seem like successes.
"I managed to achieve that goal and I just thought I would carry it on from then. This tournament, I've spoken to my person in the evening before [each] game. That just allows me to process the information that we've got from England, know the work is done and just go out there and play my game."
This story is from the August 16, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the August 16, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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