Tuchel uses barbecues and themed food nights to sharpen England's World Cup edge

Thomas Tuchel has made team barbecues and themed food nights a cornerstone of England’s World Cup preparations in the United States, with the Football Association bringing in top chefs and specialist nutritionists to optimise what players eat and drink throughout the tournament.

Outdoor dining has become a fixture at lunch and dinner in the England camp, with Tuchel convinced that communal meals strengthen team spirit and aid mental and cognitive recovery. The squad celebrated their win over New Zealand in Tampa last weekend with pizza, and the setup mirrors the themed evenings — Italian, Chinese and Mexican — that featured at Euro 2024.

The FA has also shipped 1,000 specialist Lucozade Elite pouches to the United States, giving England’s players access to 5.7 million millilitres of the high-carbohydrate electrolyte drink across the tournament. The 350ml squeezable pouches were developed specifically for the England squad and are not available commercially. Because FIFA enforces strict rules on branding at refuelling breaks, the pouches will be displayed without their labels during matches.

Jude Bellingham, who fronts Lucozade’s wider campaign, said: “Everything around preparation, hydration and fuelling has to be right so you can perform consistently throughout a game. The right preparation can make a big difference.”

Dr Chris Rosimus, the FA’s Lead Performance Nutritionist, explained the thinking behind the bespoke pouches: “Hydration, fuelling and recovery all play an important role, particularly when players are operating in demanding schedules, challenging environments and high-intensity competition. One of the areas we explored was how players could consume carbohydrates during competition. The original Lucozade Sport pouch demonstrated how practical a squeezable liquid format could be. That insight helped inspire an entirely new solution developed specifically for the demands of modern football.”

The pouches carry a nostalgic echo of the 1990s John Barnes television adverts in which the winger kicked an isotonic drink carton into a dressing-room bin — a format now updated for the physical demands of the modern game as England look to use every marginal gain available ahead of the tournament.