Case For The Defence (Maz Pacheco Interview)

Eight years after breaking through at Liverpool, Aston Villa’s left-back has a law degree, a starting place in the WSL’s most improved side and real England ambitions. Maz Pacheco is generous with advice she wishes someone had given her: do not be scared to drop down a league, because playing beats sitting on a bench. She describes learning independence and study at the same time, and the difference Rachel Daly, Jordan Nobbs and Lucy Staniforth have made to Villa’s daily standards. As a British-Asian player she has only recently understood what representation means, with children telling her she looks like them. There is an honest passage on the pull of the Philippines, now World Cup-bound, and on social-media abuse. Carla Ward, she says, is seventy per cent serious and her jokes are terrible.