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Bronze lost World Cup semi-finals with England
in 2015 and 2019 but was a core member of the Lionesses team
that beat Germany to win a first major title at the European
Championship last year.
The 31-year-old, who plays her club football in Spain for
Barcelona, was again a rock in defense on Wednesday when England
neutralized a big crowd in Sydney to beat co-hosts Australia 3-1
and reach their first World Cup final.
"We're going up against a team I personally know very well,"
Bronze told reporters after the match.
"We know how to win finals. That's something Spain doesn't have
that we have. That's an experience that not only I have but many
of these England players have ...
"I'm excited," she added. "I'm really good friends with a couple
of them, my team mates in Barcelona, myself and Keira (Walsh)
know them very well.
"We've been speaking to them throughout the tournament and even
before the tournament started we had a joke, saying, 'We'll see
you in the final,' and that's come true."
England needed a huge defensive effort and were forced to come
from a goal down to beat Spain in extra time in the
quarter-finals of last year's Euros.
Although they arrived at the World Cup as one of the favorites,
they came without key players because of injury and then lost
one of their best performers, Lauren James, to a ban after she
was shown a red card in their match against Nigeria.
Bronze said England's resilience in the face of such setbacks
would also hold them in good stead back at Stadium Australia on
Sunday.
"The strength of this team is we stick together, we've got an
incredibly tight bond, we've got a tight-knit team," she said.
"Winning the Euros last gave us a huge amount of confidence but
we've suffered a few losses this year in terms of big players, a
lot of noise on the outside and it's just pushed us closer
together.
"Before the tournament, people had us down to get knocked out in
the group or something, and now we're in the final."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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