Steph Houghton has vowed England will rise to the big occasion at the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada.
Durham-born Houghton, who captains Manchester City Women and her country, has seen her profile soar since being handed the England armband last year.
Her biggest test awaits in Canada in June, when England will attempt to venture further in a World Cup than ever before, having stalled three times previously in the quarter-finals.
A 3-0 defeat to Germany at Wembley in November may have sowed seeds of doubt in the minds of some England followers, and Friday's friendly fixture against the United States at stadiummk promises to be just as tough a test.
Yet Houghton is confident England can give the mighty US, twice World Cup winners, a serious game.
"There's definitely a buzz about the camp. There is competition for World Cup spots but we've got a really important fixture on Friday and we want to go and perform well as a team," Houghton said.
As a teenager, Houghton suffered World Cup heartbreak when injury ruled her out of the 2007 tournament. She was in the squad, but a fringe figure, four years ago in Germany, but this time as she approaches her 27th birthday in April the centre-back is the leader and best-known face in Mark Sampson's team.
"It's a massive year for everyone involved," Houghton told Press Association Sport.
"It's going to be a massive honour to represent your country, if selected, for the World Cup. To captain this side, which is full of great individuals with the potential to be a great team, I'm delighted to be involved and delighted to be involved in a World Cup year."
With such great power as that with which Houghton has been entrusted comes great responsibility, and it would be abnormal were she not feeling a little pressure, as she is.
"Yes of course, but that's what comes with international football," she said.
"You have a lot of pressure and when you reach major tournaments like World Cups it's going to be like that. You're going to want to do your country proud, and the fact the focus is on the women's team now is a good pressure to have, and one that I suppose we'll thrive upon and try to perform when we're over there."
First comes the American test, with the world's number two side coming off the back of a weekend defeat to France.
"It's a great opportunity for us to play against one of the best teams in the world," Houghton said.
"The USA are used to winning, they have that winning mentality and that different edge over other teams.
"They have players that can win games by themselves and we want to be playing against these teams. We could easily play a low-ranked team and win six or seven nil, but realistically we need to be playing against the best."
Source: PA
