England host Mexico in a final friendly match on home soil before they take up the challenge of winning the World Cup for the first time since 1966.
Following this game, the England team will retun to Austria, where they have been preparing for the tournament at altitude to take on World Cup rivals Japan at the UPC Arena before making the journey to South Africa to start their World Cup campaign.
Team News Fabio Capello has already stated that he will not use any of the Portsmouth or Chelsea players that were used in the FA Cup final as they only linked up with the squad in Austria on Wednesday.
This means that David James, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Joe Cole and Frank Lampard will not be involved in the match on Monday at Wmrbley which the FA has already announced; is a sell out as fans flock to see Capello’s loyal soldiers off before the World Cup begins for England against the USA in Rustenburg on the 12th June.
Capello still has many unanswered questions with the start of England’s World Cup campaign just under three weeks away. One of which is who is his choice as England’s number one man between the sticks, David James is rested so it is left for West Ham’s Robert Green and Manchester City’s young Joe Hart to stake their claim, Capello will most probably give 45 minutes to each man as Capello will not be keen on showing any favouratism and give any indication towards who is his preferred choice.
Another issue is the fitness of holding midfielder Gareth Barry, the Manchester City star is currently recovering from an Ankle injury bit is said to be progressing well after intense fitness work and oxygen tent treatment. In Barry’s absence, Scott Parker, Tom Huddlestone and James Milner will battle to start in the midfield.
Also Capello has the choice to play with a lone striker or a strike pairing. Rooney is a cert to start so the decision is whether to play him as a lone striker, a role he has relished for his club this season or to pair him with Crouch, Heskey, Defoe or Bent. If Rooney does play alone it will probably be a 4-2-3-1 with Gerrard or Lampard plating in the hole behind Rooney.
So what about Mexico? The interest from English fans from the Mexicans is how two strikers based in England, Carlos Vela of Arsenal and Javier Hernandez who will complete a move to Manchester United in the Summer for ten million pounds.
Prediction I can see both managers wanting to rotate their players to have a look at as many of their squads as possible. However Englans have an all round stronger squad in strength and depth than Mexicos so I predict an England win 3-0 with Rooney, Crouch and Gerrard scoring one each.