London: England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is remarkably calm and confident heading into the World Cup. So much so, he dared utter the phrase: "I think we will win it."
And that's despite being in danger of playing without striker Wayne Rooney, having question marks regarding the readiness of his other forwards and still explaining why he selected a 17-year-old rookie who he's never seen play.
Maybe Eriksson's confidence is intact because he's got only got two months left on the job.
The last England manager to make such a bold prediction was Alf Ramsey, who then led his team to victory in the 1966 tournament - England's only World Cup title.
"I think for a huge football country like England it's a little bit sad to know that it's 40 years ago since we won a big tournament last time, and it's time to do it now," Eriksson said.
"By saying that, of course you need a little bit of luck. You don't need any more injuries, that's for sure, because the players we have are very, very good."
"And they, today, they believe they can win it. They didn't believe that four years ago, not in this way anyhow."
England plays in Group B against Paraguay on June 10, Trinidad and Tobago on June 15 and Sweden on June 20. Rooney, who broke his foot on April 29, will soon have another test to determine if he'll be ready for those games.
"Wayne Rooney not in the World Cup?" Eriksson said. "I don't think he even believes that will be truth. Of course he should be there."
And even if he isn't, Eriksson says the squad is good enough to compensate. He negotiated an extra week's preparation to avoid the fatigue that marked England's performance at the 2002 World Cup, where it lost to 10-man Brazil in the quarterfinals.
A week training in the Portuguese sunshine has helped.
"This team is much stronger than four years ago, and fitter," Eriksson said.
Without Rooney, England's forward line will be led by Michael Owen, the 26-year-old who will be in his fifth major tournament. But Owen lacks match sharpness after playing only 30 minutes of soccer this year after breaking his foot on Dec. 31.
Peter Crouch, the 6-foot-7 Liverpool striker set to partner with him, is untested in international competition.
The backup is 17-year-old Theo Walcott, who has never even played for his English Premier League club Arsenal.
The slight but speedy Walcott - "he's quick I can tell you," Eriksson said - will make his England debut in one of two final warmups, against Hungary on May 30 or Jamaica on June 3.
In doing so, he'll break Rooney's record as the youngest Englishman in an international match.
However, Eriksson can also rely on the scoring of midfielders Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole.
Last year, Lampard's goals helped Chelsea to its first league title in 50 years, and his 16 goals this season made him the second-best English scorer in the Premier League.
Gerrard scored two goals and made a penalty kick to help rally Liverpool to its FA Cup victory.
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Eriksson said when he saw Gerrard on Monday, he joked: "What are you? A midfielder or a center-forward?"
Eriksson gave insight into his preferred starting lineup when he gave his 23-man squad list to FIFA. From Nos. 1-11, the team would be: Paul Robinson, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, David Beckham, Lampard, Rooney, Owen and Cole.
This could be the last World Cup for Beckham, Neville and Sol Campbell, who are all over 30.
England was eliminated in the quarterfinals at the 2004 European Championship, ousted on penalty kicks by Portugal after losing Rooney to injury and letting a 1-0 lead slip with 10 minutes left in regulation.
Whatever happens this time, Eriksson won't be around after the World Cup. Following a stormy spell as England's first foreign-born coach, the Swede is stepping down two years before the end of his contract.
Sensationalist coverage in the British tabloids, which exposed Eriksson's romantic affairs and tricked him into talking to an undercover reporter posing as an Arab sheik, hastened his early departure.
The Football Association took the safe option of appointing Steve McClaren as his replacement after Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, a Brazilian, turned down an offer to replace Eriksson.
Not since 1970 has so much been expected of England. That team was regarded as more talented than the 1966 World Cup-winning side, but lost to West Germany in the quarterfinals. Brazil won the '70 WorldCup.
England next came close in 1990 when it unexpectedly reached the semifinals, losing on penalty kicks to West Germany, which went on to win the title. England failed to qualify in 1974, '78 and '94, and lost in the second round at the 1998 WorldCup in France.
Anything less than reaching the semifinals in Germany would be seen as a major failure.
"There can be no excuses this tournament for us," Neville said. "No bad decisions, no missed penalty, no poor performance."
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