England v Sweden Sunday, Saitama, 10.30 a.m.GROUP F: Tomorrow, in Saitama, England will seek to counterbalance a lack of World Cup nous with youthful worldly wisdom. The team that is likely to face Sweden will hardly be innocents abroad but at this level, and in this context, an initial degree of callowness is surely inevitable.

The Swedes will provide a stolid, slightly stodgy yet technically sound opposition for the novel experience Sven-Goran Eriksson is about to share with the majority of his players. In European club football Eriksson is a coach of considerable standing but in a World Cup proper he will be as much of a novice as Darius Vassell.

At least the return of David Beckham to what England trust will be full and lasting fitness has given Eriksson the chance to adhere to the format which enabled him to rescue the national side from the threat of elimination in the qualifiers following the abrupt resignation of Kevin Keegan.

Beckham's provision of a regular supply of quality centres, usually from the right but occasionally from the left, his virtually unchallenged status confirmed by that inspired free-kick against Greece as the world's leading expert at set-pieces and his capacity for hard work will go some way towards offsetting the effects of losing Steven Gerrard from central midfield.

Gerrard's ability to exploit the pace of England's attack, and in particular Michael Owen, with quick and measured passes from deep positions cannot fully be replaced. Yet Eriksson is justified in his belief that a satisfactory alternative will be achieved by playing Owen Hargreaves and Paul Scholes in central midfield.

Hargreaves looks like being preferred to Nicky Butt, who has stood in for Gerrard before now, partly because Gerrard cannot afford to open the tournament with two players, Butt and Beckham, newly recovered from injuries but also because the form and prowess of the 21-year-old from Bayern Munich demands his inclusion.

To stand the best chance of starting this World Cup with a win England need to wrest control of the midfield from Magnus Svensson and Tobias Linderoth. Whatever happens between the penalty areas, as Eriksson pointed out yesterday, often decides the outcome of a match and he stressed the need for England to stay compact in midfield.

Individually Hargreaves and Scholes can make this happen. As a pair, in the warm-ups against South Korea and Cameroon, they shaped up reasonably well without recreating the command achieved by Scholes and Gerrard against Germany in Munich.

On occasions England still give the ball away too easily and too frequently to justify the more fanciful optimism about how far they are likely to go this time. But, if these two players can bind defence to attack, and attack to defence, then at least the midfield collapses suffered by Keegan's team in the European Championship two years ago should be avoided.

With Sweden's coaches, Lars Lagerback and Tommy Soderberg, regarding this as a game they cannot afford to lose, Saitama is likely to witness another encounter which will ask England's attack to combine its natural speed with a subtlety of approach it may be harder to find.

Lacking Gerrard's torpedoes Eriksson will look to Scholes's knack of making late runs into scoring positions to surprise one of the least surprisable defences in this World Cup.

Vassell is expected to partner Owen up front and on his initial international scoring form he could prey usefully on any bits and pieces left by the close attention Johan Mjallby and Patrik Andersson will be paying to the more experienced striker. Emile Heskey will be on the left but will also be expected to add his weight to England's chances of upsetting Sweden's defence.

If the match does not produce the seventh draw in the 10th encounter between these countries since England last beat Sweden 34 years ago, then one goal is likely to decide it either way. In three of the qualifiers under Eriksson - home to Finland and Greece, away to Germany - England's opponents' scored first. Should they do so tomorrow redemption might be difficult.

Relatively little has been said in the build-up about the lingering uncertainty of Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell as a centre-back pair, any fresh evidence of which would tempt prompt exploitation by Henrik Larsson. England's movement of the ball from defence, moreover, is often indifferent unless the full-backs, who tomorrow will almost certainly be Danny Mills and Ashley Cole, are providing regular outlets.

Given that Beckham has a newly mended metatarsal, most of the responsibility for stopping Freddie Ljungberg on Sweden's left will lie with Mills.

At least in Saitama England will have one Swede on their side. This plus a little bit of Owen, Beckham, Vassell or Scholes and a modicum of good luck to go with it could get them off to a winning start. But a draw remains the sounder bet.

 - Guardian Service