Group B: Sven-Goran Eriksson has confirmed Wayne Rooney will start England's match against Sweden tomorrow but the coach is considering a more radical alteration that would see an angry Steven Gerrard sit out the final group game.
Rooney was asked to partner Michael Owen in attack yesterday during England's final training session in the Black Forest before heading to Cologne, while Owen Hargreaves took the place of Gerrard in midfield. Eriksson also considered playing Tottenham's Jermaine Jenas in place of Frank Lampard, but in the end stuck to his assertion of Saturday that he would change no more than two of his starting line-up for a game England do not need to win.
The Swede has primed Hargreaves to play in a one-off 4-1-3-2 formation. The Bayern Munich player was handed a first-team bib in training and looks set to play in a holding midfield role that will give Lampard the licence to break forward and support the Owen-Rooney axis in attack.
Gerrard, among the reserves yesterday and reportedly none too happy about it, is expected to be left out to protect him from a second yellow card that would rule him out of the first knockout phase, when England will play Germany or Ecuador.
Peter Crouch, whose place will be taken by Rooney, is in the same situation, although the biggest factor in Eriksson's decision to replace him is that he wants Rooney to hone his sharpness before the next round of matches.
"With our medical staff we've discussed it and they and I think he (Rooney) can play more than 45 minutes," said Eriksson. And, if he can play more than 45, it is better that he starts the game rather than coming on."
Though Rooney looked conspicuously off the pace when he came on as a second-half substitute during the win over Trinidad & Tobago, centre-half John Terry has been impressed by his performances in training: "I think he'd tell you he'd got 160 minutes in him. He does look very good. Marking him is a nightmare so obviously it's looking good. He's looking very sharp and very ready to go."
Jamie Carragher is likely to continue deputising for Gary Neville, although the Manchester United full-back has resumed light training and seems to be making encouraging progress from the calf injury that ruled him out of Thursday's victory over Trinidad and Tobago.
Meanwhile, the ex-president of the Botswana FA who admitted selling World Cup tickets on the black market is likely to become the first man forced to resign from Fifa's Executive Committee in its 102-year history.
Ismail Bhamjee, 62, who admitted selling 12 tickets at three times their face value, €300 each, for last week's match between England and Trinidad & Tobago in Nuremberg, has been ordered to leave Germany as soon as possible by Fifa president Sepp Blatter.
According to Fifa sources, Blatter is so furious with the harm Bhamjee has done to the image of world soccer's governing body that he will force him to resign from the executive committee before his term of office expires in January. Bhamjee is facing formal investigations by Fifa's Ethics Committee, Disciplinary Committee and Executive Committee. He was suspended from all his World Cup duties on Saturday when Blatter told him to leave Germany.
Markus Siegler, Fifa's Director of Communications told yesterday's media briefing: "I don't know whether or not he is still in the country, but I imagine he will leave today or tomorrow. Formal proceedings will get going as soon as possible. It is deeply embarrassing when a high ranking official is involved in something like this. It puts Fifa in a very bad light. On the other hand, Fifa proved that we take these things very seriously and acted very quickly."
