England began their first steps towards preparing for the World Cup 2014 after flying out to Portugal in order to take part in a training session. The first match of the tournament will be against Italy, which represents a significantly tough opening match. Hence, England need to be at the peak condition from the word go. Manager Roy Hodgson has decided to name a youthful looking squad for the tournament. A number of experienced campaigners like Ashley Cole and Michael Carrick have been left out of the squad.
It is also heavily expected that experienced players in the provisional squad like him Defoe will also be left out at the final moment. Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard are some of the few names in the sport to have been part of previous World Cup campaigns. Despite this, Hodgson has been confident about England’s chances of the World Cup 2014. He says that a lot will rest upon their preparation. When asked about the potential candidates to miss out on the final squad, Hodgson said that he still has not decided his team yet.
He says that there is still a long way to go for the World Cup and that the friendly matches against Peru and Ecuador will provide him with answers.
“I have many ideas but no firm ideas. Not yet. I don’t need to do that yet. We are a long way off. I don’t know how the players are going to be performing in three or four weeks. I don’t know how their fitness will be either. We are doing a lot of video work in Portugal. We will be showing the players in units aspects of the Italian game and how that affects us and what we are going to be wanting to do,” said Hodgson.