Sven-Goran Eriksson maintains no stone will be left unturned in a bid to
secure World Cup glory for England in the summer.
The Football Association yesterday confirmed friendlies against Uruguay and
Jamaica as part of the final preparations before the squad heads out to
Germany.
This season's Premiership finishes early this year to enable the international
players extra time off and Eriksson revealed: "We will make sure that our
preparation is absolutely top quality.
"Besides these games, we will be scouting and studying the teams in our World
Cup group and potential opponents in the knock-out rounds.
"Of course we also have the extra week's build-up, which will be crucial for
the recovery of the players after a long season."
Eriksson added on the FA's official website: "I am very excited about this World Cup.
"With the blend of quality, youth and experience we have in our squad, we are
confident of beating any opponents."
Eriksson's men will meet the South Americans at Anfield on March 1 and then
take on the Reggae Boyz at the new Wembley Stadium as their last warm-up game on
Saturday June 3, with both matches screened live on the BBC.
A friendly against Hungary at Wembley on May 30 had already been confirmed as
part of the final preparations ahead of Germany 2006.
England kick-off their bid to win the World Cup against Paraguay in Frankfurt
on June 10, before then meeting Trinidad and Tobago in Nuremburg five days
later. Their final Group B game will be against Eriksson's homeland of Sweden on
June 20 in Cologne.
The England head coach said: "I'm delighted that we have been able to
finalise these fixtures quickly and am very pleased with our opponents.
"These games will allow us to test ourselves against teams with very
different styles of play, which is critical ahead of a World Cup."
Uruguay missed out on the World Cup finals when they were beaten in their
two-legged play-off against Australia in a penalty shoot-out in Sydney having
finished fifth in the South American qualifying group.
During those series of matches, they beat Argentina at home and also drew with
current world champions Brazil twice.
Eriksson said of the two-time World Cup winners: "Uruguay are a very
well-organised team who are very difficult to play against and came very close
to qualifying for Germany.
"They will present a tough test and a similar challenge to our group
opponents Paraguay."
Jamaica added plenty of colour and a carnival atmosphere to the 1998 World
Cup, but failed to make it to Germany this time around, beaten by the United
States in the second stage of the CONCACAF qualifying rounds.
Eriksson observed: "Jamaica will be similar in style to Trinidad and Tobago,
and have a lot of players playing in this country, like Ricardo Gardner at
Bolton and Jason Euell at Charlton.
"I know that this game will be a fantastic occasion, as I'm sure they will be
very well supported. It promises to be a special match."
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