England's Friendlies Announced....I Weep With Laughter

OK, so England are due to play the following teams in the lead up to the 2006 World Cup : Uruguay and Jamaica.

According to Sven,

"Jamaica will have a similar style to Trinidad and Tobago....They have a lot of players playing in this country, like Ricardo Gardner at Bolton and Jason Euell at Charlton."

"Uruguay are a very well-organised team, are very difficult to play against and came very close to qualifying for Germany. ..They will be tough and a similar challenge to our group opponents Paraguay."

Um...just because 'Uruguay' and 'Paraguay' end with '...guay' doesn't actually mean they play the same style of football. Similarly, because Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago are both Caribbean islands it doesn't follow that they play in the same way.

By Sven's logic, a team in the same group as France should consider playing Germany in a friendly as the countries are next door to each other. Or maybe a team in the same group as England should be play Holland in a friendly as both England and Holland end with '...land'.

A cynic would suggest that Jamaica and Uruguay have been chosen because England know they will beat them and that will make everyone feel lovely and wonderful about themselves before the real football starts in Germany later this year. I am a cynic.