Eriksson has announced the squad, and there's some surprises.
No Defoe, and no Bent, but he has gone for untried newcomer Theo Walcott.
Walcott has just come to Arsenal from Southampton, but he's yet to play any Premiership games. Also, he's just seventeen. Ah, do you remember what it was like? Were you a dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen ... Personally, I was more like one of those with ravaged faces, lacking in the social graces, but Walcott clearly hails from the ranks of the jeunesse dore, and is immune to such gaucherie.
It's real Roy of the Rovers stuff, isn't it? I can see what's coming. England lose their best eleven players in training, in a bizarre multiple metatarsal pile-up, and Walcott is in. Outclassed for the first two games, he finds his feet, knocks in a hat-trick to beat Brazil and scores the winning penalty against Germany in the final.
He'd better, anyway. No pressure, son, but we're all counting on you.