England will not find T & T easy

Nuremberg: Trinidad & Tobago will not be overawed when they face Group B favourites England on Thursday, their Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker said on Wednesday.

The Soca Warriors, with a squad of lesser lights from the lower leagues of English and Scottish football, held Sweden to a 0-0 draw with 10 men in their World Cup debut on Saturday.

"I can assure you that when my players get the ball, they will not be thinking of the great (Frank) Lampard, the great (Steven) Gerrard or the great (David) Beckham, they are trying to get in front and do something nice with the ball," he told a news conference on Wednesday.

"We'll try and win the game, you cannot prepare a team to draw or lose a match."

"I've said it 100 times, no one has to explain to me that on paper there's a lot of difference in the talent England can bring on the pitch to what Trinidad can."

"We will approach it the same as Sweden, we know we have to compensate something... a difference in talent you can compensate in football by playing with a lot of passion and courage. That is what we will do tomorrow."

Describing England's 1-0 win over Paraguay in Frankfurt as "unimpressive", Beenhakker said: "There is no guarantee for the big teams to win easily."

"England struggled the whole 90 minutes against Paraguay, Sweden struggled the whole 90 minutes against Trinidad, once again showing it is not as easy as everyone thinks it is."

Beenhakker, although momentarily riled by an opening question about England striker Wayne Rooney, cut a relaxed figure as he kept reporters amused with constant wisecracks.

"What does this have to do with me?" was Beenhakker's opening retort at being told Rooney was now match fit after recovering from a foot injury.

He then softened his stance to add: "I am very happy the guy is back, the World Cup deserves to see the best players, hopefully he can make it."

England fans, he said, should "keep on dreaming" if they expected a cricket score victory.

In response to being told that England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson was fretting about the hot weather, Beenhakker quipped: "We are looking forward to it being even warmer tomorrow. It will help us."