Fringe players poised for World Cup audition as England touch down in Miami

 
Smooth transition: Roy Hodgson said the nine-hour flight was 'very good'
Paul Hirst2 June 2014

England touched down in the sweltering heat of Miami on Monday morning to begin the next phase of their World Cup preparations.

England arrived at Fort Lauderdale airport, 30 miles north of Miami, just before 8pm local time on Sunday (1am Monday morning BST) before taking a 30-minute coach drive into the city.

They then checked in to the Mandarin Oriental hotel in the Brickell Key area of the Florida city, ahead of their friendly against Ecuador on Wednesday.

England manager Roy Hodgson, who will experiment with fringe players at the Sun Life Stadium, said the nine-hour journey over the Atlantic Ocean was "very good" when asked by the assembled media at the hotel.

Around a dozen reporters and cameramen had gathered to greet the 23-strong squad as they stepped off their coach.

The first man into the hotel was goalkeeping coach Dave Watson. He was followed soon after by the likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Leighton Baines, who was carrying his guitar on his back.

The squad had a brief walk around their hotel before retiring for the night following a long day travelling.

Roy's boys for Brazil - England World Cup Squad 2014

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The 23-man party, along with standby players John Stones and Jon Flanagan, will begin their preparations for Wednesday's friendly against Ecuador with a training session at Barry University on Monday.

Temperatures will exceed 30 degrees centigrade and humidity levels will be high in Miami, where England will face Honduras three days after the Ecuador game.

The Three Lions will then fly to Brazil, where they begin their World Cup campaign on June 14 against Italy in Manaus.

Hodgson says he will field an experimental line-up against Ecuador in the first friendly at the home of NFL side the Miami Dolphins.

"Our plan really on Wednesday is basically to start the people who didn't start on Friday (against Peru)," said Hodgson, meaning the likes of Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw and Rickie Lambert are likely to face Ecuador.

Meanwhile, Hodgson has promised that his players will sing the national anthem loud and proud this summer.

"You very rarely play an international match against opponents and they haven't got their hands on their hearts and singing their anthem as loud as they can, and we've made a decision that that's what we're going to do too, because we are proud, we are happy to be wearing that England shirt," the England manager said.

"We have been doing it for two years. We are proud to be England players and, in my case, England manager, so when the national anthem comes up it's an obvious one for me that we sing it."

Given that Hodgson's 23-man World Cup squad contains 12 players who were not part of Euro 2012, the England boss will issue a reminder to his party for Brazil that they must sing the song this summer.

"Perhaps we need to remind them as the squad has changed so much," the 66-year-old said. "I hope they will.

I think we're great until the second verse comes along because we don't really know that," he added with a smile.

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