Rio's respect
Monday, 12 December, 2005
Rio checked in with TheFA.com to share his excitement about the World Cup draw.
When Rio Ferdinand called TheFA.com to give us his views on England’s World Cup draw, he started with a shocking revelation - he nearly didn’t watch it! "I wasn’t going to watch it initially because I normally don’t like watching things when I’m nervous," he admitted. "But in the end I sat on the sofa and watched it with my girlfriend. I’m glad I did now because it was exciting, if a bit nerve-wracking!"
So here’s Rio low-down on the teams and players we’ll come up against in Germany next summer…
Rio on Sweden:
"In Henrik Larson, Sweden have a player who is renowned for his goalscoring ability and in Ibrahimovic they have a striker who is doing fantastically well for Juventus in Italy. They have very capable players.
"We have to try not to think about the history between the two teams because obviously it’s been well documented that we have not beaten them for a long period of time.
"We have to make sure that we put that to the back of our minds and that we go out there and produce the goods.
Rio on Paraguay:
"Paraguay are a good side and I know they have Roque Santa Cruz upfront who plays in Germany for Bayern Munich – he’ll be a threat."
Rio on Trinidad and Tobago:
"Obviously I know Shaka and Dwight Yorke and many others playing in England so I’m sure it’ll be a very difficult game.
"I’m really delighted for Yorkie to get there. I watched their play-off game against Bahrain so I’ve seen a little bit of them."
Rio on The Finals:
"As soon as the draw was made I thought to myself, ‘Now we know who we are playing we can keep our eyes on certain players and certain results as we lead up to the tournament itself.’
"The buzz has stepped up a notch."