England Insider: The Three Lions arrive in Sao Paulo

Wednesday 18 Jun 2014
Steven Gerrard leads the way into the team hotel in Sao Paulo

We've arrived in Sao Paulo, a gigantic, manic and lively city and the focus is well and truly our second game of the World Cup. 

Attentions, in fact, turned very quickly to the meeting with Uruguay following the disappointing defeat to Italy on Saturday. 

With only a few days between games, it's important not to dwell on things that won't change, like that result, and concentrate on what can be affected - getting a win in Sao Paulo. 

Hodgson arrives in Sao Paulo

Roy Hodgson arrives in Sao Paulo

This is a very confident bunch and heads never dropped as the players understand the bigger picture. The aim is to get out of the group and their fate is firmly in their own hands. They know what is needed and will learn from the good bits and the not so good bits from the game in Manaus. 

Team spirit is great and everyone mixes with each other. When you see the groups the players hang around in, there's no correlation between clubs necessarily. There's a real sense that any allegiances have been virtually been forgotten after more than a month together. Their team is England. 

The games room at the hotel in Rio on Tuesday night was an illustration of that camaraderie - a friendly game of snooker took place between Wayne Rooney and Glen Johnson, Luke Shaw and Jack Wilshere went head to head in a competitive game of FIFA 14 on the PlayStation and another group laughed and joked together. 

It's a good place for them to unwind after a hard morning at training, and while the players were working at Urca there was a special visitor looking on. 

The session was closed as Roy focused on key messaging ahead of the Uruguay game but, as I stood there watching, a familiar face breezed past. 

It looked like my mate from back home, but it wasn't him. It was none other than Fabio Cannavaro, the legendary Italy defender who, eight years ago, lifted the prize everyone wants this summer as captain of the Azzurri. 

Jamie meets Fabio Cannavaro

Jamie meets Cannavaro at Urca

I really had to speak to him and he also agreed to do a quick interview with me for FATV. The 40-year-old - who admittedly still looks like he did when he was at Parma back in the late 1990s - is in Brazil covering the World Cup for English TV, but in 'real-life' he lives in Dubai and has been coaching at Al Ahli, where he ended his playing career three years ago. 

Having met Roy in Lisbon last month, he'd asked if he could pop along to training to observe as he looks to build up his knowledge to help his own coaching education. I know where he's coming from as, being a coach myself, I find England training sessions fascinating to watch and have learned so much about the game at the top level. 

But it is refreshing also to see that a man like Cannavaro - World Cup and two-time La Liga winner - is still keen to add to his vast experiences of the game. We never stop learning. 

We chatted for a while as we watched training, and I tried to remember which of the England players he would have faced. I told him that I saw him play at Anfield against Steven Gerrard on Liverpool's road to Champions League success in 2005. Gerrard's men won 2-1 but, as he reminded me, Cannavaro himself netted in the second half to make it a nervous last 25 minutes. 

It would be great to see him back in England one day - a genuinely nice man. 

Raheem Sterling juggling

Raheem shows his skills on the beach

Following the session, Raheem Sterling and Frank Lampard were taking care of press duties to look ahead to Thursday's game in Sao Paulo. They also posed for some photos and we took Raheem down to the beach next to the training pitch. 

 It's a secluded spot - the military have picked a lovely area for their base - and you couldn't get much more of a Brazilian scene: Raheem juggling the ball, on the sand, in the sun, with Sugarloaf Mountain dominating the backdrop. 

Leaving Rio behind again, we made the short flight to Sao Paulo on Wednesday morning as the crunch encounter with Uruguay and Raheem's Liverpool team-mates Luis Suarez and Sebastian Coates moves nearer. 

There will be a lot of other Reds on show at Arena Corinthians - but let's hope it's the ones wearing white who come out on top.

Jamie will return will more from inside the England camp, but you can also follow him on Twitter @jamiebradbury

Watch England's trip from Rio to Sao Paulo

 


By Jamie Bradbury FA Editor in Sao Paulo