Hodgson: England 2014 triumph not impossible

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Winning a second World Cup title in Brazil in 2014 should not be impossible for England, manager Roy Hodgson said on Sunday.
"We're far from being favourites but you've got to shy away from 'impossible' in football," Hodgson told the BBC.
Hodgson, appointed on May 1 on a four-year contract, used Chelsea's Champions League win in the same month as an example of how unpredictable football was.
"There are plenty of events in football that you could have said were impossible but people have done it.
"It wasn't likely that Chelsea would become champions of Europe, especially having to change their manager mid-stream but they did it. That was by beating Barcelona and Bayern Munich - two of the best teams in Europe, so I'd like to keep that dream alive."
England reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship this year but lost on penalties to Italy and have failed to get past the last eight of a major tournament since Euro 1996, when they made the semi-finals on home soil.
The 1966 World Cup winners have a battle on their hands to make it to Brazil as they are second in Group H, two points behind Montenegro after four games and with six fixtures remaining in 2013.
Hodgson said that, given the amount of home-grown talent, he felt optimistic about the future and hoped that with so many players of a high standard there would be increased competition for places.
"We have a lot of quality players - you could reel 30-40 players off the top of your head quite easily and add some of these young players who seem to have a very bright future in front of them," he said.
"I think the main problems are whether the main figures are available at the right time when you need them. Do we have enough competition in the really important positions in the teams?"
The influx of foreign players into the Premier League had affected the careers of young English players in recent years but the current Manchester United team showed that home-grown talent was leading the way, Hodgson said.
"I know there are a lot of foreigners in the league but there are plenty of English ones. There were seven English players playing for Manchester United the other day and they're top of the Premier League."

Brazil to play England at Maracana opening

Reuters - Tuesday 15 January 2013, 19:30

Brazil will play England in a friendly on June 2 when the Maracana stadium is reopened after its World Cup refurbishment, the five-times world champions confirmed on Tuesday.
The match, a warm-up for the Confederations Cup Brazil will stage from June 15-30, will follow a friendly between the two teams at Wembley next month as part of the Football Association's 150th anniversary celebrations.
"Nothing better than to face an adversary of England's standing a fortnight before the Confederations Cup," Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said after the Brazilian Football Confederation's announcement on its website.
"It will be a great match, a world classic, of those that everyone wants to be a part of," added 2002 World Cup winning coach Scolari, who is beginning his second spell in charge of the national team.
England have not played a match in Brazil since 1984.
"It's almost 30 years since England last played in Brazil, so it will be a proud moment to take the team back there again," England manager Roy Hodgson said on the FA's website.
The giant Maracana was to have been reopened this February after its 900 million real renovation but delays forced its postponement to May, less than a month before the tournament that acts as a World Cup dress rehearsal.
Venue of the 1950 World Cup final, the Maracana will stage the finals of the Confederations Cup on June 30 and the 2014 World Cup.
Rio's state government had announced late last year that the Maracana reopening match would feature Brazil against England but the CBF would not confirm it at the time.
The CBF confirmed two other friendlies.
Brazil will play Italy in Geneva on March 21 and Russia in London on March 25 at Stamford Bridge, home of Scolari's former Premier League club Chelsea