LAMPARD wears weight of expectation lightly

If you were one of England's team of physios, you might try to talk Frank Lampard out of wearing the gigantic gold-encrusted watch that glittered from his left wrist when he turned up to meet the press in the garden cafe of a Baden-Baden hotel yesterday. Not only did it look heavy enough to pull his vertebrae out of alignment, its high bling quotient seemed an affront to a man who, having grown out of his phase of youthful indiscretions, otherwise radiates maturity and good sense.

Unfailingly polite and considerate, he was nevertheless quick to correct one journalist who prefaced a question about a 40-year record of disappointment in major tournaments with the casual suggestion that "England are the greatest nation in the world".

"I don't think anyone's got a divine right to win any tournament," Lampard replied. "And I don't know about England being the greatest nation in the world. I understand what you're saying, and with the top clubs and the top players we've got you'd hope to win more. But we can only look at ourselves. I've watched us lose World Cups in the past, and we've fallen short."

Omitted from Eriksson's squad four years ago, he went on holiday to the United States. The plan was to get away from the World Cup, but he found himself drawn to it. Watching the match against Argentina on television, however, he fell asleep and had to ring home for the result. Two years later he was acclaimed as the most effective performer in the Euro 2004 party, but not even the memory of three goals in four games could assuage the pain of elimination at the quarter-final stage.

"It was horrible on the pitch, it was horrible that evening with the families, and it was horrible the next morning, packing your bags to go home," he recollected yesterday. "I love all this - not just the games but the build-up and everything around it. It's where everyone wants to be. So when you're getting sent home, there's no worse feeling. And that's the kind of feeling that can drive you on to success."

Reluctant to go overboard in his predictions, he was none the less keen to promote a positive outlook. "I know that every time we sit down to talk about it we say the squad's stronger than it's ever been and that kind of thing, but I do feel an extra maturity about the team. Some of the players have an extra tournament behind them and they're now physically at their peak, and there's the mixture of the young players who've come in and are offering us that freshness and pace and an attitude that isn't fearful of anything because they've never been here before.

"We've got so many players who've played under high pressure and been successful, whether they're Liverpool players or Chelsea players or Manchester United or Arsenal players. People might say if we get to the semi-final that's a good achievement, but we've got top players and top personalities throughout the squad and we're putting pressure on ourselves to win it. We shouldn't come with any other attitude than that. And when you see players like John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Gary Neville, you're not talking about players who're in it for themselves. You're talking about players who're in it to back up their team-mates and go on and win the tournament."

Lampard will celebrate his 28th birthday on June 20, the night England play Sweden in Cologne in their final group match. His form for Chelsea this season has been subject to fluctuations, and a dip towards the end of the league campaign was mirrored in relatively quiet performances against Hungary and Jamaica, although he scored the opening goal, his 11th in 32 appearances, against the Caribbean team, having missed a penalty against the east Europeans.

"I think my own form is very good," he said yesterday. "The season before I was very consistent and I finished it on a big high that lasted a long time. I think once you've set yourself those levels, the moment they aren't as high everyone wants to jump in. But I'm big enough now not to get too upset."

A two-week holiday after another long season seems to have paid the expected dividends in terms of physical and mental recuperation. "I certainly enjoyed the break," he said. "It was good foresight by the manager to fight to get it for us. Now I feel very fresh and hungry to start the games. And I have no fear. I go into it feeling very confident and I want to be a massive player for England in this World Cup."

Source: Richard Williams - The Guardian