England is a team i really hate to punt on. They are simply awful when it comes to the main stage, but in friendly games, they do perform.
Anyway, for today's game, some info i can find regarding the Czech team :
The coach has changed, and the man running the team now is the ex-coach of Teplice (Czech 1st division team), and also the ex-asst coach of the national team. Has not won any major honours, and is not the best man for the job i think, cos u do need some credentials to earn the respect of players.
For this match, the Czech team will be missing some household names - Rosicky, Sionko, Matejovsky (all thru injuries) and Koller and Galasek (retired from national team). I'm not particularly impressed with the Czech team. In attack they have Baros, who has simply been dismal/out of form for too long. He has not scored for ages now, and i doubt his confidence will be at a high for the match tonight. The other striker is Sverkos, who i regard as just an average player.
Its in midfield that the Czechs have probably a little bit of quality, and would have been further boosted if Rosicky was playing. Anyway, the player to look out for would be David Jarolim, but would 1 guy be enough? The rest of the midfield are not fantastic, but still do their job solidly. In defence, Czech will probably start with the same back 4 as they did in Euro.
England...now what can u say abt them? Every major tournament, they're always expected to do well, but always stumble. Seems like they can't really take the pressure well enough.
Anyway, the 1st 11 will probably choose itself. U'll probably see the same familiar faces, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney etc. What will be interesting will be who partners Rooney upfront, and how he tries to accomodate Lampard n Gerrard in MF. These 2 will probably determine the game.
All in all, if u were to force me to choose, i would choose England to clinch the win. Capello certainly has the edge in tactical nous over the new Czech coach, and in terms of squad depth, with the missings in the Czech NT, England has the edge also. Also, i don't fancy the new Czech coach to make an immediate impression on the Czech team, who looked old, unmotivated and listless in Euro. Certainly the "golden generation" of the Czech team is over, and some massive rebuilding is required, but this game comes too early for them. And lastly, England has this irritating habit to perform in friendlies...:p
England to win