Ferdinand eyes World Cup glory

(GSM) – England centre back Rio Ferdinand says his team will be aiming to take the title at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

“We are not going to be going into the tournament thinking ‘get to the quarter-finals, semi-finals or final and we’ve done our job,” Rio said.

“We will only do ourselves justice by winning a tournament. We are going there strictly to try and bring this trophy home.

“No-one gets remembered for finishing in the semi-finals or quarter-finals. That is why we are training so hard here.

“We’ve had great preparation at our training base in Austria and hopefully that will serve us well at the tournament.

“But I also I think there is a bit more reality how we are approaching things. We had a good reality check against Mexico.

“I remember going into the last tournament and we beat Jamaica by six goals at Old Trafford and Peter Crouch got a hat-trick.

“Sometimes that kind of thing papers over the cracks. This time we’ve had a game we’ve won (against Mexico) but there is still a lot of stuff to work on,” the United defender said.

Ferdinand continued: “We are not the finished article, we know that, and I think that bodes well for the tournament.

“Also in past tournaments, we’ve talked about how well we are going to do and really getting carried away with ourselves.

“This time you’ve seen in the interviews all the lads have done since this manager has been involved, it’s all a lot more reserved and calculated and being a lot more respectful of our opponents.

“Fingers crossed, that also bodes well for the tournament for us,” the 31-year-old explained.