England captain Stephen Gerrard described the pitch at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium as having a few problem areas but not the worse he's played on ahead of the team's key World Cup match with Slovenia.

Heavy rain early last week damaged the pitch and forced the usual day-before training sessions to be held away from the main stadium.

England and Slovenia did a walkthrough of the stadium on Tuesday night.

"The pitch has a few problems, but I've certainly played on worse," Gerrard said. "It's the same for both teams. We cannot use that as an excuse."

England coach Fabio Capello thought the pitch was "good" and also said it couldn't be used as a reason for the quality of the match or its result.

England, which has two draws in two matches, needs a win or it will fail to advance to the second round at a World Cup for the first time in 52 years.

The country didn't qualify for the World Cup in 1974, 1978 and 1994, but when it has made it to the finals, the team usually performs relatively well: losing in the semifinals in 1990, the quarterfinals in 1962, 1986, 2002 and 2006 and the second round in 1982 and 1998.

"We've played below our expectations," Gerrard said. "We as players take responsibility for underperforming at the last game (a scoreless draw with Algeria).

"I have already seen signs the last couple of days," he said of England's training sessions. "We let the country down and we want to get that right. We can't wait for this game to start."

For the past two days, there have been rumours of a rift between the players and Capello after defender John Terry's remarks about a summit between the squad and coach.

But Capello said Tuesday that his relationship with the team was good and that the "players are happy."

On Tuesday, West Ham defender Matthew Upson called on England "to get the best out of themselves" against Slovenia. Upson said he has been told by Capello that he will start the match.

"We had some spare time in Cape Town and everyone went off and reflected on what happened," Upson said. "We have had to put that behind us and move on to the next game."

Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek also spoke about his starting team.

"Usually I never speak about my first 11 but this time I can say that Mavric (Matej Mavric-Rozic) will definitely play if (Marko) Suler doesn't make it," said Kek. "Perhaps I will give this information because Fabio Capello has told everyone that Matthew Upson will start."

Kek didn't want to talk about problems England might be experiencing, but added that it would mean a lot if his team could knock England out of the tournament.

"It would also be terrific if Slovenia came to the second round," he said. "We are self-confident, we are courageous and we will be able to face up to England."

Kek said the expected pro-England bias in the crowd would not affect his side.

"Our challenge is to go to the knockout phase and it is additional motivation to play against a team that is so big," Kek said. "Most fans at the stadium will be in favour of England but we have also shown that we play very good in the face of so much opposition."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP