Wayne Rooney regrets Vegas visit and urges team to avoid same pitfalls
The England captain, who equalled Bobby Charlton's scoring record for the national side with the opener in the 6-0 win over San Marino, claimed his "ultimate goal" remains to lead his country to success at a major finals. Saturday's win confirmed Roy Hodgson's side as the first team to qualify from their group, with Rooney now seeking to score his 50th England goal in Tuesday's qualifier against Switzerland at Wembley. Kazinform refers to the Guardian. Euro 2016 will be the first time the Manchester United forward has led his country into a tournament, with the 29-year-old anxious to avoid a repeat of his toils at the last European Championship. Rooney had ended the 2011-12 season with a toe injury and was suspended for the first two games of the finals in Ukraine so, having been granted extra time off in the buildup, he travelled to Las Vegas with his family once the domestic campaign had concluded. "Looking back, I regret that," he said. "I'll certainly get my part right this time and, as a team, we are all building to being successful. It's something I've learned. At the time I thought it was no problem but now I know I obviously shouldn't have done it. It's flights and jet-lag. I was there with my family but flying so far, it takes a while to get over the jet-lag. We've already discussed that and the senior lads in the squad will sit down with the manager and the staff organising the tournament to work out what we can do better this time. But maybe not having a long break between the season finishing is probably the best thing." The Premier League season will finish on Sunday 15 May - almost four weeks before the French kick off Euro 2016 in Paris - with the FA Cup final the following weekend. England already have imposing friendlies pencilled in against France, Spain, Germany and Holland before next summer but, along with a training camp, will most likely seek to play two more non-competitive games immediately before the tournament itself. With that in mind, Hodgson intends to experiment with his lineup in next month's last two qualifiers, against Estonia and Lithuania, as he attempts to develop greater depth in his options. "The preparation starts now," said Rooney. "It's good we have some tough friendlies coming up. It will be a chance for us to show ourselves against good nations and good teams. I believe we have a very good squad but we have to go and prove that. "Playing better teams, especially for some of the lads who haven't been to tournaments before, and against better players, will give us that confidence for what's coming up. We know we can't go out of a tournament like we did last year [in Brazil]. If we are going to be successful, we need to find a way to make it work. It's something we're working on." Hodgson will recall many of his senior players against the Swiss, when Group E can be won, having spent last week at St George's Park focusing more on that fixture than the anticipated walkover against San Marino. Rooney's early penalty and Cristian Brolli's own-goal had comfortably established the lead by the interval, despite England's approach play lacking zest at times, with Ross Barkley, Harry Kane and two goals from Theo Walcott completing a 6-0 rout. Jonjo Shelvey was assured and impressive in deep-lying midfield though Michael Carrick will return against the Swiss. There will be recalls, too, for Raheem Sterling, Gary Cahill and Chris Smalling. Rooney, who admitted he had been nervous when preparing to take the early spot-kick largely because of the poor state of the pitch at the Olympic stadium, hopes to claim the goalscoring record against the Swiss. "Saturday was my 106th cap and 49th goal but, as much as I love playing for England and scoring goals, there would be nothing better than being successful with England," he added. "That's all any player wants to do. I'm sure the other lads are no different. "Winning something with your country is the ultimate goal and, if I don't, I'll be disappointed. Hopefully the young players in the future can but it's the ultimate goal for me and that's what I want to do - be successful with England. I hope France is not my last tournament. I still feel fine and I think I can go on to Russia [for the 2018 World Cup] and then see how I feel. But that's not something I'm thinking about now. Everything has been geared towards Switzerland for a while. We knew we were going to beat San Marino, so we'll be ready for Tuesday's match."
