Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has hailed the team split within the team by saying that it has never been better under various managers in the past.

They have recently appointed manager Roy Hodgson has the replacement for Fabio Capello. Despite having only one month with the national team, the former West Brom manager has been doing extremely well in his role.

He has overseen two wins over Sweden and Ukraine, while the other group match against France has finished as a draw. England will be going into the quarter-final match against Italy as the group winners.

England will be extremely high on confidence knowing that they can reach the semifinals of the competition with yet another impressive performance.

England striker Wayne Rooney scored his first international goal at a major tournament since Euro 2004. He has said that he is extremely delighted to score the goal against Ukraine that helped England top the group.

This also had a significant impact on the semi-final draw because England avoided the prospect of facing current world champions Spain in the quarter-final stage. Wayne Rooney has said that one of the reasons for the team performing exceptionally well at the Euro 2012 is the new-found team spirit.

“We’re more organised than ever. The lads have been fighting for each other. We want to do this together, so I think we’ve got a great chance. We feel good, we’ve prepared well and we’re really looking forward to it. It was going to be a difficult group so to finish top gives us a lot of confidence. It’s important that we believe in ourselves. We’ve got a great group of players and we’re confident,” said Wayne Rooney, who is once again expected to play a key role in the match against Italy.

After holding France to a draw in the opening encounter of their Euro 2012 campaign, Wayne Rooney has joined the England team in training, as they get ready for the all important clash against Sweden on Friday. Some of the senior stars of the team such as Scott Parker, Joe Hart, Ashley Cole, John Terry and the captain Steven Gerrard were given a day’s rest.

Rooney was suspended for the Monday’s match, and had to watch the game from the bench in Donetsk. He has to wait for another match too as he serves out his suspension. Theo Walcott, the Arsenal forward, joined Wayne Rooney in training in spite of the fact that he came on late as a substitute in the France game.

Henderson replaced parker in the midfield in Monday’s game during the second half and will be hoping for starting role in Fridays match up. However, the news has it, that Hodgson is likely to stay with the same 11.

France were touted as the Group D favourites and the draw against them was a good start for England. Hodgson thinks that his team will only get better as the tournament progresses. He said that you do not really become a good team within ten training sessions and three matches; the French team has gone for 22 matches without a defeat and that sort of achievement cannot be accomplished overnight.

He also said that his team members are playing together, getting familiar with each other’s styles and the longer the players stick together the better will be the team as a unit. He was happy to get the France game out of the way and was happy to see that his players were capable of coping with the pressure at these levels.

Although Rooney will still be missing in the Friday’s game, Hodgson is looking forward to it. He says that it gives them a good platform as his team member become fitter with every match and he hopes that there are no injury worries.

New York Red Bulls striker Thierry Henry is all set to miss the next 3 to 4 weeks after suffering a hamstring injury while playing for the club in the 1-0 win over New England Revolution.

Thierry Henry is one of the best players at the club, and it is something that the club will struggle to replace over the upcoming games. Thierry Henry has played for some of the best clubs in the world including Arsenal and Barcelona.

The Frenchman has been playing for New York Red Bulls just over a year now. Unlike David Beckham, New York Red Bulls have really benefited from Thierry Henry’s presence in the team.

New York Red Bulls striker Thierry Henry currently leads the table for the top goal scorer this season with nine goals to his credit. Even though the club have not been able to take advantage of the goals from the former Barcelona striker, they are at least doing well in the third position.

Sporting KC continue to lead the table at the top with 21 points on board in the Eastern Conference, while New York Red Bulls have only 13 points on the board. However, with a string of performances, the club remain confident that they can get into second position ahead of DC United.

“His injury is disastrous for us. His leadership in every single training session is invaluable. It’s a huge loss for us, both on and off the pitch. It’s going to be difficult now without him,” Red Bulls coach Hans Backe told reporters after the news of the hamstring injury. “I have never been involved, in 30 years, with a team picking up five, six, seven injuries from starters, so it’s very tricky. We will have probably three or four more games – very rough ones – until some players are coming back,” said assistant Backe.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has given a major boost for manager Sir Alex Ferguson after declaring that he is fit for the match against Tottenham Hotspur during the weekend.

Manchester United will be taking on Tottenham, who are currently the third position in the table.

Despite the embarrassing 5-2 defeat at the hands of arch rivals Arsenal last weekend, Tottenham will certainly be up for this match due to the fact that they have a race for the Champions League spots.

Tottenham will be competing against the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal, and they need to get the points against Manchester United in order to stand any chance of maintaining their seven-point advantage over the two clubs.

Wayne Rooney was absent for the last two matches for Manchester United due to a throat infection, but Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed that the England striker will be part of the squad that travels to White Hart Lane during this weekend.

Manchester United maintained their two-point gap with Manchester City, who will be facing Bolton at home this weekend. Hence, there is every chance that Manchester United may drop behind Manchester City in the title race if they fail to win against Tottenham, but the return of Wayne Rooney provides a massive boost for United.

“Wayne is fit, Chris is our only doubt. There was no concussion but he got quite a nasty cut and it is something we need to tread carefully with. Playing Tottenham is always a tremendous highlight of the season. It is a very important game for us because if you look at the rest of the season,” said the Scot. Manchester United will also be without the likes of Tom Cleverley and Antonio Valencia after Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed that they are yet to return to full fitness.

New Aston Villa loan signing Robbie Keane has been urged by manager Alex McLeish to have the same effect on the side that Thierry Henry has had at Arsenal.

The 34 year old Ireland international joined the Claret and Blues on a short term loan deal from Major League Soccer club the Los Angeles Galaxy.

He will be making his long awaited first appearance for the side from Midlands this weekend against Everton and McLeish wants nothing but goals from the Irish goal machine.

The former Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool player left the English Premier League for a last big pay day in the United States and he has been in decent form, helping the Galaxy to win the MLS Cup.

Thierry Henry, who has returned to former club Arsenal on a short term loan deal from another MLS side the New York Red Bulls turned back the years as he came off the bench in the FA Cup 3rd round match against Leeds United to score the winner and Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish expects Robbie Keane to have the same kind of impact on the side, starting with the weekend fixture against The Toffees at Villa Park.

Robbie Keane has been one of the most prolific goal scorers in the history of the English Premier League during his spells at Leeds United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur and the man who has scored tons of goals for his national team as well is being looked at as someone who can bail out the misfiring side and also help England international striker Darren Bent find his touch in front of goal once again.

Aston Villa are currently languishing in the bottom half of the English Premier League table and have not been consistent at all and all that needs to be seen is whether the signing of Robbie Keane can lift them up the table.