Sven's latter-day Saint as Crouch gets England call

SVEN-GORAN Eriksson hailed Peter Crouch as a potential answer to England's search for a World Cup game-breaker as he handed the gangly Southampton forward his first international call-up.

Eriksson has already effectively decided on three of his likely World Cup forwards - Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe.

However, there is at least one place still up for grabs, with Crouch, Andrew Johnson and Alan Smith getting having a chance to press their claims after being selected for the mini-tour to the USA.