Game day arrives after another night of heavy showers in London. It is a dismal day, gray and autumnal, anything but early summer. I am looking forward to the warmth of the thousands making their way to Wembley to cheer me up.

The rain stopped Bob Bradley's men training at Wembley yesterday, as is customary for visiting teams the night before the game. The new stadium has been praised unanimously, but when Croatia stole a 3-2 win over England there in November, the field looked decidedly less than perfect, with the effects of the Giants v Dolphins NFL game on the playing surface the month before still visible. The Wembley groundsmen are taking no chances with the wet turf cutting up this time.

After being cocooned in their hotel for the best part of a week, watching the raindrops hitting the windows, I imagine the Nats boys will be glad to hit the road too. Jay DeMerit, training for the US on his club's own fields, revealed he managed to sneak into Watford's 'boot room' to change his cleats.

About 1,300 US fans have bought tickets from US Soccer and only registered England fans can purchase tickets for Wembley, so there won't be many turn-ups from expats. That 1,300 is a fine away following for the US across the ocean, though I fear Sam's Army and friends could be a little drowned out by the 80,000-odd England fans.

It should be a great day for everyone connected with US Soccer. With no language barrier and a cathedral to play in, the setting could not be better. Plus we get to see so much EPL in the States, so we know England's team intimately. And unlike at Soldier Field in 2005, tonight they will have their stars out.

I hate to forewarn you, but the one thing that could put a dampener on the US' evening, beyond the weather, is that England fans tend to boo opposition national anthems, sometimes drowning them out. Despite all the pleas, this depressing practice has continued, although there is no reason for any bonehead to boo another country's song, especially that of a close ally.

The UK press are not exactly on the edge of their seats about the game tonight. The BBC are covering the game but have a long history of being condescending to American soccer fans, making jokes about how few people apparently care about the game on the other side of the pond.

USSoccer.com's blog mentions veteran English commentator John Motson was at the US training field this week, doing some research on England's opponents. Let's hope it is more than he did before the 2002 World Cup, when he tipped Earnie Stewart to be our player of the tournament.

Still, any jokes from Gary Lineker about America snoring during the 2002 World Cup are as nothing compared to a comedy article published in today's Daily Mail under the pseudonym Chuck Dollario. Pretending to be a dumb Yank discussing 'sahcah' on his trip to England, this piece of condescending piffle has no place in a national newspaper and reminds me of a shockingly similar piece by the BBC's Tom Fordyce in 2002.

But then again, the Mail is the most famously xenophobic newspaper in Britain. Helpfully, they have published it online and have a comments field.

The news which concerns the English press far more is the hardly surprising confirmation that US Soccer will challenge the FA for the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

The problem is England are flying out to Trinidad after tonight's game for a friendly with T&T in the hope of currying the vote of the old charlatan and FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner. After Sunil Gulati's latest comments, the consensus is that it is a wasted trip since CONCACAF President Warner will support the US, leaving England are looking like chumps.

While stopping short of predicting the score at Wembley, the English papers are assuming victory for the Three Lions. The Sun, a notorious tabloid, took its usual irreverent slant on events.

"Freddy Adu, Freddy who? The new Pele...Having burst on the scene four years ago...it's been much Adu about nothing since," wrote Martin Heming, but was more worried about the attendance at Wembley. "The result means less than a contract extension from Roman Abramovich," he wrote. "If we're not half full for this one, we could soon be turning out to the sounds of tumbleweed."

As well as referring to the "MSL", his rag made the classic error of printing the famous photo of Joe Gaetjens missing the target against England in Belo Horizonte as the actual goal, despite the fact the ball is clearly on the wrong side of the net.

The Daily Telegraph, renowned for its sports coverage, has an interesting US starting eleven of Frankie Hejduk partnering Jay DeMerit in central defense with Eddie Lewis at right back and Nate Jaqua the center forward.

The only certainty from England coach Fabio Capello is that Wayne Rooney will play as a support striker, with either Tottenham's Jermain Defoe or West Ham's Dean Ashton ahead of him. Frank Lampard is also set to play, which means another chance for the thus-far failed combination of the Chelsea midfielder with Steven Gerrard.

Having previously mentioned the need for England to keep the ball better and be more patient, Capello yesterday spoke of the importance of being aggressive and upping the tempo, as England has tried to do for years.

And after using 4-1-4-1 and 4-2-3-1, England will play 4-4-1-1 tonight. The Three Lions failed to make it to Euro 2008 and are in an uncertain period of reconstruction, so the US should have nothing to fear tonight.

That said, seven or even eight out of their possible starting eleven played in the Champions League final. But the tears of Chelsea's John Terry should have dried with the announcement he has taken over the England captaincy from Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand.

As of now, the English starting eleven looks something like this:

David James (Portsmouth), Wes Brown (Manchester United), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), John Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), David Bentley (Blackburn), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Dean Ashton (West Ham).

David Beckham will surely feature at some stage, not just because of the opposition but the fact Capello bothered to recall him in the first place, given their history.

The US lineup looks harder to call, with the sharpness of the later MLS arrivals and DaMarcus Beasley a question mark. Landon Donovan has perhaps predictably been singled out as the visitors' danger man by a few English newspapers, but he looks unlikely to win his 100th cap just yet, after his groin started to seize up after the Galaxy's win over the Wizards at the weekend.

Jonathan Spector has lost his fitness battle for tonight, which means Frankie Hejduk, Heath Pearce or even Eddie Lewis could start at left back.

A possible US starting eleven could therefore be: Tim Howard (Everton), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege), DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers), Michael Bradley (Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Eddie Lewis (Derby), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Josh Wolff (out of contract).

Bear in mind this is a friendly so in the second half we could see up to six changes of personnel per team.

Here's to great evening under the Wembley arch. As Bob Bradley said at his press conference, "We're excited for this night."