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Sunday, 15 May 2011

Almost as fun as a cold Tuesday night in Glasgow

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Wayne Rooney’s inability to score in anything other than a Manchester casino with £1,200 in his back pocket once again left England frustrated last night, as a five year-old nation that can call on a population smaller than the city of Leeds for its talent battened down the hatches at Wembley.

With Jermain Defoe taking the much more preferable option to have ankle ligament damage, Fabio Capello opted to use a 7ft broom handle to partner Rooney up front. Granted however, in England’s last 14 games, said broom handle has managed to score five goals compared with Rooney’s one.

When it was clear that such an approach was going to be ineffective against a side ranked below Gabon, Burkina Faso and even the Republic of Ireland, Capello chanced his arm and threw on Kevin Davies for his first England cap, just reward for the 33-year-old’s ability latch onto 56 hoofs up field from the Bolton left back in 254 Premier League games since 2003.

In truth, the only thing resembling any sort of excitement from last night amounted to little more a credible England penalty claim, Montenegro hitting the bar and the East Stand food kiosk needing an emergency change order after the till ran out of 10p coins.

It was all too much for the Club Wembley suits, who found the spread in the VIP lounge far more entertaining whilst the fans in steerage voiced their discontent. Even Adrian Chiles’ dulcet West Midland’s tones seemed downbeat at the full-time whistle.

Those viewers with the full glory of Sky Sports could at least console themselves with the knowledge that there was something far more entertaining going on in Glasgow.

Scotland the Brave battled back from 2-0 down against Spain, champions of ticky-tacky football, to level the match with 25 minutes remaining at Hampden.

However, with Scotland mastering the art of perennial disappointment even more so than England, their brave, committed performance ended like so many of their other brave, committed performances – with a winner for the opposition 10 minutes from time.

Have the wheels fallen off the England bandwagon? Of course they haven’t. There will be plenty of opportunity for England to prove that 2012 will “definitely be their year” in a month’s time when they face a France team that have most of their side sat on the naughty step.

View the original article here

Monday, 25 October 2010

Rooney almost whacks Sir Bobby Charlton with a football..

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How to get a red card even when you are not playing was the previous entry in this blog.

Video:Spurs lose inspite of Gareth Bale's unbelievable hat trick.. is the next entry in this blog.

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Thursday, 9 September 2010

Back from Break, Almost All in One Piece

By: Ed | September 9th, 2010

At long last, the international break is over.

And, surprisingly enough, this one didn’t turn out to be the apocalypse.

For a full recap of how Liverpool’s internationals did during the break, head over to oh you beauty, where nate’s got a rundown of all the regular first-teamers who took part in their nation’s senior squads. There were also plenty of younger players taking part in qualifying and/or friendlies for their respective age brackets, and there’s notes on them at the official site.

All things considered, it wasn’t a complete disaster of a break. Boring as hell, yes, but aside from the injury to Dirk Kuyt and the trauma inflicted on Pepe Reina, it was a week that passed largely without incident. The biggest concern for me is always the players’ health—the loss of Kuyt is a decent-size blow, but with so many players in action, it almost feels like a resounding success to only have one go down.

The performances of the squad members on the whole was encouraging enough, with Reina as the only regular who played below expectation (maybe due to playing the first 45 minutes for the national side in months after traveling 7000 miles against the 5th-ranked team in the world with a defense that didn’t exactly set the place on fire). Both Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson played every minute of England’s two victories, with the former pushing his way into the discussion about becoming the permanent captain for the Three Lions. Kuyt scored the opener for the Dutch, Raul Meireles notched one in the 4-4 draw with Cyprus and played the entirety of both matches, and Daniel Agger and Christian Poulsen logged full 90’s in Denmark’s 1-0 win over Iceland, with the latter captaining the side.

Maybe the biggest issue to arise out of the week, as pointed out by nate via the link above, is that many of the first-team regulars played a large number of minutes. In a squad that’s starved for depth in quality, you’d hope that the change in days for the fixtures provides enough of a cushion to allow for a full recovery. Kuyt’s injury exacerbates that concern, even if it might open the door for Dani Pacheco or force Roy Hodgson to experiment with the squad a bit.

There was also news that David Ngog’s injury was enough to lead the squad to withdraw him from the French U21 squad, as well as news that Fabio Aurelio had a problem with his achilles. Worryingly familiar stuff for the Brazilian left back, and likely pointing to a Sunday start for Paul Konchesky. With Ngog possibly a question, that places the burden squarely on the shoulders of Fernando Torres, who scored twice for Spain and thankfully only logged 57 minutes during the week.

Again, it wasn’t the worst of breaks for Liverpool, but I think it does put the spotlight on questions about the squad’s depth. Kuyt’s injury might not pose huge problems in the wide area, but he was one of the more adaptable players up top with proven experience, and with him out for at least four weeks, I think Hodgson is going to be stretched a bit in his squad selection.

Maybe it provides more minutes for Ryan Babel and Dani Pacheco across the front four, maybe it pushes Joe Cole wide, or maybe we see Maxi slide in and nothing else changes. With seven matches in those four weeks that Kuyt’s missing, though, I’d guess (and hope) we see a little bit of everything.

I’ll be back tomorrow with an early preview for Sunday’s match—I’m away on Saturday at a college football (American football—gasp!) game, and in the Midwest that’s an all-day affair. Also an all-day drunk. So yeah, I won’t be around.

Have a good one.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:Squad Announced; Fernando Torres Has Been Paying AttentionMatchday: Liverpool v. West BromFour Weeks for Kuyt; Final Day of InternationalsMatch Preview: Liverpool v. West Bromwich Albion, 08.29.10Looking Ahead for Liverpool’s Internationals

Category: Euro 2012, Miscellaneous, Premier League, Team News

Tags: Christian Poulsen, Daniel Agger, Dirk Kuyt, Euro 2012, Fabio Aurelio, Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson, Martin Škrtel, Miscellaneous, Paul Konchesky, Pepe Reina, Premier League, Steven Gerrard, Team News
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