When a goal keeper can launch a ball eighty yards downfield to an aging forward, and that forward can beat two defenders for control and slot the ball past an indecisive opposing keeper, and you are that opposing team, it is time to go home. It is time to pack up your red kit, your white kit, your Slovenian trophy jerseys, a few premium grade vuvuzelas, some Kaiser Chiefs t-shirts for the kids and get on the plane to Heathrow.
Andrew Clarke
While we all gear up for this weekend’s matches I offer up one quick prediction: England is doomed.
It pains me to say this as I had great hopes for this England side. Capello seems a Mourinho without the smarm. David James is at that stage that older keepers, baseball pitchers and country club tennis players reach; they stop relying on power and athleticism and depend on guile and knowing the angles. Rooney, for all his bluster and despite playing for the loathsome Manchester United, has thoroughbred speed and a masterful sense of improvisation inside the eighteen. Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Jermain Defoe, even the wobbly Emile Heskey all inspired a sense of optimism about this side, that maybe this was the team that would do England proud.
Team France was put out of its misery today with a listless 2-1 loss to host nation South Africa in Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. In what has to be the most shambolic collapse since Phidippides ran the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens, Les Blues were sent packing after enduring tantrums, a coach with Mousse aux Cèpes for brains, a Director of Football Operations with the temperament of the runway model and a line drawn in the sand that was almost hilarious in it’s timing except that the French team was actually representing its country.
The BBC reports that England coach Fabio Capello is set to drop the West Ham man from goal for their match against Algeria and put Pompey’s 39 year old keeper David James in the goal for England.
A breathtaking error by Green gave the United s States a 1-1 draw in Saturday’s tournament opener. An unimpressive training ground performance on Thursday night put Green on the outs and convinced Capello to go with James.
Capello confirmed earlier this week that Gareth Barry will start at midfield and that Spurs forward Jermain Defoe might partner with Wayne Rooney in attack in place of Emile Hesky.
In a football match, everything is complicated by the presence of the other team. Sartre certainly got that one right. I would add the addendum that everything is further complicated by the contrivances of one’s manager. And there isn’t a man on this planet who would agree more than England keeper Robert Green.
All of England, and many of the rest of us, waited like reservationless diners for Fabio Capellos’ announcement of who would be in the net for the Brits. David James was, according to reports out of the England camp, the choice of most of the England side. Communicates well, they said, has the experience, is used to the pressure and had been in nice form through most of a very difficult Premiership season with Portsmouth. It seemed that
Every four years the cry goes up from Newcastle to Southampton; this is the year the cup comes back to England. The fever seems particularly keen this year.
England’s official cup anthem, Bring it Home, captures both the determination and the unmistakable whiff of arrogance that has always been part of England’s sense of it’s position in the footballing world. But could this be the year that Rooney and Terry are mentioned in the same breath with Charlton and Moore?Could the spectre of the 1966 cup winners become a glorious bit of history rather than a cudgel wielded by punters and columnists and waved at every side that has failed to return with the cup?
Fans of the English Premier League will see plenty of familiar faces when the World Cup tournament kicks in this weekend. The England squad is, of course, filled with the shining lights of English football but the rosters of many national sides are packed with Premiership talent.
While the initial reports were grim, it looks as if Didier Drogba and his broken arm will be taking the pitch for Ivory Coast, although he’ll be on the sidelines for the Elephants’ opening fixture against Portugal. The Ivory Coast side boasts some other big names: Kolo Toure of Manchester City, Emmanuel Eboue of Arsenal and Drogba’s Chelsea teammate Solomon Kalou.
