I dunno if anyone’s ever said this after a keeper has conceded nine, but Chris Kirkland for England! The Wigan keeper – desperately unlucky to be attributed an own goal after Spurs’ eighth cannoned in off the post and the back of his head – somehow limited Spurs to just the one in the first half, and kept the score closer to ten than fifteen in the second. The Wigan players are personally refunding their travelling fans, but their keeper should not have to share in the embarrassment.
Kirkland’s only England cap came back in 2006, his family famously winning close to £10,000 after his father placed a bet that the young keeper would one day play for England when he was just 13. He’s since become the forgotten man of the England goalkeeper’s set-up. But with neither David James, Robert Green nor Ben Foster convincing when Capello asks them to step up and seize hold of the No.1 jersey, I might just put a little bet of my own on that the Wigan stopper will be on the plane to South Africa. One thing’s for sure, with that defence in front of him, he’ll be getting a lot of practice the next few months!
Jermain Defoe's five goals stole the headlines after Spurs’ drubbing of Wigan on Sunday, but his supply-man from the right wing deserves an equal share of the plaudits. As well as bagging the fifth himself, Aaron Lennon got a hat-trick of assists, displaying a mastery of the final ball which he so frustratingly lacked a year ago. Spurs’ fourth goal showed a telepathy between the pair: Lennon reached the by-line and delivered an inch-perfect cut-back, Defoe showing brilliant movement to dart from the back post to the front and sweep home on the volley into the near corner. Their irresistible in the white of Spurs, and yet put in relatively meek displays in the white of their national side. Forget what colour your boots are Jermain, why not try and send the boys out there wearing their Spurs shirts for England.
Except that, knowing our press – who have been the 2018 World Cup bid’s worst enemy in a way totally abhorrent to the bid rivals’ media – we’d be the ones that dob them in!
The self-fulfilling prophecy of Darren Fletcher:
The Scottish midfielder has gone from also-ran to main man in the United midfield, and it seems to me, all because of that red card in the Champions League semi-final. As Xavi, Iniesta and co. brushed United aside in Rome, both Red Devils’ fans and press commentators bemoaned tough-tackling Fletcher’s absence, forgetting that he was never exactly first name on the team-sheet. Except this year, he is, and delivering the kind of performances – and the kind of sumptuous half-volleys needed for any best-bits package – that will put him in the running for players’ prizes at the end of the season.
Thankfully, when we’re told that John O’Shea will one day emerge from the shadows to be one of Europe’s best defenders, we’ve always got this to fall back on, the quip that I saw filling many a billboard in America: ‘Economists have successfully predicted nine of the last five recessions’.
Finally, the group stages of the Champions League seem worthwhile. And I don’t say that just to gloat at Liverpool’s elimination.
The 2005 winners travelled to Debrecen last night knowing that their qualification for the knockout stages of the premier club competition was not in their control. They did their bit, but Fiorentina’s defeat of Lyon taught Rafa Benitez a hard lesson - that no longer can an English side turn up to the group stages with comfortably short of their ‘A game’ and take qualification for granted.
Group F was the most fascinating, though, where, despite the presence of Barcelona and Inter Milan, it is the Russians Rubin Kazan - enjoying their first Champions League campaign – who held the cards going into the penultimate round of games. They handed Barcelona – and particularly Inter Milan, who went down 2-0 in the Nou Camp – a reprieve by failing to score at home to Dynamo Kyiv. As it stands, a victory for Jose Mourinho’s side in the San Siro in two weeks’ time will still ensure qualification. But, putting paid to the old excuses that Russian and Ukrainian teams will only cause problems to the big boys when they’re at home – factors such as weather and travel time making the east of the continent ‘a hard place to go’ - Rubin beat Barcelona in the Nou Camp last month. Interestingly, Group F is the only one where all four teams were domestic title winners.
Alongside Rubin and Dynamo – who may still qualify themselves – come CSKA Moscow, still in with a chance of making it out of Group B, and Romanian side Urinea Urziceni – managed by former Chelsea winger Dan Petrescu – sitting pretty in second place in Group G. Eastern Europe is having a strong season in the Champions League. Are the rest getting closer to the best? And, if the number of games played in Europe is eventually reduced – as it surely must be – will it be the third and fourth place teams from England, Italy, Spain who miss out, as opposed to the champions of ‘lesser’ footballing nations who are increasingly holding their own?
Of course, we’ll be oblivious to all of this, as ITV show the almost completely irrelevant Man United – Besiktas game this evening.
Blackburn midfielder David Dunn is a joy to watch – boundless energy, enthusiasm, a new-found defensive work ethic now he’s been given more responsibility as part of a central-midfield pairing, and fantastic ability on the ball in a charmingly loping, not-a-natural-athlete kind of a way. That is all.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
'A replay would be a farce - I would have put my hand out'
Barack Obama has this evening called an emergency meeting with FIFA President Sepp Blatter to demand that France’s World Cup play-off victory over the Republic of Ireland be replayed.
No, not really. I wouldn’t be too surprised though, after a week in which a footballing debate has looked like boiling over into a major diplomatic situation. Irish PM Brian Cowan waded in, backing up the Football Association of Ireland’s (FIA) demands that the game be replayed. Thankfully, his counterpart Mr Sarkozy stayed well clear.
Yesterday, in Ipswich, Roy Keane added his penny’s worth as he has done so many times before. Asking the former Ireland captain of an FAI that had asked for the sympathy of the world is like leaving your four-year-old unattended in front of his Christmas presents. I haven’t seen footage of the interview, but I doubt he needed a second invitation to unleash another torment of spite.
This time though, I agree with Keano. A replay would be a farce, setting a terrifying precedent. Where would it stop?
It was easy to call for a replay after Henry’s handball, so closely connected to the scoring of the decisive goal, in extra-time of the decisive game for qualification for South Africa. The last time we saw the French captain’s bad side on the world stage was in the second round of the 2006 World Cup, when he went down clutching his face after receiving no contact from Carlos Puyol. A free-kick was awarded, which led directly to France’s second goal in a 3-1 win. So how about replaying that one?
I’ve thought about this quite a bit in the past – chain reaction within a football match. What if, when I receive the ball at left back in the third minute, I decide to pass precisely infield to the holding midfielder, and not, as is customary, lump it up the wing towards the striker? Every single event in that match would unfold differently thanks to that one decision.* So, what if there’s a mistaken refereeing decision in the opening minute… which leads to a free-kick to the blues, a throw in to the reds… and fifteen minutes later the goal that decides the trophy? Can you appeal that one?
Where, and when, would the replays stop? As I saw suggested yesterday, why not replay that match in… 1986, was it?, when that little Argentinean chap scored a goal with his hand? Great entertainment perhaps, just in seeing if that now slightly larger Argentinean chap can still run about, but ludicrous. You’ve got to play the game, accept it for what it is. FIFA - please FIFA don’t buckle – have got it right in refusing the replay this time.
So, if we aren’t going to give Ireland another go, what are we going to do to make sure the poor underdogs can’t be ‘cheated’ out of their dream by the big, bad World Cup veterans in the future?
Get the decisions right in the first place. Predictably, this latest high-profile incident has brought renewed calls for video refereeing technology, alongside the labelling of Thierry Henry as a ‘cheat’. I say no to both.
The Telegraph’s Henry Winter – and he is a long way from being alone – is of course paid to give us his opinion, but in calling for Henry ‘to be banned from playing in the World Cup’, he should have kept quiet.
Rather than ‘cheat’, the word I want to use for Henry is ‘human’. I believe that he handled the ball using little more than instinct, an urge that we all have to stop a ball that’s going past us, any way possible. If he did have just the split-second to think, then the striker chose goal over fair play. If he had time for perspective, then he chose to try and escape the scathing judgements of an expectant nation – and probably his manager’s job – over honesty. Who could blame him? I’ll put my hand up – or perhaps out – and say that I would have done it.
Like the referee and his assistants who missed the infringement, he got it wrong, made the wrong call. The human errors made by player and officials, although different, are inextricably linked.
Calls to turn the officials into robots are far from new, but, what about the player? We could turn him into someone who wouldn’t break the most fundamental rule of outfield football in order to assist and score goals, who wouldn’t dive or even ‘make the most of’ an opportunity to convince the referee he’d been fouled, who wouldn’t bend any rule in order to win, to fulfil his ambition, escape the pressures that demand victory and the fears of failure.
But then, he’d never yearn to feel what Marco Tardelli did**, he’d never be able to improvise, come up with the unfathomable like Ronaldinho did, never push himself beyond the edge of human exertion like Roy Keane did***, or, for that matter, come up with the unpredictable brilliance of Thierry Henry.
If we want to accept the best our, human, footballers have to give us, then we’ve got to accept the worst too. And Mr Henry’s actions on Wednesday night were an awful long way from the worst.
* Of course, it goes on from there outside the game – what if Mark Robins hadn’t scored that goal to save Fergie’s job in January 1990?
** My favourite goal celebration of all time - Tardelli scores for Italy in the 1982 World Cup Final and runs back shouting his own name, like a child living out his dreams
*** Fergie's comments on Roy Keane's heroic performance against Juventus in the 1999 Champions League semi-final:
"It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field. Pounding over every blade of grass, competing if he would rather die of exhaustion than lose, he inspired all around him. I felt it was an honour to be associated with such a player."
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
England 1 Slovakia 0 - The Wembley Way & 109 not out
England 1 Slovakia 0 - The Wembley Way & 109 not out
The new Wembley is a gem, a beacon - quite literally considering the prominence of the Wembley Arch on the London skyline.
The old stadium’s trademark Twin Towers have been replaced by the arch as the new icon of English football, typical for a £800 million project which has seen tradition replaced by twenty-first century gleaming modernity without forgetting the history and the purity of the place.
Easily visible from the M1, the arch was all I’d seen of Wembley before stepping out of Wembley Park tube station and onto ‘Wembley Way’ on Saturday afternoon.
Once you’ve navigated the programme and scarf vendors, and made your way into the stadium, a mass of space-age escalators await to take you to the upper tier. We were up in the heavens, but with a perfect view of every inch of the pitch.
85,000 were there to see Capello’s England comfortably overcome Slovakia in a friendly, and whilst the atmosphere wasn’t quite the San Siro, the tingle that accompanied the singing of the national anthem was a little bit special. I struggle to see how the players could fear playing there.
It was frustrating how many left early whilst England led 3-0, but I hung on to see the fourth goal go in.
2618 toilets, the most of any venue in the world, and still the whole of half-time was spent queuing for the loo.
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One for the pub quizzes perhaps… When was the last time a sub’s sub was subbed in international football? The answer – Saturday afternoon at Wembley.
Emile Heskey was given the nod upfront, delivered the opening goal, but only made it to the 14th minute before going off. Next up: Carlton Cole, but he hobbled off before half-time to give third-choice Peter Crouch a run out. The Portsmouth man departed in the 74th minute though, when, all out of strikers, Fabio Capello called midfield man Michael Carrick off the bench.
For the present future, this potential striker shortage will give the England boss a few sleepless nights before Wednesday’s qualifier against Ukraine, casting a shadow on an otherwise useful friendly victory over a very meek Slovakia side during which the habitually aggressive Martin Skrtel even seeming overawed by the occasion.
But the target men’s loss was the No.10’s gain, Wayne Rooney completing a much-needed 90 minutes. Sir Alex won’t be complaining, with a domestic suspension coming up. Indeed, he might just be phoning Capello to thank him for getting his main man looking happy on a football pitch again, after we saw the return of an undisciplined adolescent in the red shirt of Manchester United the other week.
Rooney was irrepressible, having one of his boy-in-the-playground days where he just wants the ball for the full 90 minutes. There was one point in the first half where, with the other England players dawdling towards taking a throw-in on the left-wing, young Wayne sprinted over there and went to take it himself; before Ashley Cole reminded him it wasn’t his job!
Capello seems to have solved his Steven Gerrard problem for the moment, starting the Liverpool man on the left of midfield, with Rooney, who often takes up a left-wing position for United, switching with him at times, to allow Gerrard to express himself in the middle. It worked well in the first-half, but the man from the blue half of Merseyside certainly looked more comfortable in the second, when Gerrard was replaced by out-and-out winger Stewart Downing. Rooney, released from positional responsibilities, went on to score two richly-deserved goals.
The way I see it, the more this become Wayne’s team in the next five years, the better.
Another man who’s been in the headlines for the wrong reasons recently, Ashley Cole, didn’t have such a happy afternoon. Booed when his name was announced, he looked horribly short of confidence every time he was given the ball. The response of those around me in the crowd slowly turned from derision to a certain amount of sympathetic encouragement, but the damage was done. He looks a shadow of the player he has been at Arsenal and Chelsea in an England shirt at the moment, at least going forward. He still demonstrated why he’s the best defensive left-back in the world with several well-placed interventions, but soon, with the crowd on his back, there will come a time when he stops actually wanting the ball, for fear of being derided if it goes wrong.
The disgusting discouragement of home players by Wembley fans, often mentioned by England players, is, in my opinion, evidence of club rivalries taking precedence over the national side. I’ll admit that I was particularly elated when Chelsea boy Frank Lampard scored, and happy to pick up upon Steven Gerrard’s errors. Do similar feelings translate to the players themselves? I don’t see why not. They’ll always say the right things in press conferences, but will players really go out and give everything for one another in an England shirt if, as Wayne Rooney was all too happy to point out recently, they ‘hate’ the clubs one another play for?
In the meantime, Ashley Cole is the best left back we’ve got by a mile. And booing players will never be acceptable.
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On the occasion of the current captain’s 50th cap, the limelight was inevitably stolen by the previous captain’s own landmark. David Beckham’s 109th cap was a new record for an outfield player in an England shirt, and, despite cynics questioning the cameo appearances which pushed him past the 100 mark, an unquestionably deserved achievement.
I thought Fabio might have given Becks a start; even let him have some time with the captain’s armband on. But the boss isn’t one for sentiment, and rewarded Aaron Lennon for his recent form with a place on the right. Beckham got the 2nd 45 though, and set up Rooney first goal with a typically pinpoint cross. But why is this 33 year-old ‘one-trick-pony’ still being picked? Is it because he’s ‘David Beckham’, or because we’ve got nobody else; a sad reflection of the lack of international-quality right wingers in this country?
Actually, we’ve probably got more talented young right-sided players than in any other position. Shaun Wright-Phillips, David Bentley, Theo Walcott, Lennon and even Jermaine Pennant have all been touted as DB’s successor, and I’d add James Milner to that list as well. In a lot of ways, they’re a very similar bunch, perhaps Bentley aside, their main attributes being natural pace and their main shortfalls the final ball.
Wright-Phillips, Pennant and Bentley all showed the paradoxes of playing for top clubs too young. Not too long ago, it seemed that you had to play for the big four to get in the England side, but Pennant and Wright-Phillips’ moves to Liverpool and Chelsea respectfully, the latter for over £20 million, saw their careers stalling with a shortage of first-team action. Shaun’s return to Manchester City has paid dividends, whilst, although it may take some time, having Peter Crouch’s forehead as target practice down on the South coast whilst on loan at Portsmouth will surely bring the best out of Jermaine Pennant. Like Pennant, Bentley started out at Arsenal, but both were frustrated with the chances offered to them as English youngsters under Arsene Wenger. Questions of temperament might unfortunately be their biggest drawbacks, with Bentley’s outspoken tendencies not ongoing since his big-money move last summer from Blackburn to Tottenham last summer. His arrival at Spurs seemed to spell the end for Aaron Lennon, but in fact it’s often been Bentley warming the bench, with Lennon rejuvenated especially since Harry Redknapp’s arrival. It seems Juande Ramos was prone to overcomplicating things, whereas ‘arry boosts the confidence of his players by taking football back to its basics. Lennon has been the main beneficiary.
James Milner, who became the youngest player to score in the Premier League back in 2002, is very much of the outsider of the group, but the performer of the season amongst them. Aston Villa’s season may end in disappointment, but the young English core Martin O’Neill has got there have been flying.
Theo Walcott is very much the front-runner, recently returning from a shoulder dislocation looking sharp, and would surely have started in tomorrow’s qualifier but for another niggling injury. He’s also got that hat-trick against Croatia in the bag.
Looking ahead to the 2010 World Cup, and it’s a close race for which two of them will be on the plane. Walcott, injuries permitting, should be one, but I can’t pick the second out of a group of very similar players.
Becks will be there. He offers an old head, something different on the right, and, most importantly, is arguably still the outstanding deliverer of crosses in the world. It could even be that he’s still obscuring the progress of the young apprentices by sustaining his performance levels at A.C. Milan.
The cynics, of course, would say he’s still there to sell shirts, and, with the overly- dramaticised launch of England’s new retro shirt on Saturday looking like it should be worn by England’s cricketers instead, he may have an important job.
Becks, in the 15th England shirt since he made his debut back in 1996 (estimate, maths to be done), hogging the back pages in the summer of 2010? We wouldn’t have it any other way.
The new Wembley is a gem, a beacon - quite literally considering the prominence of the Wembley Arch on the London skyline.
The old stadium’s trademark Twin Towers have been replaced by the arch as the new icon of English football, typical for a £800 million project which has seen tradition replaced by twenty-first century gleaming modernity without forgetting the history and the purity of the place.
Easily visible from the M1, the arch was all I’d seen of Wembley before stepping out of Wembley Park tube station and onto ‘Wembley Way’ on Saturday afternoon.
Once you’ve navigated the programme and scarf vendors, and made your way into the stadium, a mass of space-age escalators await to take you to the upper tier. We were up in the heavens, but with a perfect view of every inch of the pitch.
85,000 were there to see Capello’s England comfortably overcome Slovakia in a friendly, and whilst the atmosphere wasn’t quite the San Siro, the tingle that accompanied the singing of the national anthem was a little bit special. I struggle to see how the players could fear playing there.
It was frustrating how many left early whilst England led 3-0, but I hung on to see the fourth goal go in.
2618 toilets, the most of any venue in the world, and still the whole of half-time was spent queuing for the loo.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One for the pub quizzes perhaps… When was the last time a sub’s sub was subbed in international football? The answer – Saturday afternoon at Wembley.
Emile Heskey was given the nod upfront, delivered the opening goal, but only made it to the 14th minute before going off. Next up: Carlton Cole, but he hobbled off before half-time to give third-choice Peter Crouch a run out. The Portsmouth man departed in the 74th minute though, when, all out of strikers, Fabio Capello called midfield man Michael Carrick off the bench.
For the present future, this potential striker shortage will give the England boss a few sleepless nights before Wednesday’s qualifier against Ukraine, casting a shadow on an otherwise useful friendly victory over a very meek Slovakia side during which the habitually aggressive Martin Skrtel even seeming overawed by the occasion.
But the target men’s loss was the No.10’s gain, Wayne Rooney completing a much-needed 90 minutes. Sir Alex won’t be complaining, with a domestic suspension coming up. Indeed, he might just be phoning Capello to thank him for getting his main man looking happy on a football pitch again, after we saw the return of an undisciplined adolescent in the red shirt of Manchester United the other week.
Rooney was irrepressible, having one of his boy-in-the-playground days where he just wants the ball for the full 90 minutes. There was one point in the first half where, with the other England players dawdling towards taking a throw-in on the left-wing, young Wayne sprinted over there and went to take it himself; before Ashley Cole reminded him it wasn’t his job!
Capello seems to have solved his Steven Gerrard problem for the moment, starting the Liverpool man on the left of midfield, with Rooney, who often takes up a left-wing position for United, switching with him at times, to allow Gerrard to express himself in the middle. It worked well in the first-half, but the man from the blue half of Merseyside certainly looked more comfortable in the second, when Gerrard was replaced by out-and-out winger Stewart Downing. Rooney, released from positional responsibilities, went on to score two richly-deserved goals.
The way I see it, the more this become Wayne’s team in the next five years, the better.
Another man who’s been in the headlines for the wrong reasons recently, Ashley Cole, didn’t have such a happy afternoon. Booed when his name was announced, he looked horribly short of confidence every time he was given the ball. The response of those around me in the crowd slowly turned from derision to a certain amount of sympathetic encouragement, but the damage was done. He looks a shadow of the player he has been at Arsenal and Chelsea in an England shirt at the moment, at least going forward. He still demonstrated why he’s the best defensive left-back in the world with several well-placed interventions, but soon, with the crowd on his back, there will come a time when he stops actually wanting the ball, for fear of being derided if it goes wrong.
The disgusting discouragement of home players by Wembley fans, often mentioned by England players, is, in my opinion, evidence of club rivalries taking precedence over the national side. I’ll admit that I was particularly elated when Chelsea boy Frank Lampard scored, and happy to pick up upon Steven Gerrard’s errors. Do similar feelings translate to the players themselves? I don’t see why not. They’ll always say the right things in press conferences, but will players really go out and give everything for one another in an England shirt if, as Wayne Rooney was all too happy to point out recently, they ‘hate’ the clubs one another play for?
In the meantime, Ashley Cole is the best left back we’ve got by a mile. And booing players will never be acceptable.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the occasion of the current captain’s 50th cap, the limelight was inevitably stolen by the previous captain’s own landmark. David Beckham’s 109th cap was a new record for an outfield player in an England shirt, and, despite cynics questioning the cameo appearances which pushed him past the 100 mark, an unquestionably deserved achievement.
I thought Fabio might have given Becks a start; even let him have some time with the captain’s armband on. But the boss isn’t one for sentiment, and rewarded Aaron Lennon for his recent form with a place on the right. Beckham got the 2nd 45 though, and set up Rooney first goal with a typically pinpoint cross. But why is this 33 year-old ‘one-trick-pony’ still being picked? Is it because he’s ‘David Beckham’, or because we’ve got nobody else; a sad reflection of the lack of international-quality right wingers in this country?
Actually, we’ve probably got more talented young right-sided players than in any other position. Shaun Wright-Phillips, David Bentley, Theo Walcott, Lennon and even Jermaine Pennant have all been touted as DB’s successor, and I’d add James Milner to that list as well. In a lot of ways, they’re a very similar bunch, perhaps Bentley aside, their main attributes being natural pace and their main shortfalls the final ball.
Wright-Phillips, Pennant and Bentley all showed the paradoxes of playing for top clubs too young. Not too long ago, it seemed that you had to play for the big four to get in the England side, but Pennant and Wright-Phillips’ moves to Liverpool and Chelsea respectfully, the latter for over £20 million, saw their careers stalling with a shortage of first-team action. Shaun’s return to Manchester City has paid dividends, whilst, although it may take some time, having Peter Crouch’s forehead as target practice down on the South coast whilst on loan at Portsmouth will surely bring the best out of Jermaine Pennant. Like Pennant, Bentley started out at Arsenal, but both were frustrated with the chances offered to them as English youngsters under Arsene Wenger. Questions of temperament might unfortunately be their biggest drawbacks, with Bentley’s outspoken tendencies not ongoing since his big-money move last summer from Blackburn to Tottenham last summer. His arrival at Spurs seemed to spell the end for Aaron Lennon, but in fact it’s often been Bentley warming the bench, with Lennon rejuvenated especially since Harry Redknapp’s arrival. It seems Juande Ramos was prone to overcomplicating things, whereas ‘arry boosts the confidence of his players by taking football back to its basics. Lennon has been the main beneficiary.
James Milner, who became the youngest player to score in the Premier League back in 2002, is very much of the outsider of the group, but the performer of the season amongst them. Aston Villa’s season may end in disappointment, but the young English core Martin O’Neill has got there have been flying.
Theo Walcott is very much the front-runner, recently returning from a shoulder dislocation looking sharp, and would surely have started in tomorrow’s qualifier but for another niggling injury. He’s also got that hat-trick against Croatia in the bag.
Looking ahead to the 2010 World Cup, and it’s a close race for which two of them will be on the plane. Walcott, injuries permitting, should be one, but I can’t pick the second out of a group of very similar players.
Becks will be there. He offers an old head, something different on the right, and, most importantly, is arguably still the outstanding deliverer of crosses in the world. It could even be that he’s still obscuring the progress of the young apprentices by sustaining his performance levels at A.C. Milan.
The cynics, of course, would say he’s still there to sell shirts, and, with the overly- dramaticised launch of England’s new retro shirt on Saturday looking like it should be worn by England’s cricketers instead, he may have an important job.
Becks, in the 15th England shirt since he made his debut back in 1996 (estimate, maths to be done), hogging the back pages in the summer of 2010? We wouldn’t have it any other way.
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