Internationals and Qualifiers

Below please find notes from my friend Matt on this past weekend’s internationals. As usual, I agree with almost everything he says, and the things I don’t agree with (his summary of the USA/Brazil game) stems from the fact that I haven’t seen the match yet. I’ll catch it on my DVR in a day or two.

Other than the flood of internationals, the only other big football news from this weekend was that everyone’s favorite chubby center-forward, Ronaldo, will be hurt for at least another month. Apparently he has a bum knee. Whether the bad knee resulted from having to lug around an extra 25 pounds of Ronaldo is largely beside the point; sadly, we won’t see the big fella in the black and red for some time yet.

Finally, note that my friend says he can’t wait to see Brazil live. That’s because, as I said, we have tickets to the Brazil-Mexico match in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on Wednesday night. We are both looking forward to it, and I will report back here to the fanatic after the game.

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Just a quick note on this weekend’s internationals. Not that I could watch them, but apparently England looked impressive for once. At least for the first time under McClaren. I guess his job is safe until Wednesday. I’m glad to see that Owen scored. Hopefully this will be a sign of things to come for Newcastle.

The Italy v. France game was a bore, but good for Scotland, who are in second place in the group. They have a big game with France on weekend, and if they can pull out a win or even a draw, they will be sitting pretty. Unfortunately, Northern Ireland wasted a chance to put some distance between themselves and Spain after they lost to Latvia, and Spain failed to beat Iceland. Speaking of Spain, they are even a bigger disappointment than England. I think it could easily be argued that they have better players than the England squad, yet they always have a hard time qualifying for tournaments, and when they do qualify, if they get out of the group stage, they promptly get dispatched in the quarterfinals. I know they used the same old excuse about players from different regions of the country not getting along, but that is bullshit. If Iraq can win the Asian Cup with a team of Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis, then there isn’t any reason why a team of Basques, Catalans, and Catalonians can’t do better as well.

Then there was the USA/Brazil game, which can be looked at from two points of view if you support the USA. The pros include the fact that Dempsey had another great game, the Americans hung tough, they played tough by challenging the Brazilians, especially in midfield, the first goal against them was a joke, and they weren’t getting any of the calls (they should have had at least one penalty call go their way). On the con side, they still lost by 2 goals to a Brazil team that was on top gear, they were playing at home, and Bocanegra’s goal was a joke. It just happened to hit him and go in. All in all, I guess the US could be somewhat pleased with the result, but they are a long way from being in the elite of soccer nations. In any event, watching the game wet my appetite for Wednesday’s game. I can’t wait to see Brazil live!!!

England V. Brazil

Jon Carter's fine take on the England-Brazil friendly played today at the new Wembly can be found below, and it is worth a quick read.


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=435746&root=england&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1&cc=5901

Finally a Fun Friendly?

Just a reminder that that England and Brazil play in a friendly tomorrow at the New Wembly stadium in London. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the game, what with Beckham’s return, Hargreaves’s first appearance since becoming a Red Devil, and the Samba boys at the new home of football. Hopefully, regardless of the hype, it will be a fun game, despite the fact that it is a friendly, and thus it could potentially be ninety minutes of guys kicking the ball around the field. There is hope, however, as England really should be playing to win in spite of the essential meaninglessness of the game. If England goes down early to Brazil, expect the boo-birds to come out in force calling for Steve McClaren’s head.

I also wanted to add to the American readers that the game will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel, and not Sentana, so more soccer viewers will be able to see it. The game will be shown live at 3PM, EST. Enjoy.

This Place, This England (national team)

England played a friendly this afternoon against Spain; they lost the game 1-0 on a very pretty goal by Andres Iniesta. In a few hours it will be morning in England; once the tabloids hit the streets, the official “Let’s Shitcan Macca” movement will start in earnest.

There’s really not much to use to defend Steve McClaren. He seems like the ultimate example of substance over style, saying all the right things to the media and having staff members at every conceivable position, (including a team psycologist) but he seems unable to perform the central task of his job; wining football matches. Today’s loss is not really a big deal in the long run (its just a friendly, after all) but it will serve as evidence to his detractors that he needs to go before England loose their slot in Euro 2008.

The players, of course, were quick to come up with their own excuses; chief among them is the famous refrain “Just wait ‘till Wayne gets here,” which is the same one they used during the World Cup; the problem is, things didn’t change much at the cup even after Wayne Rooney arrived.

The central question that fans of the English national team need to ask themselves is whether this team is really good enough to win anything significant regardless of who the coach is. When the squad was knocked out of the Cup this summer I was disappointed (as a fan of the team) but not very surprised: not because I am a pessimist in regard to English football, but because the team, in my mind, is just not very good. In the World Cup the team finished around eighth place or so, a spot that I think was just; they were perhaps one of the ten best teams in the world, but no better. This summer people lamented yet again the English national team going out on pens, but who, pray tell, were they better than among the teams that finished above them? France? Italy? Portugal? Germany? The list goes on, but I see each one of those teams as better than the English.

Why? Because those teams have passers and creators. England, as always, is simply a long-ball outfit that hopes to score the “goal of the century” with every pass. Its true they have “stars” at every position, but many of these stars are either products of the premiership hype machine or scorers who don’t make their teammates any better. (Hello Frank Lampard.) What the team needs is a central midfielder who can tie the team together, retain possession, and set up the vaunted scorers up front. That I why like guys like Zidane and Gourcuff so much; why they illustrate the sides of this blog and not, say, Wayne Rooney: because they are creators on the field who make everyone else better. Until England somehow finds someone who can do this, the team will continue to be a great, star-studded team that never wins anything. To a degree, that lack of a midfielder is McClaren’s fault; he needs to find someone who can play that position. But England itself needs to look at the kind of players it produces, and perhaps ask itself, as a footballing nation, if not seventh or eighth place at the World Cup or European Cup is about the best it can do.