England
Thu, May 29th 2008
I think Fabio Capello has three realistic candidates to captain England: Terry, Ferdinand and Gerrard
Of these John Terry stands head and shoulders above the other two as a leader. It has been notably this season how his behaviour has improved and now rather than leading the referee-baiting he is pulling players away, and it was striking in the Champions League final how it was he pulling Manchester Utd players away from getting into further trouble with the referee rather than Ferdinand.
In his early England day’s he looked unsure of his place in the team as a junior partner to Ferdinand or Sol Campbell. To give the captaincy to his centre-back partner would threaten to lose one of his greatest assets, his dominance, again.
Thu, March 27th 2008
From: BBC - Capello’s optimism masks reality on England’s lacklustre performance against France:
As one Italian observer remarked, perhaps cruelly: “England do not just need an Italian coach - they need an Italian team.”
Fri, November 30th 2007
...this week, 16 Scotsmen played in the Champions League. Only 14 Englishmen could say the same. And three of those - Peter Crouch, Owen Hargreaves and Theo Walcott - were substitutes.
From: Guardian Unlimited: Sport blog: The killer stat that demands a response
Thu, September 13th 2007
England 3 - Russia 0
England continued against Russia where they left off against Israel, cruising to another 3-nil victory.
Mon, September 10th 2007
England 3 - Israel 0
Despite injuries to star name players England cruised past a standoff-ish Israel.
Thu, August 23rd 2007
After a number of blunders Paul Robinson’s England place is rightly under threat.
Rightly, because no player should be guaranteed the position in the team. But, the quality of his potential replacements still cause concern.
Has everyone forgotten about Defoe?
With England 2-1 down to Germany at Wembley, McLaren chose to substitute both strikers, Smith and Owen. Without Rooney, Bent and Johnson through injuries, who did he turn to? Not Jermain Defoe.
England 1 - Germany 2
After an encouraging start England faded to defeat to an understrength Germany, leaving the the hosts still looking for there first victory at the new Wembley.
Mon, August 20th 2007
In a bizarre mix of football and politics, Diego Maradona admitted cheating to beat England in the 1986 World Cup.
In an interview with Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, he says:
“It was too high for me and I stuck out my fist.
However, rather than cheating, it seems it was a statement in the fight against imperialism.
From: Maradona and Chávez laugh over ‘hand of god’ goal on chat show
Thu, August 9th 2007
In a BBC interview, Fifa vice-president has declared his dislike of England and how he will fight to derail England’s World Cup 2018 bid.
“There are moves to give it to England. I must fight that.
“It will be Italy, Spain, or even France who will get the World Cup if it goes to Europe.”
With no disrespect to Italy, Spain or France, but all three of those countries have hosted the World Cup since England, and must be less deserving than other European nations to hold the championships.
Warner goes on to claim that the Concacef should host the tournament, despite one his arguments against England being:
“England invented the sport but has never had made any impact on world football.”
From: BBC