England team news! David James is in!

Fabio Capello has recalled David James to face Algeria. Emile Heskey gets another chance alongside Wayne Rooney despite the Fabster's talk of recalling Jermain Defoe. Heskey did well in every department (except scoring) against the United States. Is this his last chance if he doesn't get on the scoresheet today?

As expected by the media, Jamie Carragher comes in for the injured Ledley King at centre half, and a hopefully fully fit Gareth Barry replaces James Milner.

I'm in favour of the James and Barry decisions, but I would have gone in a different direction tonight at center back, possibly Michael Dawson instead of Carragher.  Heskey, Heskey, Heskey... what to do there? Defoe hasn't really done it either has he? Capello obviously likes the impact of Crouch off the bench, so what choice does he have?  Maybe Gerrard up front, or just off Rooney, and Joe Cole playing on his natural left-hand side would be a better option. We shall see - Capello gets paid millions of dollars to make these decisions, let's hope he's right!

Let's just hope it's a win, and they can take control of their destiny in this group.

USA v Slovenia - phew! England v Algeria Sim!

Well that was an exciting game to watch! Finally...something to spark the interest of the US Soccer audience!

Why the US team only manages to play for 45 minutes a game though is beyond me; perhaps it's the 'Hollywood' factor!  It's the classic movie story, the 'good  guys' always have to be knocked down before they get back up off the mat and come good.  Somebody tell Bob Bradley and his players that doesn't have to be the script!.

Think Rocky, think Rambo!  All we needed, had that perfectly good third goal been allowed to stand, was Landon Donovan or Clint Dempsey grabbing the mic at the post match interview and yelling 'Adrian, Adrian...'; I wonder if one of them is married to an 'Adrian' - wouldn't that be a coincidence!? 

With every Hollywood story, there has to be a bad guy; today  it was the referee. I know this is the African World Cup, but does a referee from Mali really have the necessary experience to handle World Cup games?  There were a number of dodgy decisions, but the most astounding was disallowing what would have been the winning goal for the US. I'm English and theoretically a neutral (although a draw was good for England), but I played football for 25 years, and have watched the game for 35 years, and I could see nothing wrong...  "They was Robbed" indeed!!  

A good referee is one you don't really notice; and I have to say that the two in both games today have likely officiated their last games in this tournament - well done Serbia by the way for beating the Germans and throwing that group wide open!

So anyway, on to the third (and most important!) game of the day - England v Algeria - here's EA sports simulation of the game; let's see if they get this one right - they predicted a 2-1 England win vs the USA, so I wouldn't give it too much credibility - but cool graphics nonetheless! 

Fab's Friday!

On the eve of the next round of games for England and the US, here's a quick 4 minute highlight package of the England v US game from last week as a reminder. Personally I think that results (France, Italy and Spain spring to mind) this week have shown that this was not a bad point for England. Had we not created chances I'd be more concerned...but tomorrow is a must win game for both the US and England if they are to progress to the last 16.

Who will play in goal for England against Algeria? Hopefully David James, although I think Fab might stick with Green. Barry will come in for Milner, allowing Gerrard to play down the left, although I think Gerrard was excellent against the US, so hopefully this switch won't make him revert to type...i.e. poor performances in an England shirt.

I'd like to see Crouch on for Heskey; Heskey set up England's goal, and generally did well, but he is just not a goal threat as the one-on-one that he fluffed clearly demonstrated. I would also have Upson or Dawson in for the injured King rather than Carragher. So this would be my team - James, Johnson, Terry, Dawson, Cole, Barry, Gerrard, Lampard, Lennon, Rooney, Crouch... Prediction 2-0 to England...(gulp!)

Spain v Switzerland!

How can I not mention Switzerland upsetting Spain, my pick to win the tournament  today!  What this result should do is put England's draw against the US in perspective. The US is ranked just 6 places below England in the FIFA rankings (8th and 14th) - Spain are ranked 2nd in the world, the Swiss are 24th. This is an upset; England drawing against the US was not.

 

The Spanish press has bemoaned the country's "nightmare" start to the World Cup in South Africa in which the European champions received a "lesson in humility" from unfancied Switzerland.  "Huge disappointment in Durban. Spain blew up against Switzerland and its iron defence," the country's leading daily El Pais opined on its website. "A nightmare has started," said  El Mundo. 

 

It was a one-sided affair, but football is a great game because only one stat counts Switzerland 1 - Spain 0.  Here are some interesting facts from ESPN Stats and Information:

• No team has ever won the World Cup after losing its opening match. Only three teams have ever won the title after losing ANY match, most recently Argentina in 1978.
• Spain completed more passes (574) and created the second-most chances (18) of any team thus far in the tournament. The Red Fury failed to net a goal against a Swiss team that now has five consecutive World Cup clean sheets, a streak of 484 minutes that dates back to 1994.
• Switzerland's 480 touches were the second-fewest of any side to win a World Cup match since 1966. 
• Switzerland's 163 completed passes were the second-fewest of any side to win a World Cup match since 1966. Spain's 574 completed passes were the most of any side thus far, and the most of any side to lose a match in the World Cup.
• Spain outshot Switzerland 24-8 and held a 63-37 percent edge in possession, which matches Brazil for the largest margin at the tournament thus far.

So the First round of games is in the books, and the goals per game ratio that I talked about in a previous post has not yet improved. All 32 participating nations have now played one game, and the 16 matches produced just 25 goals at a rate of 1.56 goals per game. In 2006, we would have had 37 goals and in 2002, more than 40 goals by now; so in terms of encouraging Americans towards the beautiful game, it's not going well for FIFA!

 

ESPN have a nice summary of the first round of games; read it via the link below...

 

First Round Highlights and Lowlights from ESPN

 

 

 

A few thoughts from Down Under...

Mostly Balls' new antipodean contributor - Simon 'I'm a Pom' Wilkins - has sent this interesting story from Australia... Cheers Simon...

In an almost unprecedented attempt to claim someone else's success in sport as their own, the Australian media decided to rename New Zealand as Australasia to mask the terrible effort their own team Australia put in against Germany. It appears that the 'Kiwiroos' will now also represent Australia, and moves are afoot to add an extra star to the NZ flag.

The Australian media have expressed an interest in taking their team outside to be humanely put down to end any embarrasment.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/blogs/blunt-instrument/soccer-in-australia-will-never-be-anything-more-than-a-lame-joke/20100614-ya1q.html

Thankfully they wont need to, as Ghana is expected to add the final nail in the Australian coffin this weekend.

Australasia 1 Slovakia 1 - Kiwis-get-the-point-

More football gibberish to be found on Simon's twitter feed @cerealk777!

Underwhelmed?? I am...

So we've had 4 days of the World Cup in South Africa; that's 11 games, just 18 goals and 4 reds cards...I have to say that overall, while it's exciting that the tournament has finally begun, so far the action itself has been pretty disappointing.

World Cups tend to get off to  slow starts as teams are desperate not to lose their opening match and leave themselves a mountain to climb from day one; we shall have to see if things improve as we get into the second round of games on Thursday.  But the lack of goals has been disappointing, given the fact that this much discussed ball was supposed to lead to more!  So far we've averaged 1.64 goals per game, and a large chunk of that average is thanks to the Germans who scored 4 against Australia.  Just to put that into context...

Average goals-per-match for each World Cup tournament:

5.385 : Switzerland 1954
4.667 : France 1938
4.118 : Italy 1934
4.000 : Brazil 1950
3.889 : Uruguay 1930
3.600 : Sweden 1958
2.969 : Mexico 1970
2.808 : Spain 1982
2.781 : Chile 1962
2.781 : England 1966
2.712 : United States 1994
2.684 : Argentina 1978
2.672 : France 1998
2.553 : West Germany 1974
2.538 : Mexico 1986
2.516 : Korea/Japan 2002
2.297 : Germany 2006
2.212 : Italy 1990
1.636 : South Africa 2010

Now, let's give it a chance as we've yet to see 3 of the tournament's favorites, the best 3 teams in the world - Brazil, Spain and Portugal - but so far, well to be frank, it's been a litle dull! 

The England v USA game was a notable exception, and Germany's demolition of Australia was pretty impressive. Argentina looked excellent (and exciting for about 30 minutes) against Nigeria, and Italy showed signs of life late in today's game, but the rest has been pretty forgettable. No screaming free-kicks, no really special wonder goals (although South Africa's opener was pretty good, as was Park Ji Sung's goal for South Korea against the woeful Greeks).  It's all been a bit below par...

6 of the 8 main seeds (plus the US as my country of residence and adopted home!) have now played - Brazil play their first game on Tuesday (as does fancied Portugal) and Spain (my favorites to win it all) play on Wednesday.  But for now, based on the English grading system (A for excellent to F for fail) here are my marks for the main teams we've seen so far... Happy to hear your views and grades... 

France - Rubbish! F
Argentina - Patchy - great going forward, wobbly in defence - C+
England - Disappointing (as expected) but a few signs of life - D
USA - Equally disappointing, but happier than England - C
Germany - So far the team to beat...but it was Australia A-
Netherlands - Job done, but not up and running yet... C
Italy - Uninspired for about 75 minutes...then woke up...D

  

As for England USA in a little more detail, well I thought it would be a draw and as such I'm not too disappointed - other than the manner of the equalising goal obviously.

But the US are ranked by Fifa as the 14th best team in the world, so I think a draw is not too bad of a result. Should we have won? Would we have won but for Mr Greenfingers, probably yes. But Italy (ranked 5th) just drew with Paraguay (ranked 31st). Cameroon (19th) lost to Japan (45th), and Greece (13th) lost to South Korea (47th).

So in many respects a draw is a credible result for both teams. Algeria (30th) and Slovenia (25th) are our upcoming opposition, but the pressure is now on as these games are must wins...and games we must win well to ensure finishing top of the group and avoiding Germany in the next round. 

English Tabloid Headlines

If you live in the UK then you will probably have seen this headline in your sunday morning papers, but the headline writers back in the UK have had a field day.

"The Hand of Clod" was used by both the News of the World and the Sunday Mirror, in a not so subtle reference to the "Hand of God" "goal" by Argentina's now coach, then star player, Diego Maradona which knocked England out of the Mexico World Cup in 1986.

 

The News of the World ran a sub-headline of "Shock 'N' Draw", and suggested "Rob still too Green for England", describing his "howler" as Yankee doddle to Yankee doodoo.

 

Even the stoic Sunday Times joined in. Under the headline "Green Fingers", and referencing the ongoing 'discussions' about the BP disaster, they claimed that Rob Green's gaff was "One disastrous spill the Yanks won't complain about."

The Daily Star went with "Rob-bish," and added him to an unfortunately growing list of England's Hall of Goalkeeping Horrors under the heading "Rob-bed of the Points."

The Mail On Sunday called it a "Calamity!", but considering David 'Calamity' James is Green's likely replacement should he be dropped, then I'm not too sure that was a good headline choice.

And summing up the likely wrath of the British public should that blunder go on to cause a swift English exit from South Africa, the Sunday Mirror suggested "God Save Our Green" might be a more suitable national anthem.