Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Its being reported (in the Sun all be it) that their was a feud between Steven Gerrard and John Terry during the world cup that could have been to blame for the teams uneasy time in South Africa.

It has been said that David Beckham played the intermediate to calm the situation down. After England won their only game of the world cup, John Terry gathered all the players in a huddle. A very captain like thing to do!!

Gerrard didn’t like this as he saw Terry as someone trying to play a role he didn’t have.

Now ive read a couple of blogs about this and the consensus mainly is that it’s a non story, they fell out, so what. I however don’t feel it is a non story (if in fact it is true)

The captain of a football team should lead from the front, they should be strong, they should be seen, they should be heard and most of all they should be respected by all other players and England did not have that figure in the camp. Gerrard for all his footballing skills is not a great captain for his country. I didn’t see him much in the media and on the pitch he blended in too much.

There was always potential for friction in the team a John Terry has had his captaincy revoked, yet he wont for one second think he should have done as he didn’t get it taken away at Chelsea.

John Terry in the world cup acted like a captain would. If it wasn’t for Rio, then i think this would continue in the England camp until one of the players were dropped. Rio as a captain would be everything you need him to be, he has the respect of all the players and i don’t believe JT would try to undermine him like he obviously has done with Gerrard. The sooner Rio gets back to being captain, the better it will be for the England team.

Basically, it’s all Hesky’s fault!

Source: The Sun

This world cup has been branded as boring, if we all take a step back and look at what has been going on it is far from boring. Over the last few days we have soon a footballing nation implode in public, and no im not talking about England!!

France were, not to long ago, European and World Champions at the same time. Today they are picking up the pieces of a breakdown in the squad with the players managers and coaches that all happened in public. I’ve left it till now to blog about to see if anything more happened.

On Wednesday, France played Mexico and lost 2 – 0. At half time in the game, Anelka got subbed, the team was playing bad as a whole so seeing one of them changed was not a surprise. It was plain to see however that something was not right, Subs were standing behind the goal instead of the dugout and the team didn’t play with any passion or desire. Read the rest of this entry »

So far in this world cup we have had two good games, up until last night it was one. The one game we have seen goals in is the Germany game in which they smashed 4 past Australia.

Most of the players are blaming the football. As with every world cup, we have a world cup football, this year it’s called the Jabulani.

Its almost tradition for all the teams in the world cup to complain about the football they are using, it happens at every tournament. This year however, there is one team that isn’t complaining. The Germans. The Germans have been using the Jabulani in the Bundesliga since February! That means they have been playing with the football for 4 months. England claim that they only had access to the football 15 days before the tournament.

Adidas have said in a statement that they sent the FA 30 of the new footballs to Wembley back in February as it sent all nations 30 footballs. Some of the teams in the Bundesliga used it in games since February and these teams have sponsorship deals with Adidas. In Germany the league doesn’t have an official ball so all teams play with a different ball.

Read the rest of this entry »

England drew 1 – 1 last night with USA, not the result we were all looking for but the next two games should produce two wins. Here are the highlights from the BBC

Source: BBC

I’m late today with this post, ive been busy making fire ribs for the BBQ!!

South Korea won their match this morning 2 – 0 this morning against Greece. The game was quite good, specially compared to what i watched yesterday!! Greece never really looked like they would get into the game and score, it was a deserved win for South Korea.

I’m currently watching the Argentina V Nigeria game, Argentina 1 – 0 up and they look comfortable so far, Nigeria will have to step up their game if they want to knock two past and win.

Then its England, i don’t even know what to say!! Capello hasn’t revealed his team yet, that’s coming later. There has been a lot of media speculation surrounding USA and how they should not be underestimated. I’m not sure if something has changed but i don’t see them as a dominating force, on their day, England can and will beat anyone, if England do not win today then it will be their own fault and not because USA are better than us.

All i can say is im glad there are another 62 games to go because day 1 was disappointing.

The first game was to be expected, neither team wanted to let a goal in and as a result we had a 1-1 draw just as i predicted. First half belonged to Mexico but the second half was South Africa’s, they were unlucky in the end not to score a winner at the end.

The second game of the day i expected to be a bit more lively, France have some real quality players and i was almost asleep with boredom by the time the game finished, France tried to turn the screw a little towards the end but it wasnt enough, a really disappointing 2 – 2

The time has come, Its day one of the world cup and there are two games to be played. Im hoping to write a prediction and a review of each game, however, if i don’t get to watch / listen to a game then im not going to review it, obviously!

Game 1

South Africa V Mexico – 15:00

A tough call. The build up for this world cup ends today. Everyone gets so excited they expect the game to be enthralling. In reality, nobody wants to loose the opening game of the world cup. Because of this, i think its going to be a 1-1 draw.

Game 2

Uruguay V France – 19:30

Second game of the tournament and the game with the most viewers today. Few Friday night drinks watching the football and i wont care who has won! As a prediction France will take this, they will give away a hand ball but they will win the game! Uruguay do have Forlan however which i think will have a great game, i even tip him to be the top scorer of the group stages, i think France have more goal scorers though and they will take it towards the end of the game.

Capello seems to be a guy that is really easy going until you step out of line, he has the aurora of a person everybody respects and if he says something then you listen and take it on board. He also seems like the type of guy that would be open to suggestion and take other peoples thoughts into consideration.

He stamped out the WAG’s which was the most sensible thing anyone to do with England has done. He has also installed respect and discipline into the dressing room. Now he is attempting to bring into line the media, and more importantly the paparazzi. I feel a little old school when it comes to how a manager conducts his business. The manager should have the final word and most importantly everything should be done behind closed doors.

In keeping with my expectations Capello has blasted a group of photographers who were trying to take pictures inside a treatment room. After gathering them round he asked them why they were taking pictures inside the room, they didn’t have an answer!

The papas were obviously trying to get a picture of an injury but the media add remarkable hype to the slightest thing. If there is something to know then Capello will tell us. Good on him i say Read the rest of this entry »

We all know America is a massive place, it seriously is, the state of Florida alone is the size of the UK. Maybe this story shouldn’t be a surprise but it is to be.

Football.co.uk have today ran with a story saying how their will be double the amount of USA fans compared to England fans in Rustenburg on Saturday.

Apparently the USA have sold almost twice the amount of tickets England have for our opening game of the World Cup. England sold 71,000 tickets for the opening game and USA 130,000. When i first read this it urged me to write this blog post but as i was writing it i realised, how do you get 201,000 people into a 40,000 seater stadium? Is Darren Brown attending?

***UPDATE***

I read the news article like a moron, the story says the total number of tickets for the whole tournament not for that specific game.

Confusion Causing A Random Post Started Here: Football.co.uk

Please Please Please find something else to bang on about on the news. Im not sure if its just radio 1 but their news is pathetic. Two days after England played in a friendly that wasnt even televised and the news is still talking about Rooney swearing at the Ref, Maybe the ref was a cock!

Do the English media have nothing better to do than predict impending doom before a major tournament? I’m surprised they haven’t pulled up some scandal from Capello’s childhood and tried to string him up yet.

How about the media and Radio 1 get over something that happened two days ago and start championing something positive.