New Zealand, Nigeria and Cameroon all joined the list of qualifiers today, whilst Russia, France and Portugal all won the first legs of their UEFA region playoff games. The only stalemate was the goalless draw in Athens between Greece and Ukraine; Costa Rica play Uruguay in the first leg of their playoff at 02:00 GMT on Sunday so we’ll have news of what happened in that one bright and early tomorrow morning. Finally for today, thanks for everyone that joined us for our initial live blog, which got underway a little later than planned – sorry about that!
Author Archives: Mike
England v Brazil – Goals
Ahead of the Brazil game this afternoon we thought we’d post some videos of Brazil games gone by. Even though it’s just a friendly, it’s a biggie..it’s Brazil!
Remembrance Day
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)
Robert Enke 1977-2009
Sad news from Germany this evening: goalkeeper Robert Enke of Hannover 96 and Germany committed suicide by diving under a train in the town of Neustadt am Rübenberge near Hannover. He was 32 years old, had won eight caps for Germany and would have been a strong contender for one of the goalkeeping positions in the German squad for the finals: he leaves behind a wife and an adopted eight month old daughter.
Facebook Page Launched
It’s only just been created but 11 Lions now has a Facebook page. If you’re part of the Facebook community, log in and search for 11lions.co.uk and you’ll find us; I’m heading over there now to add some more stuff.
Squad For Brazil Game Announced, As Are More Injuries…
Here’s the squad for the game on Saturday (ITV, 4:15pm):
Goalkeepers: Ben Foster, Robert Green & Joe Hart
Defenders: Wayne Bridge, Wes Brown, Gary Cahill, Glen Johnson, Joeleon Lescott, John Terry, Matt Upson & Steven Warnock
Midfielders: Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Tom Huddlestone, Jermaine Jenas, Frank Lampard, James Milner, Shaun-Wright Philips & Ashley Young
Forwards: Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe & Wayne Rooney
Missing: Ashley Cole (fractured leg, will apparently miss a few weeks), Carlton Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard (who – despite being supposedly injured - started on the bench at Anfield before being used as a sub v Birmingham this evening), Emile Heskey, David James and Aaron Lennon. David Beckham will be missing due to LA Galaxy’s playoff game against the CIA’s team in Texas, Houston Dynamo.
A point worth making here: despite currently being placed second in the Premiership, there are no players from Arsenal.
Dunga announced the Brazil squad last week and contains no domestic players because Serie A (the Brazilian version) is coming to a climax; with four games left, there are only six points between the top six clubs.
The Brazilian squad:
Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar (Milan), Doni (Roma)
Defenders: Dani Alves (Barcelona), Fabio Aurelio (Liverpool), Juan (Roma), Maicon (Inter), Michel Bastos (Lyon), Lucio (Inter), Luisao (Benfica) & Naldo (Werder Bremen)
Midfielders: Alex (CSKA Moscow), Julio Baptista (Roma), Elano (Galatasary), Josue (Wolfsburg), Lucas (Liverpool), Kaka (Real Madrid), Felipe Melo (Juventus), Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos) & Fabio Simplicio (Palermo)
Forwards: Carlos Eduardo (Hoffenheim), Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Nilmar (Villareal), Robinho (Manchester City) and Clive Tyldesley’s favourite Givanildo Vieira de Souza (aka ‘Hulk’)Â of FC Porto.
More later in the week, but before anyone gets carried away, our record against Brazil is pretty ropey. Since we first met in 1956, we’ve won three times in 22 games, the last victory was almost 20 years ago when ‘Match Of The Day’ anchorman Gary Lineker scored the only goal of the game and Dunga was a player rather than the manager; we’ve lost three of the last five against them.
Lastly, on a sad note, it looks very much as if Dean Ashton of West Ham United and England will have to retire at the ridiculously young age of 25; he sustained an ankle injury at an England training camp in 2007 which he’s never fully recovered from.
Premiership Preview: Steven Gerrard’s Mystery Injury
It’s early November and we’re still another seventh months until the tournament starts but I must admit that the injuries to Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard are beginning to worry me. According to Radio 5, Gerrard hasn’t trained for two weeks and Ferdinand’s overall fitness this season may have contributed to some of his indifferent performances when he has appeared for Manchester United. Still, it’s probably better to be injured now and we’re not the only country with a problem: I strongly suspect that Fernando Torres’ injury is probably more serious than either of theirs.
No doubt about the game of the weekend: Chelsea v Manchester United on Sunday (Sky Sports 1), which – for a change - has been comfortably overtaken in the hype stakes by the Hay/Valuev fight this evening. Both teams go into this meeting having drawn in their respective Champions League games this week: United had to come back from two goals down at home to CSKA Moscow, whilst Chelsea drew 2-2 at Athletico Madrid. Both of them are through to the knockout stages.
In other news…Sir David Beckham will be rejoining Milan when the MLS season finishes, probably just as well for Milan who are currently nine points behind leaders Juventus…’loveable rogue’ Austin ‘Jack’Â Warner is playing up about a handbag…and I’m going to post this before IE decides to hang again.
Finally, we’re going to be trying something different next Saturday – if you click on the 11lionslive link above, you’ll be taken to our live blog page where we’ll be attempting to cover the England v Brazil friendly as well as the UEFA playoffs. Should be another post up early next week with squad details, so for now enjoy the rest of the weekend and thanks for reading.
Premiership Preview
Has to be a quick one this weekend due to the imminent arrival of most of wife’s family for lunch, then I’m straight off to a game in the Championship. Last weekend I managed to watch no football whatsoever due to a family gathering and a wedding (‘Likely Lads’ moment: I was the guest with the mobile phone looking at score updates from Liverpool/Man UÂ during the speeches), so I’m looking forward to this weekend, especially Ajax v Feyenoord tomorrow lunchtime (ESPN)
It’s about an hour or so to go before the lunchtime game: Arsenal v Spurs (12:45pm, Sky Sports 1) looks a tasty one, Arsenal have won all four of their home league games this season and Spurs have a decent away record; the rest of today’s slate is notable for the players that are missing. Johnson and Gerrard won’t feature in Liverpool’s game at Fulham and Rio Ferdinand is doubtful for the Manchester United v Blackburn game (5:15pm ESPN).
Couple of random thoughts to finish with: Fabio Cappello called Michael Owen his ‘tormentor’ during the week and he’s right as Owen presents a particular problem. He can still score important goals but occasionally his overall contribution is negligible; scoring a goal against Barnsley in the Carling Cup is not the same as delivering the goods in the World Cup finals but I wouldn’t bet against Owen getting a place if one of the strikers higher up the England pecking order gets an injury that rules them out of the tournament.
Ashley Cole won’t be in the Chelsea team at the Reebok; this means he could stay at home and watch his omnipresent wife on that talent show she’s on…but how terrible/hilarious would it be if John & Edward – and it may not matter that they are Irish – ended up doing the official World Cup song? Perhaps Peter Crouch could be persuaded to adapt their ‘hairstyle’ and maybe do a John Barnes style rap. Let’s get that rumour started on Twitter and Facebook immediately.
So there we go: a truly horrifying thought on Hallowe’en weekend.
Premiership Preview: The Clocks Go BACK
After a hectic weekend in European competition which didn’t go particularly well for some of the Premiership teams, we’re back to the bread and butter (or should that be the champagne and caviar) stuff. No doubt about this weekend’s biggest game: Liverpool v Manchester United on Sunday. Anyone tuning in to Sky Sports on Sunday afternoon wanting to watch some sort of epoch defining clash of the titans between Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney might be disappointed though: Gerrard limped off during Liverpool’s home defeat in the Champions League against Lyonand Rooney didn’t feature at all in United’s win in Moscow over CSKA.
There are five other games featuring multiple England stars: no surprise that all of them apart from Manchester City v Fulham are being televised. Coverage kicks off on Saturday lunchtime when Aston Villa travel to Wolves (12.45pm GMT Sky Sports 1), then ESPN has Chelsea v Blackburn at 5.30pm. On Sunday Liverpool/Man U is followed by West Ham v Arsenal but make sure you check the kick off times on Sunday as the clocks go back one hour in Britain.
That’s about it for this week, apart from a couple of updates: it’s probably fair to say that what Diego Maradona said to the press after the victory in Montevideo was pretty rude for live TV and probably sounded worse in vernacular Spanish than it did in translation. It’s also looking extremely likely that David Beckham will rejoin Milan after the MLS season finishes: Brian Glanville (the elder statesman of British football writers) has some interesting things to say about Beckham’s position in the England team in November’s issue of World Soccer.
Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend…and remember to re-set anything that tells you what time it is!
England Call Up For Beachball?
Probably not…which is a shame. It’s got a really good goalscoring record against one of the top teams in the Premiership.
Anyway, here’s the line up for the UEFA playoffs: all of them kick off at 7pm GMT on Saturday November 14th 2009.
Greece v Ukraine
Ireland v France
Portugal v Bosnia & Herzegovina
Russia v Slovenia
It’s also worth noting that on the Saturday the second leg of the New Zealand/Bahrain (0-0) playoff kicks off at 7am GMT that Saturday and the first leg of Costa Rica v Uruguay kicks off an hour later than the European games.
Returns legs for the UEFA region are the following Wednesday, winners qualify for the finals. Premiership preview should be up on Thursday.