World Cup Soccer News - england

It's Harry's game as Capello era ends

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:25:23 +0000

As the dust clears from the impact of the news that Fabio Capello had called it a day with/been fired by England, the Football Association have a minor headache to deal with in their search for a replacement. Harry Redknapp has had his name on the job for some time, at least since Tottenham Hotspur's dazzling display in last year's Champions League convinced the doubters he could cut it in international football. But what will Spurs chairman Daniel Levy be thinking tonight, only hours after breathing a sigh of relief that his coach had been acquitted of tax evasion at Sout hwark Crown Court. Levy has played hardball more than once before when his star attraction wanted to leave. Tottenham are flying this season again, third in the league, seven points off the leaders and playing the most attractive football in the country. The loss to Spurs of their mercurial manager will be painful for a club finally sniffing success after years of frustration. Qualifying for the Champions League may seem immaterial as Redknapp was always going to leave for England in the summer, but a league championship would have been a fitting send-off. Perhaps Redknapp will wait until July, or take the job part-time from now, but however one looks at it, the unexpected end of Capello's England career has left a right mess for the F.A. to clean up. Capello won around two-thirds of his games and England most recently beat World Champions Spain, but lost when it counted, miserably against Germany at the World Cup Finals in South Africa. England were lethargic and insipid from the moment they touched down and lost Rio Ferdinand to injury, failed to beat the USA and Algeria before they scraped past Slovenia, only to be thrashed in the second round. He has manifestly failed for the first time in his career, and his English misadventure tarnishes his previously exemplary record. Never mastering the language helped nobody, while his stern style, although at first praised for instilling much-needed discipline in his overpaid charges, became brittle and unhelpful in the final dispute which caused his downfall. Pride came before his fall, as the Italian publicly slammed his employers on RAI television, precipitating an acrimonious parting of ways today in London. He was foolish to speak out like that, but the F.A. also failed to establish an effective relationship in the first place where both parties respected each other. Being overruled over John Terry's captaincy for a second time was too much for Fabio to take. Yet sadly Capello always seemed a hired gun rather than an integral team member, his poor English hampering a full immersion into a country and its football culture. Allegedly eschewing the telephone, Capello's communication line to the F.A. became fatally garbled when assistant Franco Baldini, who spoke fluent English, left to become Roma's general manager last autumn. Redknapp seems to tick all the boxes for England, but we must hold our horses before we can toast our first silverware since 1966. Will the inability to bring in foreign players do for chequebook-happy Harry, and will the lack of regular games frustrate his pally style? Or will the higher level of competition simply prove too much for his abilities? Has a nation once again got drunk on the idea of a magical saviour instead of looking at the bigger picture of a national football culture behind Germany's in organisation and tactics and trailing Holland and Spain in terms of technique? And why has the F.A. still not introduced a winter break, one of the key reasons for England's demise at the World Cup, which Capello highlighted. FABIO CAPELLO'S ENGLAND RECORD: Played 42, Won 28 (67%), Drew 8, Lost 6 World Cup 2010: Second Round (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags Euro 2012 football

When the Kings came to town

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 02:16:37 +0000

England 1:0 Spain Wembley Stadium, London Wembley was full, sold on the dream of the king's touch , as the world's No.1 soccer nation Spain dropped by for an evening. A strange pre-match atmosphere, as the usual patriotic fantasy rang increasingly hollow: No-one expected England to win and most were hoping for a defeat short of embarrassing. A 90,000 defending army expected its fortress to be breached, and that it would only be a matter of when, not if the Spanish Armada would get revenge for 1588. They had their full team out: Xavi, Iniesta and David Villa were facing Phil Jones, Joleon Lescott and Danny Welbeck - ouch! In the first five minutes the red sea washed over Wembley as expected, Spain marinating possession and donning the mantle of the home side as they took their game confid ently to their raw hosts. England were second best, pinned back in their own half, unable to string multiple passes together or create moments of danger. This was no ordinary home game. Spain enjoyed the (three) lions' share of of the ball and out-shot England 21 to 3 overall, but never showed real 'animo' until they chased an equalizer in the final quarter, inst ead stroking the ball around as gently as crown green bowls. It was a lesson for the land of macho power-play from a visiting maestro. Simple yet brilliant: Play it to feet and flick it quickly when danger nears but never lose possession. Yet Fabio Capello's team still merited their win for holding firm having stolen the lead against the run of play. Scott Parker's astute anchoring and his last-ditch lunges saved the day more than once, while the lone strike was a goal made in England. James Milner muscled away on the left and won a free-kick. He looped his set piece into the melée and Darren Bent soared highest to nod the ball against the post. Enter the wily old head of Frank Lampard, increasingly tipped to lose his place as he drew level with Bryan Robson on 90 caps, as the only one following up as an open goal gaped. England wanted it more and were hungry for the scalp of FIFA's No.1-ranked nation. Their defence held firm and withstood the Spanish onslaught; job done. Yet Spain were clearly a class apart and England fans left buoyant but slightly subdued, knowing a narrow win had probably flattered the hosts. Even the loudest loudmouths at Wembley began hollering at England to pass and keep the ball down after a few minutes of watching la furia roja hold sway with effortless élan. The fruits of tiki-taka are still ripe, a playing system streets ahead of any other in 20 11. England and other nations play in a linear fashion, hitting front men with crosses or runners in channels or working the ball upfield with diagonal passes or dribbles. Spain eschew the 'droit au but' approach and prefer to keep possession, spinning a spider's web of flicks and passing triangles which send ball-watchers' heads spinning as the play changes direction with every pass. Only late in the game with the introduction of Fernando Torres to supplement Ces c Fabregas did Spain attack in a more 'vertical' way. Tiki-taka is maddeningly predictable yet unplayable at the same time, a winning formula that has bagged the European Championship and World Cup in an unprecedented golden age for a hitherto jinxed giant. Spain are not all-conquering however and have already been beaten five times since 2008 as it happens, twice competitively - the USA beat them 2-0 at 2009's Confederations Cup and Switzerland edged them 1-0 at last year's World Cup. Make that six losses for the champions now. Friendly defeats have come in Italy (2-1) this summer, and in Portugal (4-0) and Argentina (4-1) last year. It is as if in away friendlies the Spaniards take their feet off the gas and use them for practice and make sure they do not lose when it really matters, while the home teams are eager to beat the World Champions. The US beat Spain in 2009 through conceding the wings and forming t wo solid banks of four to frustrate their close-passing through the middle, leaving American speedsters Landon Donovan and Charlie Davies to chase balls over midfield and stop the Spanish full-backs overlapping. Like England at Wembley, Switzerland grabbed a goal and kept a tight ship to frustrate the more talented Spaniards and hold out for a close win. Spain are beatable. Being reigning European and World champions can become a millstone - everyone wants to say they beat you so they raise their game accordingly. As Spain manager Vicente del Bosque confirms, "Anything except winning will be seen as a disaster and that doesn't help us at all." For England, there was little to get excited about, but some green shoots showing promise: Danny Welbeck and Jack Rodwell impressed, Phil Jones fought manfully out of position, while man of the match Scott Parker proved why he should have gone to South Africa. England remain an underachiever on the competitive stage but had beaten three World Cup holders at Wembley before Saturday: West Germany were dispatched 3-1 in 1954 and 2-0 in 1974, while Argentina with a teenage Diego Maradona succumbed 3-1 under the twin towers in 1978. Beating the mighty Spain in 2011 in a friendly will not count for much in the long run, though a win is a win is a win. Euro 2012 will be a whole different ball game. ENG: Hart, G.Johnson, Lescott, Jagielka, Cole, Walcott (Downing 46'), Jones (Rodwell 56'), Parker (Walker 85'), Milner (A.Johnson 76'), Lampard (Barry 56'), Bent (Wellbeck) 63'. SPA: Casillas (Reina 46'), Arbeloa, Pique, Ramos (Puyol 74'), Alba, Busquets (Torres 64'), Alonso, Xavi (Fabregas 46'), Iniesta (Cazorla 74'), Silva (Mata 46'), Villa. Goal: Lampard 49'. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

FIFA back down in poppy row

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:09:43 +0000

England will be allowed to wear poppies on their shirts against Spain on Saturday after all, albeit as an armband. An extraordinary row had been stirred up after the Football Association announced the England team would sport the Remembrance Day flower for their friendly against the World Champions. Scotland and Wales plan to do the same for their games against Cyprus and Norway. FIFA reacted monolithically by refusing to countenance it, citing their regulations against "political, religious or commercial" symbols on national team shirts. Political leaders and royalty reacted with rage, the London media went into frenzy and two members of the English Defence League, a protest group which draws a number of soccer thugs, scaled the roof of FIFA House in Zurich to protest. Ignoring the fact that several nations' shirts have Christian crosses or Islamic crescents on them, or that Adidas, FIFA's favourite manufacturer, Nike, Umbro and other brands already have their logos emblazoned on shirts, the accusation that the poppy was a political symbol was well wide of the mark. Poppies are ubiquitous in England in the week leading up to the 11th of September commemoration of those who served and/or died in conflicts. Military veterans man the entrances and exits to every major railway station, adults and children alike wear them and no TV presenter would be seen dead without the little red flower in their lapel. Indeed, the pressure to be seen honouring the fallen has led to some complaining of 'poppy fascism'. But it is definitely not "political". All parties unite to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, Britain's national war memorial. The poppy, which comes from Canadian John McCrae's 'In Flanders Fields' poem and American campaigner Moina Michael, succeeds in uniting the nation in quiet reflection, pacifists and non-pacifists alike. On that basis, FIFA should never have interfered with something so close to a nation's heart which was a one-off because it just so happened England had a friendly at home a day after Armistice Day. The interventions of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and future king Prince William were probably due to their unpleasant experiences at the World Cup vote a year ago, where both left fuming at having been lied to by FIFA Ex.Co. members. At the same time, did England need to wear a poppy? Their alternative plans of having a giant red flower on the pitch and having poppies on England training shirts and tracksuits and a minute's silence before kick-off surely would have made the point that football remembers too. 1,000 servicemen and women are due to attend to as part of the FA's 'Ticke ts for Troops' giveaway. Indeed, there has been a creeping military feel to England home games in the last few years. Now it is customary for uniformed soldiers to carry the flags around the field, to sometimes line up to be honoured and for the P.A. system to encourage the crowd to applaud, as 'Help for Heroes' collectors raise money for the families of those serving in Afghanistan. The connection between the national team and the national army is becoming a little blurred in England, and FIFA were right to assume all national shirts should be left alone, but equally the strength of feeling in Britain on the issue was something they should have been aware of before clumsily putting their foot down. In terms of football politics, England and FIFA look as far apart as ever, with the motherland of the game having given up the dream of ever hosting the World Cup again. Until regime change happens in Zurich, the FA can content themselves with mini-victories like this one. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

City's pyrrhic victory?

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:11:48 +0000

Manchester United 1:6 Manchester City Scorelines don't come much more amazing than Sunday's Mancunian derby, but was there really much reason to celebrate, however many records tumbled at Old Trafford? With a few days' recuperation from that shellshock of a final score, can the result be deemed a welcome riposte to or even wholescale power shift from the hegemony of moneybags Chelsea and Manchester United, or another symptom of the obscene, out-of-control spending in the English top division which is upsetting its natural order of competition? Watching Fergie's nose rubbed into the dirt certainly had its charms for those of us who do not buy into the 'Glory glory Man United' hype machine, as the Scot's lazily applied moniker of 'football genius' suddenly hung by a thread after such a an utter pasting. And it was not unpleasant to see City's supporters for once get the upper hand on their storied and hitherto more monied rivals. The Blues have played Torino to Juventus, Espanol to Barcelona for so many long and grueling years, that anyone's sense of fairness would not begrudge them a moment in the sun. For my whole life Man City, who last lifted the Championship in 1968 and whose last taste of glory was the 1970 Cup Winners' Cup before last season's FA Cup win, have seemed cursed to underachieve. Even when they looked like winning the FA Cup in 1981, their goalscorer Tommy Hutchinson then put through his own net to let Tottenham back in to triumph, after a replay . A sense of injustice turned into angry frustration among some fans, a similar phenomenon one can witness at Cardiff City or Leeds, but after an endless string of disappointments, along came rich men from the East bearing gifts. David could fear Goliath no more and City had arrived. Yet the underdog tag which won City sympathy is fast evaporating in the face of such a merciless spending spree by the Abu Dhabian owners. Just take a look at the Blues' winning team. Whilst five were Englishmen, only one had come through the City youth system (Micah Richards). United by comparison fielded eight Brits throughout the 90 minutes, two of whom had been developed in-house. But City's foreign legion surely eclipsed United's, whose overseas stars comprised Anderson, David De Gea, Patrice Evra, Javier Hernandez and Nani. Compare that to the ambrosial cornucopia of Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli, Gael Clichy, Edin Dzeko, Alexsandar Kolarov, Vincent Kompany, Samir Nasri and Yaya Touré, plus the Premier League's top entertainer of the hour, David Silva. United had been outspent off the field and thus outgunned on the pitch. With the Arab owners pouring money into a new academy complex and showing no signs of acknowledging any recession, City will soon spend their way to the heights of England, Europe and the world. With no restriction on salaries, money does not just talk in the Premier League, it bellows. The pyrrhic element to this famous win will tell in the signal it has sent to soccer's governing bodies. If the Blues maintain their unerring march to European conquest, UEFA and FIFA will be forced to act and impose control on clubs' spending as the playing field will have become too tilted. City's devastating victory shows the Premier League is absurdly top-heavy, listing like the Mary Rose into the waters of the Solent. There is no pretence of a 20-team competition and a gulf now exists even amongst the top teams. On any given Sunday, to plagiarise a term from American Football, Man U, the reigning champions, should not lose 6-1 at home to anyone. What made it so shocking was that it seemed no aberration, no one-off. Does it have to be like this? No. Later that night some miles to the south, the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers fought out a much closer NFL game at Wembley. In America, that well-known communist regime, a salary cap keeps its football field level, and the worse teams get first pick of the best young players. The more the Premier League continues with no regulation, the more meaningless games like Sunday's will become. Bring on the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules. Doubtless some new fans in Asia will be sporting blue shirts instead of their elder siblings' red ones, but there was a time when you supported a team for reasons other than it was far richer than the others, who are clearly finding it increasingly impossible to compete. With this elephant in the room, Sunday's thrashing of United was less proof that the Premier League is unpredictable and competitive, but that its free-market model is in serious need of financial regulation. For it seemed less a case of one club outplaying another through superior football than one simply outspending another, in an increasingly frightening way. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Hillsborough truth in sight at last

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:15:39 +0000

The end to an arduous 22-year campaign for truth surrounding the Hillsborough disaster could at last be in sight as the UK government has confirmed it will release all contemporary documents relating to the day in question. After a 139,000-strong online petition and a moving parliamentar y debate led Ho me Secretary Theresa May to announce up to 300,000 files will be released. The relatives of the 96 Liverpool fans who died at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final have maintained a relentless campaign for government minutes to be publicised, to prove once and for all that Reds fans were innocent and that South Yorkshire police alone were to blame for the tragedy and lied to cover the fact up. While the famous Taylor Report , which paved the way for the all-seater stadia of the Premier League we have today, exonerated the supporters and confirmed the police were responsible for the crowd control which turned fatal, the South Yorkshire force's role in spreading misinformation has never been confirmed officially. What seems clear is that the policeman in charge of opening the gates that April day, David Duckenfield , tried to cover his back by putting out stories to the FA, government and press of drunken and rowdy Liverpool fans barging their way into the Leppings Lane end and crushing their colleagues to death. This dishonest spin was taken up and amplified by a Rupert Murdoch tabloid and a Conservative government already hostile to football and its fan culture - at the time the impish Sports Minister Colin Moynihan was running an ill-conceived campaign to make English supporters carry I.D. cards to gain entry to stadia. Margaret Thatcher's bullish press officer Bernard Ingh am told the cabinet "tanked-up" fans were to blame, while oafish local Tory MP Irvine Patnick, despite not having been at the match, gleefully supplied the ammo for the Sun's notorious headline 'The Truth', which claimed Reds fans had stolen from, sexually assaulted and urinated upon their fellow supporters as they lay dying. Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie remains unapologetic for the nadir of British journalism, telling an after-dinner crowd in 2006: "I wasn't sorry then and I'm not sorry now because we told the truth." Clearing the final hurdle in the campaign for truth has probably arrived on the back of this summer's phone-hacking scandal , when a nexus of collusion between the Murdoch press, the police and politicians was laid bare for the public to punish. Those affected by the disaster, from the victims' relatives to the millions who had passed through English turnstiles to stand in caged pens and who empathised fully with th e tragic events as they unfolded, may soon be able to relax in the knowledge the whole truth of the darkest day in English soccer has been established. Football history has recorded Hillsborough not only as a human tragedy but as the death knell for the fortress-like stadia of cages and barbed wire and gritty supporter culture which was the norm throughout the 1970s and '80s. Hooliganism, which seemed out of control a t times in the 1980s, lost its sheen after Hillsborough, as the seriousness of fans losing their lives was brought home to one and all in England. I n the aftermath of the disaster , the removal of perimeter fencing for the Liverpool v Everton FA Cup Final heralded the spectator-friendly stadia we know today, and along with England's heroics at Italia '90, beckoned new private investment in th e game which would become the behemoth of today's FA Premier League. Tragically, it took a human disaster for morons to realise violence was stupid, and for the authorities to realise that crowds and revenues would grow if they treated their paying customers with respect. The 96 dead, whose names were read out in parliament today, ranged in age from 10 to 67 and included the cousin of current Liverpool FC captain Steven Gerrard . (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Football falls victim to London riots

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:06:05 +0000

The violence which has traumatised London for the past four days has led to the cancellation of several games, including the England v Netherlands international friendly. With Britain in a daze from the unexpected rioting and looting which has now spread to several cities , the Football Association had no choice but to cancel Wednesday's Wembley match, with all available police urgently needed to regain control of the streets. The Dutch squad, due to fly out from Amsterdam on Tuesday, were informed the police could not guarantee their or their fans' safety. The KNVB may seek compensation. A friendly between Ghana and Nigeria in Watford was also axed, along with League Cup ties at Bristol City, Charlton, Crystal Palace and West Ham. Tottenham Hotspur saw its ticket office put out of action following the first outbreak of trouble on Saturday night following the fatal shooting of a man in the neighbourhood by the Metropolitan P olic e. Fulham, QPR, Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Watford, Leyton Orient, Dagenham & Redbridge and Barnet are all due to play at home in the London area this weeken d but those games must be in doubt if the violence flares up again. With 16,000 police on the streets, the capital city was quiet tonight but there was serious trouble in Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham and above all in Manchester and Salford. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

UEFA U21: Spain and the Czechs go through; England crash out with Ukraine

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 01:43:59 +0000

England 1:2 Czech Republic Welbeck 76', Pekhart 89', Chramosta 94'. England produced their best performance of the tournament but crashed out of the European Under-21 Championship after conceding two late-late goals in Viborg.Stuart Pearce's men appeared to have earned their passage after a Danny Welbeck header with a quarter of an hour to go repaid their superiority in the second half, but their defence, of all things, slipped up with 89 minutes on the clock to allow a killer equaliser for the Czech Republic .As the white shirts pushed up in desperate hope during stoppage time, the Czechs added a breakaway second to confirm a night of misery for England and a remarkable turnaround.Both teams had made three changes to their previous starting lineups.For England, the much-criticised Michael Mancienne made way at defensive midfield for the more muscular Fabrice Muamba, while Jack Rodwell and Danny Rose, who both disappointed against Ukraine, were on the bench, replaced by Tom Cleverley and Scott Sinclair in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Welbeck and Dean Sturridge the alternating points of attack.The Czechs also make three switches in a 4-1-4-1 shape with Jan Moravek and Lukas Marecek in midfield tandem in place of Lukas Vacha and Adam Hlousek , while Libor Kozak replaced Tomas Pekhart at centre-forward.Both sides had four men on yellow-cards in danger of missing the semi-final, yet both started brightly, knowing only a win would suffice. Tomas Vaclik's gloves were the first to be dirtied, comfortably palming away a Welbeck effort from a tight angle in the tenth minute.But the Czechs carved out the first clear chance, when Marecek pulled the trigger from ten yards in the 17th minute, only to see Frankie Fielding's quick reflexes tip it away from a certain goal. Was luck on England's side?Scott Sinclair was forging buccaneering runs up the left flank, careering past Czech defenders, but it was the central Europeans' darting through the m iddle which looked more likely to produce a goal.Finally some interplay from England with a multi-pass move in the 27th minute ending with Tom Cleverley volleying into the side-netting from a Ryan Bertrand cross. Maybe Pearce had read Kierkegaard after all.Chris Smalling's exquisite dummy on the half hour mark sent two Czechs chasing shadows, as England appeared to be on the threshold of either a surprising win or yet another disappointing draw or loss.Four minutes before the break, another of Sinclair's high-speed runs almost yielded a goal as the Swansea attacker cut in from the left and rifled a foot over the bar. England looked, dare we say it, almost comfortable, while the Czechs seemed to have taken their foot off the accelerator after half an hour's power play.0-0 at the half but both coaches Pearce and Jakub Dovalil went in painfully aware that Denmark had dominated for 45 minutes on Saturday before ending up defeated and eliminated.The Viborg stadium was enshrouded in a cloud of drizzle at the interval but the expected downpour did not follow and the pitch was not as slippery as might have been feared.It took England a quarter of an hour to resume their green shoots of the first half but a nice spell of possession (yes from England!) emerged just short of the hour mark, with Sturridge finding space on the right and Cleverley swivelling and shooting over the bar.Pearce swapped Jordan Henderson for Henri Lansbury in the 63rd, with less than half an hour to snatch that vital, and increasingly deserved, goal.If there were inspiration waiting, it looked like coming from Sturridge, whose footballing brain stood out. In the 71st minute he almost chipped the goalkeeper from the touchline 30 yards away, his set-piece landing on the roof of the net.Pearce consulted his pack again and played a new card for the first time in Denmark: Marc Albrighton, but before the Aston Villa winger could enter the fray, England struck gold.Sturridge swung in a cross from the right and Welbeck, racing into the area, met it perfectly with a glancing header past the despairing Vaclik. A breakthrough at last. Lansbury's drive three minutes later whistled inches past the post as English confidence was in the ascendancy.Eight minutes remaining and Sturridge again the instigator, driving into the box from the right and causing momentary panic as Vaclik failed to hold onto his shot.With the anxiety on Czech minds, a double substitution: Jan Chramosta replaced Moravek and the qualifiers' top-gunner Tomas Pekhart came on for the ponderous Kozak. Mi lan Cerny glanced a header wide in the 83rd to remind England not to celebrate yet, but the night looked increasingly to belong to the Northern Europeans.With English minds turning to Switzerland and the semi-finals, disaster struck in the 90th minute. Marcel Gecov's cross from the right deflected off Welbeck and fell invitingly for Chramosta to stick out a boot just ahead of Smalling and lift the ball over Fielding. Kyle Walker hugged the net disconsolate.Now it was the Czechs' turn to keep ball. When Sturridge went down under a tackle it looked for a moment that England had won a penalty but the linesman's flag was up for offside instead.The hourglass was almost overturned; suddenly time had run out for England. As the white shirts made one last raid upfield and Fielding advanced, the Czechs won possession and charged back the other way. Chramosta the goalscorer turned provider to centre for Pekhart to tap into an empty net and knock England out.In the other game in Herning, Spain beat Ukraine 3-0 through a Juan Mata brace and a a strike from Adrian. England and Ukraine are on the next flight home while the semi-final lineup pits the Swiss against the Czechs and Spain against Belarus . England's elimination also means there will be a play-off to determine the third qualifier for the London 2012 Olympic Games from the losing semi-finalists. England U21, with Pearce at the helm, is expected to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland. England (4-2-3-1): Frank Fielding, Ryan Bertrand, Fabrice Muamba, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Jordan Henderson (Henri Lansbury 63'), Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge, Scott Sinclair (Danny Rose 87'), Kyle Walker, Tom Cleverley (Marc Albrighton 76'). Czech Republic (4-1-4-1): Tomas Vaclik, Jan Lecjaks, Ondrej Mazuch, Ondrej Celustka, Borek Dockal, Libor Kozak (Tomas Pekhart), Jan Moravek (Jan Chramosta), Jan Kovarik (Milan Cerny 67'), Marcel Gecov, Marek Suchy, Lukas Marecek Att: 5, 262 Group B Final positions Q- Spain 7ptsQ- Czech Republic 6ptsEngland 2ptsUkraine 1pt (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile, Viborg, Denmark. Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

UEFA U21 Championship 2011: England v Ukraine

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:18:54 +0000

Group B - England v Ukraine 20:45 MCH Arena, Herning, Denmark Both teams enter tonight's clash in Herning in need of points. Ukraine lost their opening clash 2-1 to the Czech Republic, while England scraped a 1-1 draw with Spain with Danny Welbeck's late leveller. England coach Stuart Pearce insisted his side had been more skilful in training than they were against Spain, but must have been worried by the lack of guile in midfield. Starting with Jack Rodwell might alleviate some of those worries, but work needs to be done on the movement and first-touches of the strike Daniels Sturridge and Welbeck. The Three Lions were penetrative on the flanks, particularly from their man of the match Kyle Walker, but a dearth of accurate crosses may push Pearce into fielding Aston Villa winger Marc Albrighton, who impressed in the Premier League this season. Ukraine, rated by Pearce as one of the top three teams in the tournament, will be desperate to avoid defeat and tournament elimination tonight. They pulled a goal back again st the unbeaten Czechs in their opener late on after a spirited fightback but the two-goal deficit proved too much in the end. Ukranian football is still feeling confident after Shakhtar Donetsk made it to the last eight in the Champions League this year, and with Euro 2012 imminent in their homeland. Ukraine won the U19 version two years ago and two of those winners now play in the Under-21s , who topped a qualifying group including Belgium, France and Slovenia before edging out the Netherlands on away goals for a place in Denmark. Their entire squad is domestically based and little known outside Ukraine, but expect to see more of some of these starlets at next season's European Championship fina ls. After their first outing ended in defeat they suffered a double blow with the injury to skipper Taras Stepanenko, who will probably be replaced by Shaktar defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy. Other match (18:00 Viborg - Czech Republic v Spain) Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Tackling a cultural deficit

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 10:10:59 +0000

UEFA European U21 Championship - English shortcomings come to the fore again The England v Spain U21 clash had been billed as the match of the tournament. The two largest football nations on show had also j ust met i n club form in the Champions League final. And while Spanish football is on a crest of a wave and England's groping for a crumb of comfort, the 1-1 tie belied a gulf in quality. Spain should have won and paid the price for not turning the screw in the second half. England's late equaliser was well-worked but profited from a centre-back misunderstanding, forcing an error at a critical moment. But the overall picture was of Spanish class and English pluckiness. I spied Stuart Pearce before kick-off watching the Czech Republic v Ukraine match like a hawk, and no-on e can accuse 'Psycho' of not taking his soccer completely seriously, but the lasting impress ion from watching 90 minutes of his proteges was that England U21s have regressed in ability from two years ago and reverted to traditional Anglo-Saxon football values of grit, power and determination. Those same attributes had given Pearce, a technically limited player with only on e foot, so much success as a rugged tackler and marauding left-back for Nottingham Forest and England. Pearce managed Forest and Manchester City before joining the England set-up, and never hav e his sides played with any real verve or elan. Should he coach the UK Olympic Team or England's natio nal team, there is little evidence so far that they would challenge for honours. In his defence, Pearce h ad a balanced and tight formation and clearly inspires as a motivational leader, but those assets are not enough for victory. Old England should be in the history books, not playing in this year's European Championshp. The world outside the British Isles learnt long ago that muscle only works at youth and non-league level, where technica l skills have not been honed. The benchmark the Spanish have set since 2008 - two Champions League trophies, a European Championship and a World Cup, is surely the one to emulate. So where were the ball-playing technicians in England's ranks on Monday? One of them, Jack Wilshere, was at home, after Arsene Wenger's bullied the FA into dropping him. I cannot think the dozens of scouts watching the game would have scribbled down any English names, with the exception of Tottenham's raiding right-back Kyle Walker, whose penetrative power did pay dividends down Spain's left. The over-reliance on pace and muscle which Laurent Blance lamented recently among French youngsters, in contrast to the Spanish approach, was ubiquitous. Danny Rose, Jorda n Henderson, Daniel Sturridge and Daniel Welbeck won full marks for effort but had embarrassingly poor first touches. England managed to muscle their way into Spain's half on many occasions only for an overhit pass to be miscontrolled and the move break down. A Fabrice Bertrand cross which cleared the players and sailed high into the stands in the 55th minute typified their dilemna - an ability to get into dangerous positions ruined by a lack of technique when it came to the final ball. Another cross seven minutes later from Rose almost came down with snow on it. Spain's U21s were not as golden as their senior colleagues and rarely got their tiki-taka going, but their willingness to play quick balls to feet and weave through the middle was in noticeable contrast to their opponents' antique approach of using power down the wings or pumping long balls to a big centre-forward. Indeed it was easy to forget Spain even had a No.9 playing until Adrian was substituted in the 72nd minute. The Under-21 level on this evidence is too late a developmental stage to correct the deep-set errors in the English game. As long as we obsess about the Premier League we will continue to ignore the youth set-up and complain again when the national team is outclassed by more skilful opponents. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

England scrape a draw against Spain

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 20:48:21 +0000

UEFA U21 Championship 2011: England 1:1 Spain Herrera 14', Welbeck 87' Herning, Denmark, Att: 8,046 Manchester United's Daniel Welbeck rescued English blushes with a barely-deserved equaliser three minutes from time against Spain in Herning. A poacher's goal in the 18th minute by Real Zaragoza's Ander Herrera was all that separated the teams on paper before Welbeck unexpectedly slotted home, but the scoreline belied the gulf between English and Spanish football recently illuminated by the UEFA Champions League Final. Less than a month ago, the respective top club teams of these two countries had crossed swords, with Barcelona showing Man Utd a clean pair of heels, sparking the most serious debate yet about the English playing style. Within the opening minutes it was clear that old habits die hard. England chased and tackled hard on the back foot, while Jordan Henderson launched missiles forward towards the muscular duo of the two Daniels - Sturridge and Welbeck. Spain, anchored by 2010 World Cup veteran Javi Martinez, were untroubled by the English air-raid, pressed en masse and tried to weave their way upfield via their nimble No.19 Thiago Alcantara. More clash of the styles than clash of the titans. In the 14th minute their influential duo combined to nab the lead from a speedy set-piece. Thiago's whipped corner was nodded on by Martinez and Real Zaragoza midfielder Ander Herrera raced in to head home at the far post. Buoyed by their breakthrough, the Spanish then kept their possession up, leaving England to rely on right-sided thrusts from Tottenham's Kyle Walker for inspiration. England almost got even five minutes from the interval Sturridge almost connected with a thumped-in cross from Danny Rose but while the Chelsea forward looked more dangerous as the half came to a close, his teammates for the most part relied on hopeful launches from afar. Alberto Botia stretched to beat Sturridge to a Chris Smalling cross in the dying seconds, and goalie David de Gea palmed it away for a corner. With their stentorian coach Luis Milla yelling them on from the touchline, Spain entered the dressing-rooms at half-time confident of victory, while England expected a dressing-down from Pearce and talk of a Plan B. After a spell of English huffing and puffing following the restart, it was Spain almost doubled their lead in the 58th when Herrera the goalscorer found space on the edge of the box and got a shot off, deflected by Phil Jones but clawed away by the agile Frank Fielding between the sticks. Pearce had seen enough and made two changes in the 67th, pulling off Rose and skipper Michael Mancienne and replacing them with Arsenal's Henri Lansbury and the Premier League experience of Everton's Jack Rodwell, a veteran of 2009. Meanwhile, Spain were still in control of the battle, laying comfortably at anchor in the knowledge the English cannons were off-kilter. Right-back Martin Montoya fired into the side-netting twenty minutes from time to finish off a lovely move, but otherwise Spain were content to contain. Ten minutes to go and the biggest cheer of the night as Barcelona's Bojan Krkic took the field, while Pearce played his last card by throwing on Scott Sinclair in place of Tom Cleverley. Finally the gods smiled on England as the Spanish defence were caught napping by Walker's incursion three minutes from time. The Spurs man found Welbeck with space in the box and a neat turn allowed him time to pick his spot past De Gea and slot home. England's players cheered their travelling support at the final whistle relieved at their good fortune, while Spain's centre-back pairing of Botia and Alvaro Dominguez argued over who was to blame for the equaliser. Honours shared, the two go into their second games against the Czech Republic and Ukraine seeking more. ENGLAND (4-2-3-1) - Frank Fielding, Michael Mancienne, Ryan Bertrand, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Jordan Henderson, Daniel Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge, Kyle Walker, Thomas Cleverley, Danny Rose Coach: Stuart Pearce SPAIN (4-1-2-2-1) - David de Gea, Alvaro Dominguez, Javi Martinez, Jeffren, Adrian, Juan Mata, Martin Montoya, Didac Vila Rosello, Ander Herrera, Thiago Alcantara, Alberto Botia Coach: Luis Milla Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

England look to young guns for hope

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:12:15 +0000

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Olympic football tickets

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:36:08 +0000

Excited about the 2012 Olympic soccer tournament? Me neither, but a reminder if you are Europe-based to get your ticket applications in by midnight on Tuesday GMT. With all those big stadia unlikely to sell out at once, further sales are probable. Games are taking place at Wembley, Old Trafford, St James Park, Hampden Park, the Millennium Stadium and Coventry's Ricoh Arena between July 25th and August 11th 2012. Brazil and Uruguay have made it through the men's South American qualifiers; CONMEBOL nations traditionally treat Olympic football more seriously than other federations' teams. The top three finishers (excluding England) of the UEFA Euro U21 tournament in Denmark in June will secure berths too. Once more the women's tournament, only in existence since 1996, should be the more important, on a par with the FIFA Women's World Cup in quality because there are no age restrictions. Brazil, Germany and the US are the current leaders in the women's game, yet Japan have risen to fourth in the world rankings, while England recently beat No.1-ranked USA 2-1 in London. The 2012 tournament will be historically significant as the participating host nation - Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is not a FIFA nation. Following the outcry from the other home nations, the UK's teams are set to be purely English. -Sean O'Conor Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Hammers strike for gold

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:56:36 +0000

West Ham United have beaten Tottenham Hotspur to London's Olympic Stadium , according to the BBC. After a bitter battle between the two London clubs, the East Londoners are set to be announced as the Olymp ic Park Legacy Committee's preferred tenant. Neither club has much in reality to celebrate. While Tottenham will now retreat from their audacious cross-city foray to their original plan to rebuild their White Hart Lane home, the club remains marooned in a grubby neighbourhood with poor accessibility. Hammers fans on the other hand will benefit from 25,000 more seats than at present and Stratford's modern transport hub but will have to bring their binoculars to spy the action across an eight-lane running track, whatever the optimistic artists' impressions show. Athletics and football do not make happy bedfellows and the marriage may end in divorce, but at least the stadium decision, set to be rubber-stamped by the government, respects geography, history and the civic pride of hosting the Olympic Games, of which track events are the blue riband. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Olympic stadium a fight for soccer's soul...?

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 04:15:18 +0000

Football and the Olympics does matter after all. By the end of this week either Tottenham Hotspur or West Ham United will be in pole position to take over London's Olympic Stadium once the flame goes out on the 12th of August 2012. The battle for Stratford has turned into a fire-fight between two capital clubs with all manner of voices wading in, from politicians to Pelé . But whichever club wins the right to move house next year, the decision will al so r ecord for posterity just what is driving the soul of British sport at this moment. It is price versus value and by the end we will see just how much money can buy. Olympic stadia are beautiful, but what is to be done with them once the party is over? Athletics just does not pay, however popular it will appear for a month at the games. Next year, the track events will as ever be the blue riband of the games, sports am ateur in tradition if not in practice anymore. Although Baron de Coubertin's Corinthian ideals may now be a quaint memory, the fact Britain does not possess a single venue able to ho st a maj or track championship is painful proof of just how far athletics lags behind the professional team sports in money-making. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the UK team finished fourth in the medals table, beaten only by superpowers China, Russia and the United States, yet a closer inspection reveals only four of Britain's 47 medals were won inside the main arena. The velodrome by contrast yielded sixteen. The 2012 stadium cost t he British taxpayer half a billion pounds and the odd athletics mee t alone will not pay for its future upkeep. Enter football, riding to the rescue. Tottenham are thriving on this financial uncertainty, and are wielding the buying power of their fans - 36,000 season-ticket holders and 40,000 on a waiting list, as their battering ram on the doors of the Olympic Park Legacy Company , the body who will pick the winne r. Sold out Spurs matches and the rest of the site under the aegis of AEG, who transformed the Millennium Dome from a ridicul ed white elephant into the hugely successful O2 Arena, can surely reduce the tax bill faster than West Ham can and reassure the anxious politicians in this age of austerity. And if there were any doubt about which tenant would be the more lucrative, Spurs' Champions League adventure this season stands in sharp contrast to the Hammers' relegation fight. Both clubs are ogling a new stadium for free and the proceeds from auctioning off their own real estate, although the Hammers need the money more. West Ham are playing what they know are less tangible but more respectable cards - those of trust, altruism and tribalism: They are hoping the promise of an athletics legacy for the nation at the time of bidding is an oath of honour, that the OPLC will feel that track and field, however unprofitable, deserves at least one big arena when football already has so many, and the fact that the locality is far more claret and blue than white and navy territory. A club crossing town after a century in Haringey does go against the natural order of the sport, whose roots lie in brawls between medieval parishes, but the game has come a long way since those Shrovetide tussles. In only the last ten years the Premier League has metamorphosed into an international division based in England while London, an economic hot-spot conveniently located halfway between the financial hotspots of Asia and East Coast America, has also been transformed by a globalised influx which has left its old face a folktale. Franchise moves are common in American sports where many areas of population lack professional sports teams but less so in England, where a wealthy investor need only pluck a struggling club and whisk it through the divisions towards the big time. The Olympic environs are virgin territory anyway, as is much of East London's growth corridor and the monied business district of Canary Wharf, whose cityscape resembles North America, not England. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy sees relocation as part of a bigger picture for this part of the capital and doubtless salivates over the shining new transport links to Stratford w hile his club's fans struggle to reach White Hart Lane, a nice ground in an otherwise grotty urban neighbourhood. And Spurs fans mostly do not come from Tottenham these days, any more than West Ham's hail from the Bangladeshi area around Upton Park, so talk of tribal land rights can sound odd in the mobile London of 2011. West Ham have the moral case if there is one, based on the promises London's bidding team used to convince the International Olympic Committee to pick them ahead of Paris in the first place. The IOC and world athletics' governing body have rushed to their aid in the final days of the campaign. The IAAF chief Lamine Diack did not mince his words, speaking of London's "big li e" were it to choose Spurs, adding for good measure, "And after that it is a betrayal...You can consider yourself dead. You are finished." Sebastian Coe, the public face of London 2012 was unambiguous: "We have a moral obligation." Tottenham have brushed aside claims they are arrogantly ignoring Olympic promises by pledging instead to redevelop Crystal Palace athletics stadium to 25,000, the initial planned capacity of the Olympic stadium after the games. With the hours counting down until D-Day, Spurs wheeled out Pelé, Jimmy Greaves and their coach Harry Redknapp to stress how football and athletics do not mix happily in the same arena, a fact which is hard to deny. But West Ham landed a counter-punch from an unlikely angle. Out of the blue last week, Crystal Palace F.C. announced they intend to develop the nearby athletics venue into a new football stadium, returning to their ancestral home where they started in 1905. The Eagles' territorial claim on that site is pre-eminent, their financial backing as yet invisible. Palace could yet even strike a deal with Spurs and end up with views across an eight-lane running track. Sliding stands as in the Stade de France would have solved the sight lines problem, but the Olympics were won in the heady days of New Labour's noughties boom before the spectre of financial crash appeared around construction time. The discount re-design which emerged after recalculations neatly encapsulated the new age of western austerity after Beijing's tour-de-force 'Birds N est' of 2008. What once seemed like a shoe-in for Leyton Orient, the closest club to the Olympics site, has now become a spat between two Premier League sides that is starting to turn ugly. A gazumping by Spurs would deal a near-fatal blow to Britain's hopes of ever hosting a major athletics tournament again, whilst confirming the great god of football rules unchallenged, making up the rules as he goes along. But while the rising anger from the athletics world at Tottenham's interloping could swing it for West Ham, the race for gold and silver still looks too tight to call. The Hammers have a more wholesome claim, which chimes with the Olympic spirit in which the stadium was created in the first place, but let us not be fooled. It is purely money, or the lack of it in their instance, which motivates any football club to subject its supporters to a dreaded running track. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

2018 Cup race leaves sour taste

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:38:55 +0000

On Thursday afternoon we will know the venues for the 2018 & 2022 World Cup Finals and a sorry 21-month multinational spat will blessedly come to an end. What FIFA had wished would be a smooth process has degenerated into an unseemly mess. As wealthy nations squabble for victory, a public tired of perceived corruption in football politics sigh as their suspicions are reinforced . Whoever wins the 2018 race w ill not remove the whiff of a grubby power-grab of claim and counter-claim, backroom deals and illicit bribery that has dogged this latest World Cup bidding war. Don't kill the messenger. The press has every right to shine a light anywhere on FIFA as much as on any form of government: Quis custodet ipsos custodes .. . FIFA is a nation-state with a global influence approaching the Vatican's, given the way world leaders genuflect before President Sepp Blatter when he visits and leave their domestic problems behind to jet into Switzerland for last-minute lobbying. Yet transparency before the law has been slow to catch up and the continuing presence of the likes of Vice-President Jack Warner at high table and the closed vote for the hosting decision do not help clean up the general consensus that FIFA is far too secretive for such an internationally pervasive body. The UK media, sensing a hefty, hard-to-miss quarry, has trained its guns on FIFA Headquarters in Zurich and scored some hits, notably bringing down Reynauld Temarii and Amos Adamu , removed from the 24-man Executive Committee who select the winning bids. Yesterday the BBC broadcast persuasive allegations that three other Exec. Com. members - Issa Hayatou , Ricardo Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz , had trousered kickbacks from FIFA's now-collapsed marketing company ISL. England's bidding team had feared the show would derail their bid at the last minute, but in reality the impact is unlikely to tell, given the whole organisation has been under the spotlight for a while and the murky goings-on with ISL, highlighted by investigative reporter Andrew Jennings and others already, date from 1995. The 2018 race has been particularly unseemly, with Russian bid leader Alexei Sorokin openly sledging against his rivals in breach of FIFA rules, claiming London ha d a problem with crime and juvenile drinking. Qui accuse, s'accuse ... Spain/Portugal have seen CONMEBOL come out in support of them before the vote and were cornered with stories they had struck a deal with 2022-bidders Qatar , allegations bolstered by Asian Football Confederation Mohamed Bin Hammam's confirmation of an "excellent relationship" which was "not breaking any rules." Iberian bid boss Miguel Angel Lopez in turn accused The Football Association and US Soccer of a similar pact and criticised English hotels. England had a great bid on paper with no obvious drawbacks but has had to contend not only with its seemingly perennial lack of influence in FIFA corridors (as Jack Warner reiterated during the bidding process), but it s own media's lust for blood: F.A. Chair man Lord Triesman resigned in ignominy after being secretly taped claiming Spain and Russia were working together to bribe referees at the World Cup and form a mutual voting pact. FIFA evaluated England's and Spain/Portugal's bids to be the lowest-risk a nd England's bid was also judged to be largest potential money-spinner by management consultants McKinsey , in a FIFA -commissioned appraisal. A diplomatic trident of Prime Minister David Cameron , soccer superstar David Beckham and the recently engaged HRH Prince William will be unleashed on the 22 delegates on Thursday morning in the hope of persuading them to forsake their alliances and back the home of football's bid on its merits alone. The least controversial of the four bids and another perfectly valid one, Belgium & th e Netherlands ', is perhaps not coincidentally the least likely to win. Despite Johann Cruyff's electrifying presence, Ruud Gullit's enthusiasm and the greenness of the bid, elimination in the first-round of voting looms. The sour grapes can be tasted already, the recriminations as sure as night follows day. As when Germany 'stole' the 2006 hosting from South Africa at the last minute, expect a burst of 'we wuz robbed' outrage and trans-European finger-pointing. It has been an unpleasant and dirty trek to the final vote in Zurich, and f or those of us who wish football were a beautiful game both on and off the field, Thursday cannot come quickly enough. 2018 bidders - Netherlands/Belgium, England, Russia, Spain/Portugal. 2022 bidders - Australia, USA, Qatar, Japan, South Korea (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football