I hope the England players are feeling better than I am at the moment! If not I hate to think what might happen tonight in what will be a very hostile Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb.

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Been suffering from a back problem for over a week now which makes sitting down for any length of time a real struggle, hence a lack of posts recently, so apologies for that!

Anyway, 2 - 0 against Andorra. Wow, bet that has sent shivers and panic raging through the Croatian camp. Come on, 2 - 0!! I’m sick to death of all this, “there are no easy games in international football anymore”. What a load of ****! I mean, look at the England team. Look at their clubs, their experience, what they get paid every week. Then compare that to the Andorran team. Aren’t most of them plumbers, electricians etc during the week? I don’t care how hard these guys play, how much passion they play with because they are playing England, or whoever, for god’s sake, surely professional players with infinitely more skill should also play with equal passion and heart? Because if they do, you are going to beat teams like Andorra more than 2 - 0, surely.

Well Capello’s boys are going to have to step up the the plate this evening if they are going to take the initiative in their World Cup Qualifying Group. And it’s vital they do. Make no mistake, this game is a huge challenge, Croatia are an excellent team, light years ahead of Andorra. Winning tonight in Zagreb would put down such a huge marker and be a massive psychological boost for the rest of the group. If they can do it in Croatia they can then go to the Ukraine with huge confidence. Those two away games could decide they Group and who knows, Capello’s future. OK, I jumping forward a lot here, but be honest, it’s a possibility.

If they don’t play with more passion, more belief, just use the damn talent they have, I fear impending disaster, although I hope I’m wrong of course.

Right, I have to go and lie down and take some more pills, even though I’m already drugged up to the eyeballs on painkillers I need more, my back is killing me. Always used to think people who complained about back pain were just putting it on, believe me, THEY ARE NOT! I literally couldn’t get off the floor for 3 days last week. Think about that for a moment and some of the things you do every day!!! I’ll leave you with that thought!

Cheers

Rik
The Soccer Blogger

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I’ve waited a day or so to start writing this article just in case Wednesday night, as I’d hoped, was just in fact a “Dallas - Bobby Ewing in the shower” senario I had of course simply just dreamt the whole sorry nightmare.  Wrong!  I didn’t and it was that much of a nightmare.

I know I shouldn’t judge and criticise, I know I shouldn’t be throwing my hands in the air whilst wailing and gnashing my teeth, but holy ****!    The score of 2 - 2 might sound ok but whatever you do, it you weren’t unlucky enough to be at the game and you haven’t seen any of it yet, don’t bother wasting your time to watch any highlights.  Although I obviously say “highlights” in a kind of post modernist ironic sort of way!

Before I go on, if in deed I can even be bothered to continue writing about it, I found one quote very interested.  It was a quote from Wayne Rooney and after the game, he said and I quote:

“We can beat any team. The fans don’t have to be worried. Everything will be OK.”

Well, that’s all fine and dandy Wayne but I think you’ll find that most people watching on Wednesday evening weren’t too worried about how you and Man Utd are going to get on this season, they were more concerned about England!

 Even more worrying was Capello stating England “played with good football, with good style.”  Really?  Had he accidentally put someone else’s glasses on before the game?  A disillusioned Wayne thinking he’s at Old Trafford is bad enough, but the manager too.  But I’m not, I refuse to say “Come back Steve all is forgiven”. 

At least other managers, like Portsmouth’s Harry Redknapp were a little more honest about England’s performance.  Well, I suppose he can be when he isn’t the man in charge but apparently Redknapp said after the game,

“That was one of the worst performances I have seen from an England team.” 

Don’t mince words Harry, tell it like it is!  I wonder if he’d have said that if it had been his England team?  Perhaps not but still, he had a very valid point.

It wouldn’t have got any better for Capello and his team yesterday morning as they got up to read some of the morning papers either.  If the game was bad, some of the reports in the press were even more nightmarish!  “Wasters!”  was one headline.  Another, which I admit I did think quite amusing was, “The Wally Without The Brolly.”  It would appear the honeymoon is definitely over Fabio.

Perhaps a certain Mr. Brian Barwick knows something we don’t and that is why he’s getting out of the FA now whilst the going is still good!  Or maybe he was just fed up of all the 5 star buffet lunches and the expense account.  Barwick has stated that he will vacate his seat at the FA on 31st December.  They probably have to wait a few months to be able to find a crane suitable enough to actually get him out of the seat!

He said, “I am sad to be leaving the FA but I believe it is in the best interests of all parties.”  (Especially in your best interests if Wednesday night is anything to go by).  He continued,

“I have always endeavoured to do my job with passion, decency and integrity…..”  Sorry I can’t go on with that, you get the picture!

Ok, bottom line about Wednesday night, at least it wasn’t a competitive game, it was only a friendly.  But try telling that to all the people who bothered to go to Wembley and pay their money.  Capello only has a few weeks left to sort things out and the try and instil a culture within the players that the team is bigger than the individual.

Thanks for reading, I hoped you enjoyed this more than watching the game.  I did!

Rik

The Soccer Blogger

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Look, who’s to say he doesn’t!  He could have been sipping his espresso this morning reading my article about who he was going to pick as England captain and he said to himself, “Si si Rik,Terry is ze best man.  Grazie mille!”

Then again of course, that could be total rubbish and he already knew I was right and that John Terry is of course the best man to lead England into the World Cup Qualifying campaign.

One of the major factors was probably the fact that, apart from Beckham who let’s face it was always a non-starter to regain the captaincy, Terry has the most experience as captain of England out of the touted candidates of himself, Ferdinand and Gerrard, even though he has won less caps overall than the other two.  Terry has won 44 caps, Gerrard 67 and Ferdinand 68.

So Terry will begin his second stint at wearing the armband against the Czech Republic in a Friendly at Wembley tomorrow.

In the press conference this lunchtime he explained he was a little surprised after all the talk in recent days that Ferdinand was going to get the call, he said:

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“I think everybody realises it means the world to me to retain the armband.

“To get the armband back is a huge achievement for me.

“I heard about an hour before the news conference, just after training. The manager called the whole squad together and told us as a whole.

“For me to get it above the likes of Rio Ferdinand and the other players in the squad is a great honour.”

As a slight consolation for Ferdinand, he was selected by Capello as Vice Captain.

So, the bookies got it completely wrong for once and I’m very glad personally that Fabio didn’t listen to all that rubbish about having to have a complete break from the Steve McClaren era.  If you’ve read my earlier article, the link is above, you’ll know what I think about that ridiculous argument.

Anyway, I’d be very interested to hear what you think of the appointment of John Terry as England Captain.  Do you think Capello has made the right choice or not, or do you even care?  Why not place your vote in the Poll below or to the left of the page (results will appear in the left sidebar).  You can also vote for who you think will win this season’s Premier League Title.  At the time of writing Liverpool were still slightly ahead but after the performance by Chelsea at the weekend, beating Portsmouth 4 - 0, they have starting to climb the table.  Personally if Chelsea don’t win, the team that do will fully deserve it!

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Rik

The Soccer Blogger

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As you will probably know there appear to have always been three main candidates for the England captaincy and the England boss is finally due to announce his decision today.

The three candidates are of course, John Terry of Chelsea, Steven Gerrard of Liverpool and Rio Ferdinand of Manchester Utd.  A pretty impressive lineup!

Now of course this is all personal choice, but if I were the England boss, apart from speaking Italian, I would instantly narrow that list down to two candidates.  I’m not saying at all that the guy I would remove from that list isn’t a great player, he is, but I just don’t see him as the right “figurehead” to lead his country.  The player I would remove is Rio.  No hard feelings, just what my gut tells me.

Now I obviously know nothing because whilst enjoying my coffee and watching the news this morning, it would appear that it is solely a two horse race between Terry and Ferdinand, and the odds on favourite to get the nod from Fabio is Rio.  In fact he is a clear favourite according to them.  Bookies aren’t stupid!  Ever see a poor one?

However, as far as I am concerned, where you need your captain is on the pitch and the other two, Terry and Gerrard, can both be truly inspirational. That said, I would find it a truly difficult decision to narrow that down to one.  I certainly don’t envy Capello the job.

But in the cold light of day, I think I would have to agree with former England and Arsenal captain and now assistant to Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth, Tony Adams.  He believes there is only one candidate for the job and that is Terry.

I heard others saying you can’t go for Terry simply because he is a legacy of the McClaren era and England need a total break from that.  Have to say I don’t agree with that one bit.  If that were the case then surely you couldn’t pick anyone to play for England that McClaren had.  That would leave Capello with a few blokes from Hackney Marshes to choose from because, other than them and me, he played just about everybody else!  Plus McClaren has gone, his days are over.  It is possible to just let that relatively short era fade into the distant recesses of your memory.  That’s what I’ve done.  Steve who?
 

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Bookies obviously have a funny side to them because I also noticed that they were actually offering odds, I think they were 14/1, that the new England captain would be a bloke called Beckham.  Oh come on, please!  Talk about stealing candy from a baby.  Does anyone in their right mind think Golden Balls is going to be made captain again?  If you place any money on him winning the armband you deserve to loss your money!  Wow, that was a little controversial for me.  I better take a few deep breaths….. Ah, that’s better!

Well, whoever gets the nod today Joe Cole, the Chelsea player, came out with the party line and said all the right things yesterday by stating that the player who gets the job will have the full backing of all his teammates.  It was almost like he was reading an auto cue.

Whether it be Rio, John or Stevie I’m sure all England fans will be hoping this is a brand new era for England and no doubt everyone else will be hoping it isn’t!

Rik
The Soccer Blogger

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This time last week all John Terry was probably doing, apart from crying, is wishing a big hole would open up underneath him so he could dive into it. THAT penalty miss in the Champions League Final will live with John Terry all his life. But a week can be a long time in football and last night Terry started on the road to redemption by not only leading his country out at Wembley, he scored and England won 2 - 0. The second goal scored by Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard.

Ok, the goal, the victory etc. won’t make up for the nightmare of Moscow but what would have been really good for Terry last night was not just the goal he scored but the way it was celebrated by the crowd and also his teammates.

All that being said, over the course of the 90 minutes, the two teams didn’t really provide any true quality for the 71,000 brave souls who turned up at Wembley.

Terry was the latest captain as Fabio Capello, the new England coach, continues to rotate the captain’s armband before he decides on who will be his man full time. My money would be on either Terry or Gerrard and I think Terry will ultimately be the man for Capello. I think they both have more to offer than Ferdinand as a captain and I wouldn’t burden Gerrard with it, leaving him free to concentrate on what he does best.

As for Terry, he had an excellent game last night alongside Ferdinand, his opponent 7 days ago. And to cap his excellent all round display Terry popped up in the 38th minute to head England ahead from a free kick whipped in by none other than David Beckham. Remember him! Last night he won his 101st England cap. I wonder how many more he can go onto win. No reason why there can’t be a few more in my mind. There still aren’t too many better crossers of a football.

It was Terry’s first goal for England since he scored in their first international game at the new Wembley which was against Brazil almost exactly a year ago now. Where does the time go?

Fortunately England tried to raise the tempo of their game in the second half and thoroughly deserved their second goal. It came just after Gareth Barry, the Aston Villa captain - but for how long?, replaced Frank Lampard. Barry, who could be playing along side Gerrard at Liverpool next season, provided the through ball, Gerrard ran into space behind the US defence and cooly slotted the ball past the substitute US goalie Brad Guzan, into the corner.

Of course, all this last night was nothing more than a friendly international. It should have been a warm-up for the Euro 2008 that starts in a few weeks time, but no. Instead England’s next game will be against Trinidad and Tobago, that footballing giant, on Sunday. Should be a nice little end of season jolly for the boys, although I’m sure they would rather be heading off to Austria and Switzerland!

The Soccer Blogger