England

[StevieH]

didn't stay up to watch it but they were given a bit of a lesson apparently?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

So, it turns out it WASNT on either terrestrial Thai TV or on UBC. They showed France vs Argentina though.. what are they thinking?

Anyway, getting lessons is good, that's what friendly's are for. Will make England stronger when the time comes.

[MSingh]

So, it turns out it WASNT on either terrestrial Thai TV or on UBC. They showed France vs Argentina though.. what are they thinking?

Anyway, getting lessons is good, that's what friendly's are for. Will make England stronger when the time comes.

Agreed...

[mrbojangles]

From skysports:-

PL offer World Cup support

Capello receives fixtures boost

The Premier League has confirmed that next season will kick off on 15th August and finish on 9th May - five weeks before the start of the 2010 World Cup.

The season will include a double-header on the Saturday and Monday of the August Bank Holiday for the first time, in order to give England coach Fabio Capello an extra week to prepare his side for the tournament should they qualify.

Under Fifa rules, domestic leagues have to end four weeks before the start of the World Cup finals but the Premier League have agreed to provide an extra week to help England's preparations.

Next season's fixtures will be released no later than 16th June, the Premier League has confirmed.

The decision was taken at last week's meeting of Premier League clubs and although many chairmen were not happy about the August double-header, it was deemed preferable to the other option which was starting the season on 8th August instead of 15th August.

Most chairmen preferred to have a longer pre-season and start the new campaign after the international date on 12th August, when England play Holland in a friendly in Amsterdam.

The FA first negotiated an extra week for the 2006 World Cup after the pleadings of then-manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.

[redrus]

Not the best game really that was it. I think interest levels were at a low and, the weather played a massive part but, all in all a bit crap really....!

redrus

[rixalex]

Not the best game really that was it. I think interest levels were at a low and, the weather played a massive part but, all in all a bit crap really....!

Indeed.

All in all, a pointless game i think you could say. Obviously just a contractual obligation. Business.

And the ref had obviously been given instructions to keep it flowing and ignore blatant fouls and handballs.

Can't wait to get back to proper football next week!

[redrus]

^

Yes Siree.......... The Toffee's at home for us I do believe. Back to business.

Yeah, I'd really like The FA, Managers and UEFA sit down and sort these bleeding friendlies out, its bloody ridiculous....!

redrus

[rixalex]

Yeah, I'd really like The FA, Managers and UEFA sit down and sort these bleeding friendlies out, its bloody ridiculous....!

Here, here.

Tis a nonsense.

[redrus]

Mixed feelings for captain Rooney

Teamtalk.com

Wayne Rooney spoke of his pride at captaining England for the first time but was disappointed by their performance in a 1-0 defeat by Brazil.

Rooney was given the chance to lead the side after skipper John Terry failed to recover from an Achilles injury.

But a second-half goal from Nilmar earned Brazil victory and, in addition, Luis Fabiano missed a second-half penalty.

Rooney said: "It was a great moment for me to lead the side out, something I was really proud of. When you are a young kid, you dream of captaining England but never think it will happen.

"Tonight it has happened and I'm proud, and my family will feel the same, but I don't think it was the best game we have played. We can do a lot better.

"The first half was quite even but in the second half they were the better side and deserved the victory. We looked tired at the end. We did okay but we can do better."

But Rooney is optimistic England could match the Brazilians if they are at full strength and believes Spain, of the sides England have faced under Fabio Capello, gave them more problems.

Rooney said: "Can we beat Brazil with a first eleven? I think so. It was probably Brazil's strongest side bar one or two players and we had nine or ten missing.

"That is difficult for any team to overcome, especially against Brazil. At full strength we definitely would give them a better game than tonight.

"Are they the best we've faced at international level? I don't know. I think Spain are better. I didn't play in that game (in Seville in February) but I watched it and Spain were a bit better and created more chances."

Terry is optimistic that he will be back in action sooner rather than later.

He said: "It was touch and go. I gave it a go this morning and it just wasn't right. I left my leg out and blocked a shot the other day and it clipped my Achilles which is still bit tender.

"A few days' rest and hopefully I will be okay. Will I be okay for next weekend? Fingers crossed. We will have to wait and see when I get back in the pool and start doing some work."

Brazil 1 - 0 England

redrus

[mommysboy]

ENGLAND A TEAM IN TERMINAL CRISIS?

It doesn't ever stop. Poor old Capello, methinks his only crime is telling the truth.- the unrelenting nature of the EPL makes it impossinble for England to do well.

My guess is our 'stars' are used to ushering out a manager at their respective clubs if they play crap and they bring this wonderful trait to the national team also.

All he's done is manage the team to minimum professional standards of behaviour, and insist on commitment to the cause.

I wish we'd ditch some of these overpaid prima- donnas who aren't that good anyway. But can you imagine the outcry if for instance Stevie G went? Never mind that he can't trap the ball!. Or Wayne Rooney was dropped even though he's as fit as a lame donkey.

Capello has made one major blunder though, and that is not sticking to his guns regarding 'form and fitness'. I assume that had to be relinquished as it ruled out the whole of the prospective squad !

[StevieH]

the fa really don't help themselves though do they? what is the point of or the explanation for an international friendly in the week before the new premier league season kicks off? it's utterly insane. if anyone can come up with a better reason than 'to generate a couple of million in ticket sales to go towards paying the debt on new wembley' i'd be interested to hear it.

[Jockstar]

Fabio Capello targets victory at Euro 2012

By Soccernet staff

August 10, 2010

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Fabio Capello believes England can challenge at Euro 2012.

MichaelRegan/GettyImages

Fabio Capello faces the press on Monday

• Capello targets fear factor

• Pearce: Door open for James

• Bent forced out of England squad

• Play Premier League fantasy

Capello remains under intense pressure after England's dismal performance at the World Cup finals and had to face a grilling from the press on Monday about how he intends to turn things around.

Despite the question marks over the quality of the players at his disposal, Capello was insistent that he can mount a bid for glory in Poland and Ukraine in two years' time.

"I am here to win the Euros," declared Capello. "I think we are a good team. We are a good team. I have confidence in this team. I don't like to work for anyone without expectations.

"I want to win something. It is always in my mind. If I am here, it is because I have got the confidence of the FA and because I think I can do it.

"Managing England is not easy. Probably it is a little bit harder than in other countries. The money is not very important. The confidence of the FA was important for me. If they had said 'thanks very much' then fine. I don't want to stay just because I signed a contract.

"I want to try again and go forward. I want to try to win something.

"I did a good job in qualification [for the World Cup]. My record is a good one. I don't know the future but the fans should trust me.''

Capello also revealed he turned down offers from three clubs to stay with England: "They were from important clubs but I don't want to speak about them because I respect the managers who are working there now.''

Capello, however, opened himself up for more criticism by saying he was not sure how to change the mindset of a squad which players with fear in South Africa.

He said: "I don't know what we have to do to improve the minds of the players. At this moment I really don't know but we will have to change something.''

[mrbojangles]

the fa really don't help themselves though do they? what is the point of or the explanation for an international friendly in the week before the new premier league season kicks off? it's utterly insane.

You're absolutely right Stevie. The players are all primed and ready for a pretty intensive start to the Premier. I don't know about other teams but City play on Saturday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and Sunday. That's 5 games in 15 days. I certainly don't want any of our players getting injured in an International friendly, 3 days before the season even starts.

[smokie36]

the fa really don't help themselves though do they? what is the point of or the explanation for an international friendly in the week before the new premier league season kicks off? it's utterly insane.

You're absolutely right Stevie. The players are all primed and ready for a pretty intensive start to the Premier. I don't know about other teams but City play on Saturday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and Sunday. That's 5 games in 15 days. I certainly don't want any of our players getting injured in an International friendly, 3 days before the season even starts.

I would guess its the same for most of the countries. Maximum 45 mins for most players and very little effort put in. A family day for the fans I suppose and at much reduced prices.

No plaudits for FIFA as usual getting it totally wrong.

[mommysboy]

No. I spot a real sea change here. The team will be booed, and booed, and to an extent it will be rough justice. I thought I was the only one who was really angry, but 't go.having phoned home, and met a few friends on holiday, no I think this realklly is 'ground zero', it can't go on.

Inconvenient, yes? but when I was a kid the season started in Autumn not mid summer. I'm very critical of Gerrard et al, but for G sake give them a break !!!!

Anyway, I thought the D.Express provided balanced comment as follows:

FABIO Capello’s command of English seemed to have improved a little yesterday.

Or perhaps he has become as used as so many of his predecessors to parcelling out the stock answers that they are becoming second nature to him too now.

It could have been the best first day back at work ever, had Capello come back with the World Cup. Some people could even have been on the pitch at Wembley tomorrow night celebrating the way they did when that famous line of commentary was minted by Kenneth Wolstenholme.

Instead, there was some talk about tiredness and some more about fear. Then there was an acknowledgment that everyone will be jeered for a while before the friendly against Hungary.

And then a vague expression of hope that things will be better the next time around, because Capello says he learned some valuable lessons during the debacle in South Africa.

Exactly what he learned, he did not reveal. Exactly how he is going to conquer the tiredness and fear which gripped his team during their bedraggled tournament, he does not know – by his own frank admission.

This had the virtue of honesty. There was not much fresh, dazzling and exciting that Capello could say – in English or Italian – about what happens next because, basically, there is not much that is fresh, dazzling or exciting that he can do to change things.

The inglorious passage through the World Cup was a kind of Year Zero for the English game. It exposed – or rather confirmed – all of the problems and complexities which entrap the national team in a ceaseless, downward spiral of underachievement.

They were never going to be cleared from the air in the 41 days since the humiliating defeat by Germany. In fact, they seemed to haunt the team base in Hertfordshire more depressingly than ever, even if Capello had, at least, lost the withered, hollowed look which smothered his features on the morning after the afternoon before in Bloemfontein.

Right on cue, there was confirmation Darren Bent, one of the strikers recalled by Capello as he seeks a fresh way forward, missed training and might be forced to withdraw from the match because of a back injury.

Of course, footballers get injured all the time. But there was something wearily familiar about the news. The summoning of Bent, Bobby Zamora and Carlton Cole into the squad relies upon the hope that the robust qualities which create good Premier League forwards can translate into the more rarefied needs of the international game.

It does not happen often. Even then, how can you have a fresh start when one of the fresh-ish faces has to go home, half the team have barely begun pre-season training and hardly anybody really wants to play this game? The tribute to the unending fever of England’s fans is that, still, about 60,000 are expected to turn up tomorrow evening.

Fringe players such as Paul Robinson and Wes Brown bale out of the international game, but will Capello really miss them? If you use his managerial career in club football as the yardstick, he has never had much time for Englishmen. He never bought one.

What happened in South Africa has surely left him exasperated at his squad’s inability to match the technical and tactical maturity of the teams around them. As far as fitness and freshness goes, he admitted he had been caught out by the deterioration in his men between March and the first World Cup training camp in Austria.

Presumably, they will be given more rest before the European Championship finals in 2012, which England will surely reach. This must be one of the lessons Capello learns.

It was clear though, that many of the certainties by which he has guided his coaching career have been undermined by the peculiarities of English football.

The test for him is to reassert them. He knows deep down, though, however impressive the qualification campaign, he will enter the tournament unsure of how the players will react.

Although he will stick to his guns and his tried and trusted methods to get England there, he understands now that, ultimately, he will be entering the unknown.And that once there, he will still be at the unpredictable mercy of the same malignant forces which savaged all his predecessors.

[salty]

With regard to qualifying for Euro Finals in 2012 I would expect that as usual England will only need to turn up.

[mommysboy]

With regard to qualifying for Euro Finals in 2012 I would expect that as usual England will only need to turn up.

I don't know about that, last time out 'turning up' was not enough. No I think we have a side in real trouble now and we'll do well to steady the ship in the first few games and maybe come good thereafter.

I don't blame Capello at all, and I hope he realises it's best to ditch most of the current squad, and go with players who hold their nerve, and will likely be fresh if England qualify. Personally, I can't see the point with continuing with Gerrard, Rooney, and a few others, they had their chance. In a way it's not their fault, but they are associated with 3 failures now.

Sorry, must go. Harsh I know.

Hope, he can stick to fit and in form this time.

[carmine]

the fa really don't help themselves though do they? what is the point of or the explanation for an international friendly in the week before the new premier league season kicks off? it's utterly insane.

You're absolutely right Stevie. The players are all primed and ready for a pretty intensive start to the Premier. I don't know about other teams but City play on Saturday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and Sunday. That's 5 games in 15 days. I certainly don't want any of our players getting injured in an International friendly, 3 days before the season even starts.

Please don't take this as a dig mate, but with your squad the only thing that fixture congestion will do is play to Citeh's advantage over the season.

[StevieH]

anybody heard of frankie fielding before today?

[nev]

the fa really don't help themselves though do they? what is the point of or the explanation for an international friendly in the week before the new premier league season kicks off? it's utterly insane.

You're absolutely right Stevie. The players are all primed and ready for a pretty intensive start to the Premier. I don't know about other teams but City play on Saturday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and Sunday. That's 5 games in 15 days. I certainly don't want any of our players getting injured in an International friendly, 3 days before the season even starts.

Please don't take this as a dig mate, but with your squad the only thing that fixture congestion will do is play to Citeh's advantage over the season.

Dont we all start with 25 players so why would it be an advantage to city?

[carmine]

the fa really don't help themselves though do they? what is the point of or the explanation for an international friendly in the week before the new premier league season kicks off? it's utterly insane.

You're absolutely right Stevie. The players are all primed and ready for a pretty intensive start to the Premier. I don't know about other teams but City play on Saturday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and Sunday. That's 5 games in 15 days. I certainly don't want any of our players getting injured in an International friendly, 3 days before the season even starts.

Please don't take this as a dig mate, but with your squad the only thing that fixture congestion will do is play to Citeh's advantage over the season.

Dont we all start with 25 players so why would it be an advantage to city?

I suggest you take a closer look at the quality of the 14 players that won't be on the pitch.

[StevieH]

the fa really don't help themselves though do they? what is the point of or the explanation for an international friendly in the week before the new premier league season kicks off? it's utterly insane.

You're absolutely right Stevie. The players are all primed and ready for a pretty intensive start to the Premier. I don't know about other teams but City play on Saturday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and Sunday. That's 5 games in 15 days. I certainly don't want any of our players getting injured in an International friendly, 3 days before the season even starts.

Please don't take this as a dig mate, but with your squad the only thing that fixture congestion will do is play to Citeh's advantage over the season.

not really the point though is it carmine? there's absolutely no justification for this international friendly right now, so if any team loses any player to injury from it they've a right to be livid.

as usual alex ferguson leads the way by just pulling michael carrick out of it claiming injury then plays him in the charity shield. more managers should have the balls to do this.

[smokie36]

Isn't it a bit more difficult for an English manager to be so blatant about pulling players out though Stevie?

[carmine]

the fa really don't help themselves though do they? what is the point of or the explanation for an international friendly in the week before the new premier league season kicks off? it's utterly insane.

You're absolutely right Stevie. The players are all primed and ready for a pretty intensive start to the Premier. I don't know about other teams but City play on Saturday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and Sunday. That's 5 games in 15 days. I certainly don't want any of our players getting injured in an International friendly, 3 days before the season even starts.

Please don't take this as a dig mate, but with your squad the only thing that fixture congestion will do is play to Citeh's advantage over the season.

not really the point though is it carmine? there's absolutely no justification for this international friendly right now, so if any team loses any player to injury from it they've a right to be livid.

as usual alex ferguson leads the way by just pulling michael carrick out of it claiming injury then plays him in the charity shield. more managers should have the balls to do this.

You're absolutely right, the international friendly is a farce. My point is though that the quality City have means that they can weather this storm, so as to speak, easier than most of the others.

Fergusan is right in what he does. He's employed by Utd to do best by them and coinciding with this treats these stupid friendlies (not saying ALL of them are btw) with the contempt they deserve.

[nev]

Please don't take this as a dig mate, but with your squad the only thing that fixture congestion will do is play to Citeh's advantage over the season.

Dont we all start with 25 players so why would it be an advantage to city?

I suggest you take a closer look at the quality of the 14 players that won't be on the pitch.

I know what you are saying but do you reckon mancini is good enough to select a 25 that can work as a squad,alright having 7 strikers but can they blend the right squad including the u21 that have to be included,and what do the players left out do,sit on the a*rse and just get a fat pay cheque each week.

[smokie36]

I know what you are saying but do you reckon mancini is good enough to select a 25 that can work as a squad,alright having 7 strikers but can they blend the right squad including the u21 that have to be included,and what do the players left out do,sit on the a*rse and just get a fat pay cheque each week.

The leftovers will be sent to Blackpool on loan.....the remainder picked clean by Portsmouth I guess.

Can Mancini put together a team from the summer signings?....I think most of us have our doubts.

[carmine]

or some reason i can't reply to you directly Nev but you have a good point and i do think Mancini will be the "October man."

[mommysboy]

Good to see us get off to a flyer against Bulgaria, despite the best efforts of EPL and lady luck to maim our players. Just goes to show also how fit players of a given standard can work better than eleven so called stars who are crocked or knackered. Wonder how many more are out there who could quite easily step in to the side. Well done Capello, more of the same if possible.

[carmine]

Good to see us get off to a flyer against Bulgaria, despite the best efforts of EPL and lady luck to maim our players. Just goes to show also how fit players of a given standard can work better than eleven so called stars who are crocked or knackered. Wonder how many more are out there who could quite easily step in to the side. Well done Capello, more of the same if possible.

It was a good performance and you can't take that away. However without going overboard it has to be measured against the standard of opposition.

[Englander]

It was a good performance and you can't take that away. However without going overboard it has to be measured against the standard of opposition.

Switzerland are a good team, but Glen Johnson should be dropped for it, he was terrible.