Tag: england

Squads confirmed (ish)

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Each team participating at the FIFA World Cup 2010 has until midnight tonight to name their final 23 man squads. Bafana Bafana named theirs at a press conference this morning and the bi g news (worldwide) was the omission of striker Benni McCarthy.

Goalkeepers: Itumeleng Khune, Moeneeb Josephs, Shu-aib Walters

Defenders: Aaron Mokoena (captain), Siboniso Gaxa, Bongani Khumalo, Anele Ngcongca, Tsepo Masilela, Lucas Twala, Mathew Booth, Lance Davids, Siyabonga Sangweni

Midfielders: Teko Modise, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Steven Pienaar, Thanduyise Khuboni, Kagiso Dikgacoi, Macbeth Sibaya, Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Surprise Moriri

Strikers: Bernard Parker, Katlego Mphela, Siyabonga Nomvete

Following last night’s 5-0 win over Guatemala in Polokwane, South frica have now gone 11 matches unbeaten and face Denmark in their final warm-up game before next Friday’s opener against Mexico at Soccer City.

England’s squad announcement, due at lunchtime was delayed until this afternoon. But that didn’t stop journalists leaking the details of the 7 players left out of Fabio Capello’s original 30-man training squad.
As the BBC’s exasperated Jonathan Stevenson remarked:

This is a most unsatisfying resolution to quite an important announcement. We’re still waiting on the names of four of the England players who will not be travelling to South Africa.

and then:

Oh for crying out loud. I love Fabio, but this has gone on way too long – and according to Express sport, the official announcement won’t be until 1500 BST now. It’s frankly a shambolic and unacceptable way for England’s World Cup campaign to begin.
Transfer deadline day ain’t got nothing on this. It’s carnage.

And he’s right. After a blisteringly good qualifying campaign, England have looked shakier and shakier against Mexico and then Japan. Now, the FA have messed up the squad announcement which should have been a straightforward press conference: how difficult is it to read out 23 names?

Are the wheels coming off already? It’s really not a good start.

UPDATE: Finally – at 1600 BST, the rumours are confirmed:

ENGLAND’S 2010 WORLD CUP SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart, David James, Robert Green.

Defenders: Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Terry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock

Midfielders: Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner, Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Forwards: Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney

Meaning that Leighton Baines, Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone, Scott Parker, Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott and Darren Bent don’t make the squad of 23.

Upson, Carragher, Carrick, and Lennon look like the weak links to me. Oh – and all the goalkeepers.

World Cup Willie

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Disambiguation: for World Cup Willie (1966 World Cup Mascot) click here.
Otherwise… read on.

I read today (here, actually) that John Terry, the now disgraced former captain of the England football team, is flying out to Dubai to try and convince his estranged wife, Toni Poole, that their marriage is still worth salvaging.
In case you’ve been under a rock:

Poole, the mother of Terry’s two children, fled to the UAE soon after reports emerged regarding an affair between the Chelsea captain and Vanessa Perroncel, the ex-partner of the 29-year-old’s former club team-mate Wayne Bridge.

The incisive Guardian reporting tells us:

Terry had a serious look on his face as he was escorted to the plane at London’s Heathrow airport shortly after 8.30am, wearing blue jeans and a white hooded top.

I’m not bloody surprised (at the serious look, anyway) (the white hoodie did come as a bit of a shock – I dunno – I thought something in blue, maybe?  A splash of colour. Cheerful. Bright. Make some effort, man.)

Anyway, I hope he’s got flowers and I’m sure he’s got his little speech lined up.
After all, he does “love her to bits”.

How do I know?

Oh – just this little gem I picked out from that exclusive John Terry Interview in the Observer Sport Monthly back in May 2006:

And you’re not married?

No, I’m engaged to my girlfriend Toni Poole, she’s been with me since I was a YTS.

She looks very nice in the photographs.

She is. And she’s good for me. She’s been there from the start. When I was earning £46 a week she was earning £250 a week – she was taking me out to restaurants. It’s nice that she’s there for the right reasons – for me.

And she’s forgiven you your indiscretions?

Indiscretions – you know, I’ve never cheated on her or anything like that. I never would. I can look you in the eye and tell you that. There’s been stories out there that I’ve cheated on her but I certainly haven’t – I love her to bits.

There was an interview in the News of the World where I’d seen a reporter out and I’d apparently admitted it all to Toni. I never admitted anything to Toni because I’ve never done anything. With me saying I’m a loyal person, that goes with my girlfriend as well as with Chelsea.

But you must have been sorely tempted?

Yeah, there’s occasions. I’ve obviously explained to Toni that we get opportunities, we get approached and I’ve probably been in situations that she doesn’t approve of. Maybe. But it certainly wouldn’t be the case where I’d take it any further.

Certainly not, John. After all, you “love her to bits” and you’re “a loyal person”.
You can look me in the eye and tell me that (but you’ll still be lying).

If he’s done it once, he’ll do it again (see Woods, Tiger).
My advice is to dump him, Toni – but only after the World Cup.
While he might have been covering the hole that Wayne Bridge had left at the back (sorry), he’s still a damn fine defender and part of the backbone that will win the World Cup for England a bit later this year. (Albeit that we need a decent coccyx.)

As long as he’s not in a state of abject depression.
So please just lie back and think of England (literally), until July 12th.

Thanks.

Test cricket is still mainly boring

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With dropping attendances, bore draws and the huge push towards shorter versions of the game, it was nice to finally see an exciting finish to a 5-day test match yesterday. The second time in three matches in this series, actually. (In the other game, England obviously wiped the floor with sorry SA).
But while the last over histrionics, South Africa’s constant and often desperate appealing and Graeme “The Cramp Man” Smith’s wonderful innings and penchant for referring everything were all briefly gripping to watch, it was really only the last couple of hours of the game which were actually “exciting”.

All of which leads me to believe that in actual fact, Test cricket is still mainly boring. And that isn’t really a problem if you’re happy to be bored; if you have days to spare at the ground or on the couch, beer and snacks to hand. But for the majority of us, that’s not the case.

The problem as I see it is that in order to get the exciting finish, you have to sit at least through four days of potential dross. And yes, I know there were “gripping” bits here and there, like the Steyn vs Collingwood thing and Fatty’s lovely innings, but mainly it was quite dull going through to motions stuff. For 4½ days. And that’s why T20 – which condenses the best bits from Test cricket into a couple of hours and is therefore exciting – has become so popular.

So what I propose is this: T6000 cricket. In this new and revolutionary form of the game, one takes scenarios from all the Test matches in history which have ended in an exciting manner. (There must be at least three or four of them.)
These scenarios would then be played out to a finish in front of a capacity crowd. Games would consist of one innings of variable length, as the different scenarios would kick in at different times. For example, I would propose that for yesterday, we start at tea on the final day – after all, it was mostly pretty dull before that.
So England (or South Africa, depending on who wins the toss) would start 5 wickets down, needing to survive 35 overs. 
In this case, the batting side could only ever get a draw, but them’s the breaks. And before you moan that you’ll never see the top batsmen playing, you’re wrong: the warm-up would consist of the top order being put through their paces before going and having a drink in the players lounge as their tail-enders actually play the game.
As an added benefit, since each 15-session match will now be played in one single session (a reduction of 93.33%), there will be less danger of player burn-out – a major cause of the top players not being able to play in the first place.

Sure, the purists will hate this, but they’re the ones with the time, the couch, the beer and the snacks.
For the vast majority, T6000 is the future.

Conflicting reports

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While the cricket is on at Newlands, News24 have been trying to keep up with the (apparent) final throes* of South African (previously) fast bowler and all-round sporting ambassador, Makhaya Ntini’s test career. With limited success.

One of the great things about internet news sites is that they are updated with every single new piece of information that comes along. Thus, you get lovely anomalies like this one in the Sports headlines:

As News24 report– it’s all over for Ntini because he’s signed a contract with Middlesex. And then Ntini denies that’s the case. And both are reported.
It used to be the case that the Daily Mail newspapers could hide those embarrassingly incorrect stories by simply just publishing the best information they had to hand at deadline. But in today’s fast-paced world of internet news, it remains there; rudely demonstrating how inaccurate the journalists were.

As for the cricket, it’s been a hugely exciting day at Newlands. But I’m not there – saving leave for real sport in June and that little trip in December.

* No dodgy bowling action pun intended.

Perfect timing

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Huge props to England’s cricketers who have timed their demise to perfection so that I can get the end of their Jo’burg ODI out of the way and flick straight to channel 203 for Fiorentina v Liverpool. At one point, it looked as though they were going to allow New Zealand to finish a bit early, but a quick session of skittles (5/27) and everything will be over at 2045.

It would be silly if I didn’t take advantage of their superb organisational skills, so I’ll drop a quick quota photo onto here…

…like this one taken at Morgansvlei, near Tulbagh – and head for the TV.