World Cup 2010

[Galee]

Looks like England will need a new captain. Ferdinand being sent home after sustaining an injury during training.
Feel sorry for him, but was he ever fit?

[Galee]

Looks like another captain is out. Didier Drogba could miss the World Cup after fracturing his arm in a friendly.

[stattointhailand]

Methinks that Drogba will be a bigger miss to Cote D'Ivorie than Ferdinand will be to England

[Texpat]

Make your excuses early and often.

[Zidane]

Sorry for Rio but dont think he will be too big a loss only starting 14 games for United this season....an odd choice as captain,really.
Not as big a loss as Rooney,Cole,Terry,Gerrard or Lampard would be.
Ledley individual will probably replace him and Carragher is becoming more and more an important choice with his ability to fill any of the back four positions.
As for the captain,I'd give it back to Terry.Sure he was a bad lad but he's suffered his punishment and his attitude on the field has always been first class.

[Brian Davis]

As for the captain,I'd give it back to Terry.Sure he was a bad lad but he's suffered his punishment and his attitude on the field has always been first class.

Yes, I think the other players would respond to Terry, but whether the management/politics will see it that way?
Carragher? One has to be sure the captain will feature in every game. Can be a 'loose cannon' on occasions, like Rooney, but 100% commitment.

[BobHelm]

Gerard (as vice captain) has taken over the arm band. Not sure who the new VC is though.
Drogba is a huge loss for Ivory Coast, same as Rooney would be for England.
Rio is no great loss - I think I have already made my views on him being captain in place of Terry have already been aired here- although I feel sorry for him losing out in this way. On last seasons' Premiership form Dawson (who has flown out to replace Rio) deserved the spot anyway.

[Zidane]

Welcome back,Bob.....has Udon Map sent you to South Africa to report on all the games live for us here in Udon ??

[BobHelm]

I wish!!!
I am in the UK at the moment Zid & am roving about a bit so only internet is of the Cafe variety.
Should be a bit more settled before the World Cup starts, so expect pages of match analysis (i.e. drivel) once the competition starts.
Looks like I may not make it back to Udon much before the end of the competition either. At least that means the matches are being played at reasonable times of the evenng for me to watch, although as England progress the nights will probably extend also!

[BobHelm]

Saw both of England's friendlies on the warm up to the WC, Mexico & Japan. Both were pretty awful displays by England but they still managed to win both. If they can carry that sort of luck into the actual competition they are a 'shoe in' to come away with the Cup.
I also saw that the USA played Australia in a friendly the other day & came away with a 3-1 win. Didn't see the game or any reports but, on the face of it, a very good result for USA & some indication that they will provide tough opposition for England's first game.
England also failed to beat a Rest of the World side last night in the Socoraid match at Old Trafford. The first ever defeat in the 3 times this competition has been run. After 90 minutes it was a 2-2 draw & so went to penalties. Wood Harrelson scoring the winning one for the Rest. Entertaining game taken seriously by both the 'Stars' of screen & former world class players (like Zidane, Figo & Larson). 62,000 were watching live & over GBP 2 Million was raised for UNICEF. So well done to all....

[Barstool]

Make your excuses early and often.

Even though I'm an Englishman I can't help but empathise with Texpat's statement above; I am bracing myself for the barage of reasons and excuses in the post-mortem of England's mediocre performance tonight. Well done USA (and especially Tim Howard) for a persistent performance.

Also, I can't help but think that Texpat's avatar would do a better job between the sticks than would Capello's current selection!!

[cryptic]

Just turned on the news to see that we drew with England, what happened there. I did not stay up to watch it, thought it would be a turkey shoot, US 3 the Poms 0.

[nkstan]

Just turned on the news to see that we drew with England, what happened there. I did not stay up to watch it, thought it would be a turkey shoot, US 3 the Poms 0.

I watched the game and England was the quality side,with the exception of their goalkeeper,who poorly let a strike dribble out of his hands and into goal,Our American goalkeeper,Howard, was the man of the match for us!

It was weird watching the game and the only USA team member that I knew was Howard,while knowing all the England squad!
Very surprised with the outcome,I thought it would be more like England winning 3-0

[Texpat]

A tie?

Whatever.

Kickball.

[polehawk]

Kickball? We used to play that in gym class back in elementary school days.

Yeah, that poor goalie for England looked like a monkey trying to pluck a football, didn't he? I would blame those huge Mickey Mouse gloves he was wearing. Was expecting a 5-0 drubbing from the Englanders. The 1-1 tie is like a victory or a gift for the Yanks. Thanks.

[patriot]

"Never, in the field of sporting endeavour, has so much disappointment been caused, to so many, by so few"

The American team should thank themselves, they did a good job of frustrating the english attack especially in the second half. =D>

[cookie]

"Never, in the field of sporting endeavour, has so much disappointment been caused, to so many, by so few"

The American team should thank themselves, they did a good job of frustrating the english attack especially in the second half. =D>

They just called me to inform that the US team bribed the English goal keeper Green....
by the way not the first time that English goal keepers were bribed....
Seaman, Robinson en James had in the past their own problems
Green is called 'Green fingers' and 'Hand of Clod' in the English tabloids.
It seems his problems with the tabloids are bigger than Obamas problems,
looks like they found a new victim....

[BobHelm]

It is interesting to see American comments about their football team & disappointing that many fail to see that America actually WON the Confederations Cup. In doing so they defeated Spain (who had an undefeated record going back to the lastWorld Cup9 & the generally suggested masters of the game, Brazil. These two teams are still the favourites to win the World Cup despite these defeats by USA.
England will be disppointed in only drawing & rightly so, on the night they were by far the better side. However, they have a record of starting poorly in competitions, indeed they also drew the first game when they won the World Cup in 1966. The last time they played USA in the World Cup was a defeat as well.
Green's mistake was unfortunate but no more so than Heskey & Wright-Phillip's failures to put the ball in the net when 1 on 1 with the keeper!!
So, all in all, maybe not a performance to be proud of, BUT it could have been worse & should not impede their progress through the group stages.
Of the 'favourites' who have played so far on Germany have really impressed in their 4-0 win over Australia. Australia seemed to have some strange ploy of playing a midfield player as a lone striker. As good as he is a midfielder, Cahill is NOT a striker. The plan would appear to have been to contain Germany & play for the draw (or a lucky win from a corner or free kick) once they went 2-0 down & the lone striker was sent off the result was not in doubt, only the score. A poor strategy from the start by the Australian coaching team I think which got just about what it deservered.
The only other side to really impress have been South Korea. Unlike many of the sides who have played they actually looked like they wanted to win the game - too many have been concentrating on not losing.

[hangsaboot]

They just called me to inform that the US team bribed the English goal keeper Green....
by the way not the first time that English goal keepers were bribed....
Seaman, Robinson en James had in the past their own problems

i thought that ,
green should have been draged off, and taken to the tower .

world class players , are paid fantastic money , and expected to excell .
not make school yard , mistakes ,, it is not acceptablle .

worst case senario ,
yankee boys winning the world cup .. OMG

[hangsaboot]

They just called me to inform that the US team bribed the English goal keeper Green....
by the way not the first time that English goal keepers were bribed....
Seaman, Robinson en James had in the past their own problems

i thought that ,
green should have been draged off, and taken to the tower .

world class players , are paid fantastic money , and expected to excell .
not make school yard , mistakes ,, it is not acceptablle .

worst case senario ,
yankee boys winning the world cup .. OMG