A Big Week of Games
Some big games are going to be played over this weekend. England's friendly with Brazil is not really one of them.
The STAT DOCTOR DAHLGREN: Could you please tell me what results do I want to see happen from Group E on Saturday?
Russia vs Andorra
Macedonia vs Israel
Estonia vs Croatia
posted by United We Stand @ 4:06 PM
6 Comments:
You're right Dave. England vs. Brazil isn't the most important but it's potentially the most fun game of the week. Hopefully it'll be played in the spirit of a friendly exhibition at the new Wembley and not like the FA Cup final. I'll be around to blog it live with whoever's got the time to drop by.
As to your question, though, here are the latest standings in Group E:
Teams G Pts
Croatia 5 13
Israel 6 11
Russia 5 11
England 6 11
Macedonia 6 7
Estonia 5 0
Andorra 5 0
That makes it clear what we need: big wins for Andorra, Macedonia and Estonia, right? Now that's unlikely to happen, so I'd take a few draws - I'd love to see some of the minnows taking points off England's real rivals in the group, particularly Croatia.
Agreed. I'd also like to see a Russian and Israeli and Croatian sending off or two to deplete their first-team selections in future games. And it would be nice if Andorra would keep it to a 3-goal loss so that England's goal difference starts looking better. But this is a round where you really can't see things going against form. Russia, Israel, Croatia should all run out comfortable winners sadly.
Boys, looking at this list of the Under-21s that Piercey unveiled yesterday, is this cause for worry for the future of English football. Apart from Carson, who really has the the kind of potential international quality that you'd expect(hope?) to see in this squad? I'll put my hand up and say Hoyte sure isn't. Thoughts on this lot?
Alnwick (Sunderland), Carson (Liverpool), Hart (Man City); Baines (Wigan), Cahill (Aston Villa), Ferdinand (West Ham), Hoyte (Arsenal), Onuoha (Man City), Rosenior (Fulham), Taylor (Newcastle), Whittingham (Cardiff); Bentley (Blackburn Rovers), Huddlestone (Tottenham), Milner (Newcastle), Noble (West Ham), Reo-Coker (West Ham), Richardson (MU), Routledge (Tottenham); Derbyshire (Blackburn Rovers), Lita (Reading), Nugent (Preston), Vaughan (Everton), Young (Aston Villa).
I can weigh in on the West Ham trio . . . Noble and Reo-Coker have nice work rates but will rarely change the outcome of a match . . . Ferdinand could well continue to develop into a top flight center back . . .
It's always difficult to predict at that age but along with Carson (who I'd put at #3 behind Robbo and Ben Foster right now), I think there might be a future for Bentley, Huddlestone and Ashley Young. I agree with Sir Trev's assessment of Anton Ferdinand - he's naive right now but could well develop into a classy center back like his big bro.
But that's a pretty tepid future from this bunch isn't it? Anton Ferdinand who's one Wes Brown knee-knack away from the full team anyway and Ben Foster?
I'll reserve comment on Young, but Huddlestone is glacial in his size and movement. Unless all the nippy blokes in football take up track and field instead, there's not a lot there. Bentley? Nah, strictly a guy in one of the chasing pack teams in the Prem.
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