We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
To John McCain, England's opponent today is Czechoslovakia, but real footie fans know better. It's England vs. the Czech Republic at Wembley in another in the series of inane early season friendlies played solely in order to crock a few crucial players.
posted by The Blue Devil @ 2:24 PM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
40 Comments:
Fabio Capello's squad choice was disappointingly retrograde from my perspective. Here's the starting 11 for today:
James, Brown, A Cole, Ferdinand, Terry (Captain), Beckham, Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Defoe, Rooney.
So how is this team different from Sven's? Answers on a postcard to...
Here's the slightly more forward-looking line-up I'd like to see for tonight's match:
Rob Green
Gareth Bale
Rio Ferdinand
John Terry
Ashley Cole
Gareth Barry
David Bentley
Joe Cole
Steven Gerrard
Gabriel Agbonlahor
Wayne Rooney
Nice team Bob. Why don't you pick the team.
Not too impressed with the forward line.
I am in and out for the match. I am still working on the house.
Be back a few ticks
As England kick off, Football 365 is reporting that, "it's been raining for the last hour and a half so the surface is quite greasy."
Love the photo. I'll have to add my own once I get the Internet connection on Friday.
Good early possession for England with Gareth Barry and Wayne Rooney very involved.
The Italians are currently 0-1 down to Austria, if you can believe that.
Rooney is caught late by Radoslav Kovac and England win a free-kick 40 yards out. Beckham tries to pick out John Terry but Petr Cech comes out and punches clear.
A scare for England. Nice play in midfield leads to a cross from the left and Stanislav Vlcek drags a shot wide of James' left-hand post.
Rooney is dropping very deep to get involved in the game.
Sweden are currently 1-0 up on France, so obviously Domenech is continuing his fine run in charge of Les Bleus. How does this guy keep his job?
Jaroslav Plasil is caught late by Barry and the Villa midfielder receives a yellow card. A silly challenge in these slippy conditions.
Baros gets free in the box and despite the attention of Ferdinand and a tight angle he tests James with a sharp low shot. The goalkeeper can only palm it back into the middle of the area so it's a good job for England that Wes Brown is sweeping up.
Fifteen minutes gone and you have to say that the Czechs have had the better chances.
Gerrard wins a free kick but Becks plants it straight into the wall.
Who would have predicted a year ago that Fabio Capello would prove less forward looking in team selection than Steve McClaren?
GOAL!!! Baros finds space in the box, turns John Terry and his shot deflects off Cole and past James. Lovely build-up play by the Czechs and it's Baros' first goal for his country since December.
England 0 Czechs 1
I fear that that's more evidence that JT may not be fit to start for England, to say nothing of his captaining the side.
This aging Czech side is making monkeys out of the Three Lions.
Just popped in to see the score.
Yikes!! I am going to rewind it to see the goal
The turf still looks hopeless!!
They have the NFL coming back as well.
There may be an injury to Cech. The bench are watching him although he's continuing for the time being.
The pitch sounds like it's as hopeless as the home side.
So how did you take that mug shot. I've got a camera on this desktop so I might be able to manage it.
Increased pressure from England. Cech flaps at Beckham's cross but the visitors clear. It comes back to Becks, whose cross is met by Rooney's head but the goalkeeper is well positioned to make an easy save.
Beckham's cross is headed away by Ujfalusi. The Czechs break, run down the other end and Jan Polak fires wide. It highlights how dangerous the visitors can be on the break.
Austria have scored again against Italy. What's going on? 1-2 Austria.
Better from England as Gerrard threads a cute pass through to Defoe who really tests Cech with a thumping left-foot drive. England win a corner which is cleared.
It has to be said that Defoe has been much more lively than Roon. Maybe Wayne's still got the Asian Monkey Pox.
As usual when Becks is playing, everything is going through him but his delivery has been poor. Curtains for Goldenballs? Let's hope so.
Wales are one up over war-torn Georgia.
Coming up on half-time and I'm going to have to bugger off for a walking tour of my new campus.
Let's hope for better in the second half. Come on, England!
Just came in to see a corker of a free kick
Hey, lads, looks like your beloved England are as useless as ever. . . I'll try to be a better contributor now that summer is almost over . . . West Ham 2 points clear of Manyoo with only 39 to play.
Oops . . . "your" should definitely be "our" . . . Did you see David Wilkie in the breast stroke, magic, eh? . . .
Oops . . . Wilkie was from 30 years ago . . . sorry again . ..
Oops . . . Wilkie was from 30 years ago . . . sorry again . ..
Just came in to see Englands scrappy,crappy goal. Lucky buggers!!
A little more detail, Davey, for those of us who work in August.
I'm off to watch Maggie play a soccer match . . . she's trying out for a U-14 travel team . . her game is at the same field where I played my first scrimmage for GWU, twenty-six years ago!
BTW, there is only 37 games to go.
A corner should have been cleared in finally came to JCole. He took a weak shot that was blocked by a defender on to his head and then in.
Where did the Blue Devil go?
No positive lessons from this experience.
The lessons in the negative include, further confirmation that Lampard and Gerrard tend to cancel each other out, that Rooney drifts back into the midfield when asked to lead the line, that England need dedicated wide players, and that Calamity continues to be a disaster.
Bob and I discussed that this is about the legacy that SGE left us before the FA gave the job to McClaren. And possibly the reason for this is that Capello may be the kind of national team coach that buys that crap about how experience at international level is more important than the fresh approach.
Rubbish! You only have to look at Heskey's 5 goals in some 50 appearances to see that his experience has been bloody miserable. This squad is just littered with people who should never be called upon to play another international game -- James, Robinson, Lampard, Heskey, Defoe, Jenas, Beckham.
Nonsense like this is comfort to the Croats and Ukes and probably the upstarts in our WCQ group too.
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