"No money in the world can buy a white England shirt."
A shot of squad news reaction before tonights matches:
TDH has been campaigning for Bent and is glad to see him getting his chance, even if it's against a depleted version of a half-decent team. Given the re-injury of Mr. Tapped Up, we could be seeing a preview of England's starting back four in 'Tache, Rio, Terry and Bridge. TDH hopes that Sven lets Terry wear the trousers in that one. It's the same old knock on Rio: bags of talent, occasional moments of glaring muppetry. JT's got to be the last man on the line.
There will be no Fat Frank in midfield, so tonight will be an especially good test for Carrick. With Young Joe (legitimately) and Stevie G (less so) straying forward all the time, he'll have a lot of ground to cover. TDH is secretly hoping that Carrick tires out, Jenas comes on for him, and then JJ makes an even bigger mess of things. Maybe then the calm and collected Mr. Parker will get his chance. Ah well, we can hope.
The US will probably be fielding something close to TDH's first-choice XI against Poland, in a rematch of the 2002 World Cup group stage. It'll be interesting to see whether Arena can find a decent strike partner for McBride, with Beasley and Donovan likely to be providing even more scoring potency from the wings. Is that an argument for a Chelsea-style 4-5-1? Not necessarily. McBride has shown at Fulham that he can play well with all manner of goal-minded fellows (Boa Morte, Radzinski, Malbranque, John, etc.) plowing into the box. The question will be distribution. Without John O'Brien (ADO Den Haag) or Claudio Reyna (Man City) in the squad, the US will only have domestically based options in that position.
Meanwhile, the Argentine team to face Croatia looks to be pretty much what you'd expect. Only Abbondanzieri (in lieu of Lux) and Tevez were asked to make the trip from South America. Prodigal son Lucho Figueroa, as well as starlets Palacio and Aguero, will have to wait their turns. We'll see if Roman can pick the hulls from the Croats....
TDH has been campaigning for Bent and is glad to see him getting his chance, even if it's against a depleted version of a half-decent team. Given the re-injury of Mr. Tapped Up, we could be seeing a preview of England's starting back four in 'Tache, Rio, Terry and Bridge. TDH hopes that Sven lets Terry wear the trousers in that one. It's the same old knock on Rio: bags of talent, occasional moments of glaring muppetry. JT's got to be the last man on the line.
There will be no Fat Frank in midfield, so tonight will be an especially good test for Carrick. With Young Joe (legitimately) and Stevie G (less so) straying forward all the time, he'll have a lot of ground to cover. TDH is secretly hoping that Carrick tires out, Jenas comes on for him, and then JJ makes an even bigger mess of things. Maybe then the calm and collected Mr. Parker will get his chance. Ah well, we can hope.
The US will probably be fielding something close to TDH's first-choice XI against Poland, in a rematch of the 2002 World Cup group stage. It'll be interesting to see whether Arena can find a decent strike partner for McBride, with Beasley and Donovan likely to be providing even more scoring potency from the wings. Is that an argument for a Chelsea-style 4-5-1? Not necessarily. McBride has shown at Fulham that he can play well with all manner of goal-minded fellows (Boa Morte, Radzinski, Malbranque, John, etc.) plowing into the box. The question will be distribution. Without John O'Brien (ADO Den Haag) or Claudio Reyna (Man City) in the squad, the US will only have domestically based options in that position.
Meanwhile, the Argentine team to face Croatia looks to be pretty much what you'd expect. Only Abbondanzieri (in lieu of Lux) and Tevez were asked to make the trip from South America. Prodigal son Lucho Figueroa, as well as starlets Palacio and Aguero, will have to wait their turns. We'll see if Roman can pick the hulls from the Croats....
posted by Daniel Altman at 4:59 AM
1 Comments:
looking forward to tonights game - Carrick is a class act. As you know, I worship the ground Pirlo walks on, and Carrick is the nearest English equivalent.
Is El Chino (Recoba) playing? To rip off the guardian, his left foot has just completed a dissertation on the concept of mortality as expressed through religious iconography of renaissance painters - i.e. it's cultured.
also looking forward to a glimpse of 'young Nico Oliviera', according to Recoba, a phenomenon.
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