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New Zealand – Road to South Africa 2010

New Zealand stands on the verge of their greatest footballing achievement as a nation since they last qualified for the World Cup Finals in 1982. All that is preventing the All-Whites from achieving their goal is a two-legged tie against either Bahrain or Saudi Arabia which will take place in October and November this year.

New Zealand’s quest to reach their first World Cup Finals in 28 years was made easier a couple of years ago when their greatest rivals Australia decided to switch to the Asian qualifying zone and FIFA changed the usual play off game for teams from Oceania, from a two-legged against the 5th best team in South America qualifying to a two-legged tie against the 5th best team in Asian qualifying.

These two events make it clear why New Zealand has found it a little easier to reach this stage of qualifying but it would be unfair to say these are the only reasons for the improvement in the New Zealand National Football team. There has been a resurgence of late of Kiwi players plying their trade with the bigger clubs around the world, the most high profile of which are Ryan Nelsen of Blackburn Rovers and Chris Killen of Celtic.

Also a recent friendly just before the Confederations Cup saw New Zealand score three goals past the World Cup holders, Italy, unfortunately they also conceded four, but this is a measure of how far New Zealand have come recently as in September 2007 they were ranked 156 in the world and now lie in 99th place. The qualifying stages so far have been remarkably straightforward as New Zealand has won every game except one and that one defeat was a ‘dead rubber’ game against Fiji.

So what chance has New Zealand against the 5th best team in Asia? On the negative side, in the Confederations Cup they drew with the current Asian champions Iraq, 0-0, who themselves were eliminated from qualifying early on in the competition. Recent form has also been discouraging with friendly defeats coming against Thailand and Tanzania. However, the Confederations Cup will have given a lot of the squad the experience of a big match atmosphere and I feel if they can come back from Asia with anything better than a two goal deficit then they can sneak a victory on home soil, in front of a capacity crowd in Wellington, and it will be All- White on the night for the boys from New Zealand.

Rob Davies

120,000 Free tickets for the World Cup

Fifa are keen for as many South Africans as possible to be able to go to the World Cup when the tournament is in their country and have announced that they will give 120,000 tickets away for free.

The free tickets will be given to South Africans involved in the social dev elopement in their country as a reward for the help and effort that they have put in.

“The tickets will enable people who would never have had a chance to attend the World Cup games to see the event,” said Danny Jordaan, chief of the LOC.

Fifa already set low prices for South Africans, starting at US$17 compared to US$80 for international tickets.

But with more than a quarter of the work force unemployed, and many of those who do have jobs earning US$10 a day or less, even cheap seats are out of reach.

Some 40 000 tickets have been allocated to construction workers who are building stadiums to be used for the tournament but other citizens must pay to watch the matches.

“I urge those who can afford to buy tickets to go and buy them now, the free tickets are targeted at very specific people,” said Jordaan.

The second phase of ticket application is closing on 16 November.

It will be the first time the Fifa World Cup is played on African soil.

Spurs dig into Benitez.

I love seeing Rafa Benitez go on one of usual moans about penalties and bad decisions after a game. It was if he had never had a break and just took up exactly from where he left off last season. This time Rafa’s rant referred to what in the old days would’ve been called a fair shoulder. These days however, in the world of the pampered Premiership prima donnas, it’s almost classed as a red card offence. Come on lads, harden up!

It was good to see Robbie Keane lead out the Spurs side and make it a very respectable 3 Irish captains out of the 4 teams on show today. He also had a decent game and carved some chances that he might put away later in the season when his sharpnes is better. He was replaced by new signing Peter Crouch with almost 20 minutes to go, which will remind Robbie that’s there plenty of competition for places this season in White Hart Lane. Hopefully it will spur him on (pardon the pun!) to better perfomances through out the year and have him in top form by the time June comes around.

On a lighter note, have a look on the web for Keane’s reaction when Spurs ‘keeper Heurelho Gomes has one of his now infamous moments of madness by sending Glen Johnson 3 foot into the air with a crazy lunge at his feet. Normally you would expect a team captain to argue and defend the corner of one of his team mates in these situations. But so clear cut was this one, and so crazy were goalkeeper’s reactions that Keane does not attempt to hide his anger and frustration and promplty throws his hands in the air in disgust and then collapses to the ground in a move most petulant 5 year old’s would be proud of. Indeed, it might even come back to haunt him when his own recently born son decides to look back on some of his dad’s career footage.

All in all a strong weekend for the majority of Irish stars on show this weekend. Whilst the good form may not continue all year, we can only deal with one weekend at a time. Hopefully Liam Brady will have been pleased with what he saw and can relay this back to Tardelli and Trappatoni while they are enjoying some tasty little Tuscan Chainti’s…Slainté gentlemen!

OVERALL WEEKEND IRISH PERFORMANCE: 7/10

A somewhat Super Sunday….for Irish players anyway.

I never thought I’d see the day when John O’Shea would lead out the Man Utd team onto the Old Trafford turf as captain. Well it happened today, and although it was only for the first 45 until the introduction of Ryan Giggs at the interval, it was nice honour for the Waterford native. There may have been a lot of factors involved in him getting the armband, mainly the whole Utd defensive unit and every other possible candidate for the captaincy being injured, but I suppose he deserves overall.

Not only was there an Irish man leading out the team in red, but also on the opposition team, the blues of Birmingham. The honour was given to veteran Lee Carsley, the man that was once given the task of trying to fill the void left by Roy Keane in the Irish team. It’s not often that we see two Irish internationals captaining opposing teams in the Premiership these days, so it was pleasing to see not just this, but also that they both had good games.

Another interesting note from the game at OT, was that not only was there two Irish captains, but also two Irish O’Shea’s on the pitch. The aforementioned John, was joined by recent recruit from League of Ireland side Galway United, James. So hopefully he can ease himself into the Birmingham squad and give the Irish selectors some more food for thought in the awfully weak midfield area.

One final note from this game, not Irish related, was the performance of Wayne Rooney. He was simply amazing. It could be a good season for him in his new, more central role upfront.Fabio Capello will be licking his lips at the thought of a full strength Rooney being unleashed next summer. More of the same please from an Ireland point of view.

Mixed Start for Premiership Irish Stars

Well, Premiership football has finally come back after a two and a half month break. And apart from the odd pre-season friendly here and there, and the Confederations Cup last month, there was little for football fans to get excited about during the summer. Even less so if you happen to be an Irish fan. Although we should be used to having little or no decent football action during the summer months when the major international tournaments come around, this year is a little different however, as we genuinely do have a chance of at least a play off spot for the World Cup next summer. Dare we even dream of a place on board a flight for South Africa, well there’s no harm in that, but at the moment let’s just concentrate on getting the team in good order and in the best possible shape for the next few months ahead.

There was some good news to start the day with the speculation that Damien Duff is on the way out of the football equivalent of the car crash that is Newcastle United appearing to be true. With a move to Fulham all but sealed, it signifies a very good move for Duff who has struggled with form and possibly even commitment in the past few years. Boss Roy Hodgson has done some excellent work with the London team and got them to a very credible 7th place finish last season and a spot in the qualifying round of the new Europa League. With Duff now expected to be getting regular Premiership and possibly European action this season, it only be an advantage to Irish hopes.
And so, to the action itself….

The early kick off at Stamford Bridge for Chelsea’s fixture with Hull had two internationals on show, striker Caleb Folan and new boy Stephen Hunt, fresh from his mid week transfer from Reading. Surprisingly, it was Hull and in particular Hunt, who got out of the blocks quickest and earned the honour of bagging the first goal of the season. Despite the goal and an impressive debut performance Hunt and his team mates couldn’t hold out for the win. It was a quiet afternoon for Folan however, and Kevin Kilbane didn’t appear at all, something that didn’t bother me too much. For years Kilbane has been over achieving and appeared to be getting into the Irish squad purely because he was guaranteed to turn up. I don’t think he contributes anything to the team, and although he may be a good squad member and help the younger lads, this, as everyone knows, doesn’t win matches.

Everyone is interested in seeing how the revolution at Manchester City will unfold after the influx of players and persistent speculation with new names on a daily basis. And apart from a debut goal for Adebayor and all round strong performance from the team it was one of the players from the pre-madness days that took most of the headlines. And surprise, surprise it was the most controversial name in (or not in, as the case may be) the Irish set up.  Stephen Ireland. The will-he, won’t- he speculation of his return continues to rumble with just about anyone who used to be connected with the national team giving their opinion. Whatever the tabloids say, the facts are simple. Stephen Ireland is head and shoulders above everyone currently playing for national team and there’s very few above him in the whole Premier League. With Richard Dunne captaining, for the moment anyway, and Shay Given in goals, Manchester City should be providing the main hub of the Irish team. Instead, we are without the one creative and goal scoring influence who has also performing consistently over the past two years. In case you hadn’t noticed I think Signor Trappatoni should be on his knees and begging him to come back. Stubbornness and egos need to put to one side and make this happen immediately. With Ireland (the player) pulling rank in midfield, Ireland (the team) could be more than optimistic about the chances of not only getting to play off place, but dare we say it….top the group!

Elsewhere it was a mixed set of results for the other Irish players. With none of our players on show in games at Villa v Wigan, Everton v Arsenal, or at Duff’s new club Fulham as they travelled to Portsmouth, I was pretty sure I’d someone of interest on show at Sunderland’s game in Bolton. What once looked something resembling an Irish “B” team over the past couple of seasons, there was surprisingly not one even one in the entire Sunderland squad.
So, it was down to the less glamorous of the day’s fixtures that brought the only other Irish players on show. Wolves v West Ham and Stoke v Burnley. Personally I think all of these teams bar West Ham will struggle this year, Wolves and Burnley more so. I was so disappointed to see the very talented Kevin Doyle move to Wolverhampton in the summer. It just looked like Doyle got so fed up at Reading that he accepted the first offer that came in for him. Despite rumours of Villa and Everton being interested, he now looks likely to be involved in the dog fight at the bottom end of the table all year. With the World Cup on the horizon, it seemed like a very rash and not very well thought out decision on his behalf. However, he’s there now, so we may as well hope he keeps some good form and injury free, something he couldn’t do today. With a groin strain picked up in the friendly loss mid week against Australia, he didn’t make the squad for game. There were three other Irish internationals in the team though; Stephen Ward, Kevin Foley and Andy Keogh. None of these should be in the Irish squad at all I’m afraid to say, as they are just not good enough. Not for the Premier League and not for their country. They may look to be squad members at best, with possibly Kevin Foley the most likely to get a game. The match itself ended with what will be something we will be hearing a lot this year…..a loss for Wolves.

The Stoke v Burnley game brought us the only man who makes the team every week, purely because of his arms, Stoke’s Rory Delap. I’m not going to knock him; it’s brought a decent amount of success for them. Personally I can’t abide by a team playing for thrown in’s in the final third of the pitch as their main form of attack. It’s dull, boring and shows a severe lack of talent and imagination. It must be extremely frustrating for opposing teams, but at the end of the day it kept them in the league last term, and bearing in mind Stoke’s budget and players, that’s an excellent achievement. So it came as no surprise at all to see that Stoke’s second goal came as result of one of Delap’s bullets, albeit an own goal by Burnley’s Stephen Jordan. A 2-0 win for them accompanied by an appearance and an excellent free kick by the other Irishman on show, Liam Lawrence meant it was an fantastic first day of the season for Tony Pulis’ team.

Tomorrow brings the big games involving Man United and Liverpool. Hopefully John O’Shea can make an appearance and progress from his very satisfying season last year.  There are possible show’s for Birmingham’s Stephen Carr, and Lee Carsley too. Both may hold out very slim hope of pulling on the green jersey again, however, it would take a very unfortunate run of events and injuries for that to happen. New signing Joe O’Shea comes with a lot of expectation and hope, so he could be that Alex McLeish might put an arm around and say “Go on son, go out there and show us what you can do”, hopefully to Ireland’s benefit.

Meanwhile at White Hart Lane, it would be nice to see captain Robbie Keane get a goal or two and good performance over former club Liverpool. The disastrous move to Anfield last year almost ruined his career and I’m sure he’ll be gunning to show Rafa Benitez a thing or two. If Keane can cement his place in the team this year and fight off some stiff competition from England strikers Jermaine Defoe and new signing Peter Crouch, while also keeping Roman Pavlyuchenko quiet, then it will bode very well for his confidence and indeed the country’s going into the last few qualifying games for the World Cup.

On a final note, one team had two Irish internationals, one former, and one current, score and give their team a 2-0 win.  The team; Coventry, and the players; Leon Best and forgotten striker Clinton Morrison. Morrison may be forgotten by the new set up at international level, but he has now scored 3 goals in two games. Would it really hurt to give him a call up? Well Kevin Doyle played Championship football for all of last season. Caleb Folan didn’t always make the Hull team and Leon Best is only starting to come through at Coventry, so we certainly shouldn’t be hearing excuses about the manager only picking players that are in the Premier League or playing regularly for the club. Go on Trap, do something a little out of the ordinary and once you’ve slept outside Stephen Ireland’s house until he agrees to come back, have yourself a coffee, pick up the phone and give Clinton a call. You can even do it from the comfort of your villa in Milanese Villa.

James McCawley

Croatia Inspired Upon Eduardo’s Return

The return of Eduardo Da Silva lifted the spirits of the Croatia national team, as this particular match weighed heavy on the Croats. With a win, they would be slightly ahead in points for the play-off spot in the group. They were very confident going into the match and after a rocket of a shot from Luka Modrić was deflected wide by the keeper for a corner, Ivica Olić netted with a header. The Croatians almost braced their lead before the break; however, the post denied Olić’s attempt.
 
With just over an hour gone, there was a great play across the face of goal as captain Darijo Srna found Eduardo, who was quickly on the score sheet. As the match was coming to a close, Belarus found a break in the defense and Dimitry Verkhovstov reduced Croatia’s lead to 2-1. The Croats were quick on their feet to seal the deal as Olić scored almost a carbon copy of their previous goal to finish the game as a 3-1 win in their favour.
 
Slaven Bilić’s men gave a great performance. The defense was strong and impenetrable, while the midfield and strikers were quick on the counter-attacks. It’s good news for Eduardo, who got in a full 88 minutes. This being only his second game in a Croatia shirt since his horrific injury over a year ago, he is delighted to be back playing for his country and club.

With this win, Kazakhstan’s World Cup bid is over, as they have just 3 points. The same goes for Andorra, who have 0 points. England are well guaranteed a spot in South Africa as they have 7 wins out of 7 with 21 points. Croatia now have 14 points, and still hold second position in the group; however, they still have the Ukraine breathing down their necks for the play-off spot and Belarus can still stand a chance if things go their way. For their next match, Belarus will travel to Zagreb, Croatia for their re-match at the Maksimir Stadium on the 5th of September. Then it’s off to Wembley to challenge England once again.

Jill Guthrie 

Messi targets return against Brazil

Argentina striker Lionel Messi, who has pleaded to be left out of Barcelona’s opening league game to concentrate on his country’s crucial World Cup clash with Brazil, could miss Sunday’s Spanish Super Cup clash with Atletico Madrid.

The Spanish champions said Thursday that Messi has a groin injury picked up in training for the midweek international friendly win in Russia, a match which he sat out.

“I want to play all Barcelona’s matches up to the game against Shakhtar Donetsk (European Super Cup on August 28), but then rest until the match against Brazil (Sept 5).”

Barcelona are due to open the defence of their La Liga title on Monday, August 31.

Argentina are currently in fourth place in South American qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals with 22 points, just two ahead of Ecuador but five behind leaders Brazil.

Only the top four sides qualify automatically for the finals in South Africa.

Capello not worried about mistakes

England drew 2-2 with the Nether lands in Amsterdam, a good result considering they found themselves 2 down by half time. The two Dutch goals were a result of defensive mistakes from England but Fabio Capello was unfazed by the defensive errors from Rio Ferdinand and Gareth Barry.

“These were just two silly mistakes,” said Capello, who has a 100% record with England in competitive games.

“I was not angry about them because I can accept they were freakish.”

But Capello said he would not be so relaxed about the mistakes if they came as a result of players ignoring instructions.

“Sometimes you are angry because some mistakes that they did were incredible,” he said.

“I don’t accept mistakes where the position is wrong or if I try doing something in training and then, afterwards, I don’t see it being put into practice on the pitch.”

The Italian said he avoided raising his voice at half-time following England’s tepid and mistake-ridden opening 45 minutes.

“I was really calm at half-time, really calm,” he said.

“You have to understand what you have to do. It is not always the same.

“It is very important psychologically for the players to understand if the manager has confidence that they can recover the result.”

Capello introduced Defoe after the interval in place of Emile Heskey with the forward having a immediate impact scoring four minutes after the break and then again 13 minutes from time to get the draw.

“He is one of the best English forwards,” said Capello.

“He is very fast, he is always in front of the goal and technically he is very good.”

Meanwhile, England’s hero of the night was thoroughly pleased with his night’s work.

“I think it was my best game for England,” he said.

“Our performance was good and I think that’s what the manager was looking for.

“In the first half I thought we were a bit unlucky with the goals we conceded - it’s pre-season for a lot of the lads, but the second half was a lot better, we showed good spirit and we deserved the result.”

Marshall gets the nod

The starting line-up for Scotland, who play Norway tonight, has been announced and goalkeeper David Marshall has been given the nod ahead of Rangers keeper Neil Alexander.

First choice goalkeeper Craig Gordon is out injured and Alan McGregor would have most likely been the second choice had he not been suspended from the national team but this has cleared the way for the other keepers to battle it out for the jersey.

Scotland manager George Burley will have a back four of Alan Hutton, Gary and Steven Caldwell and Calum Davidson.

Graham Alexander has been chosen ahead of Paul Hartley for the holding role in front of the back four on Wednesday.

The midfield also features Scott Brown, Kris Commons, Darren Fletcher and Ross McCormack. Striker Kenny Miller has been chosen ahead of James McFadden.

“It’s a massive blow losing Craig, but it gives someone else a chance,” Burley said ahead of the Group Nine clash in Oslo.

Celtic midfielder Brown has only had 25 minutes of competitive action for Celtic since recovering from ankle surgery.

But Burley said: “Scott has trained well. Each day, he is getting stronger and I’m very pleased that he is available.”

Scotland sit second in Group Nine and Burley has targeted six points from their next three games to secure a play-off place for the finals in South Africa.

Defenders Stephen McManus, Gary Naysmith and Kirk Broadfoot, midfielders James Morrison and Barry Robson, plus striker Chris Iwelumo, all failed to make the initial squad through injury.

Midfielder and former captain Barry Ferguson and goalkeeper Allan McGregor were not considered because of misbehaviour during Scotland’s last get-together.

But, like Norway, Scotland have had no withdrawals from their original squad through injury.

“It’s great that we have a full complement of players and that has not always been the case,” the Scotland boss said.

“Four players are missing from the last game against Iceland, but the 23 who are here are all fit and raring to go and we will announce the team tomorrow.

“I’ve got a basic idea of who I’m looking to start and we’ve been through a few things. We have options in a number of positions.”

Alexander had surprised many by not promoting his own case for a starting place.

“I think David Marshall will play and deservedly so,” he suggested because of Marshall’s time as understudy to Gordon and McGregor.

“I know what it’s like to be in the squad for years and be overlooked. I’m here as cover because Craig’s missing.”

Assistant manager Terry Butcher trusted Burley to make the right choice.

“He makes bold decisions; he’s always done that in his career and he’s done so with Scotland in the past,” said Butcher.

“Sometimes, your gut feelings are your best feelings, but that’s down to George and his gut feelings in the past have been very good.”

Gerrard out of England friendly

Steven Gerrard has had to with draw from the England squad that will take on the Netherlands in a friendly on Wednesday due to a groin injury.

The Liverpool midfielder is the latest player to have to withdraw with Ben Foster having to withdraw yesterday.

“Steven Gerrard will not travel to Amsterdam this morning for England’s friendly with Holland on Wednesday,” a Football Association statement read.

“Gerrard has returned to Liverpool as a precaution due to a tight groin.”

No replacement for Gerrard has been named.

The withdrawal of Foster from the squad means that either Paul Robinson or Robert Green will start the match in goals for England as David James is also not in the squad due to a knee injury.

Green, who has four caps, started England’s last two matches, the World Cup qualifying wins against Kazakhstan (4-0) and Andorra (6-0) in June.

Robinson won the last of his 41 caps in a 2-1 European Championship qualifying defeat by Russia in Moscow in October 2007.

Foster has played twice for England, the first in the 1-0 defeat against Spain in February 2007 and the second as a second-half substitute in the 4-0 win over Slovakia in March this year.

He is expected to be first-choice for Manchester United in the absence of regular number one Edwin Van der Sar, who will be sidelined for up to eight weeks after undergoing surgery on a broken finger and bone in his left hand.

England squad for 12 August friendly against the Netherlands:

Goalkeepers: Robert Green (West Ham United), Joe Hart (Manchester City), Paul Robinson (Blackburn Rovers)

Defenders: Wayne Bridge (Manchester City), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Joleon Lescott (Everton), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham United)

Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Manchester City), David Beckham (LA Galaxy), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Aston Villa), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City), Ashley Young (Aston Villa)

Forwards: Carlton Cole (West Ham United), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

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