Holy Minnows Ball Man, It's An International Eve
Well, well. It looks like England's got a little issue on their hands with Alan Smith. Not that he chose to play in a Manchester United reserve match today as opposed to the Denmark friendly on Wednesday, but how the FA is handling the whole thing.
On one side of the fence, you've got Sven-Goran Eriksson saying that he's really sorry to Alan Smith for a terrible misunderstanding. You see, he miscounted the amount of matches he had played and so he called him up saying:
But, here's the question. Did he play too many or too few games to be match fit? I mean if he played too many, what's he doing in the Manchester United reserves games and if he's played too few, what's the harm in getting some match fitness in a friendly?
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the FA, Brian Barwick, has taken a much harder line saying that Alan Smith's international career is now over after the snub.
Who's in control here?
And to think, Sven is the Swede in the whole equation. He's acting pretty American movie-ized English in that he's being overly apologetic (anyone who's seen Michael Palin's role in "National Lampoon's European Vacation" knows what I mean). Perhaps he really needs to be made England coach through 2008 because he's definitely learning some stereotypical aspects of the culture.
Although I heard an interview today where when the BBC presenter asked him if it was weird to coach through Euro 2008 and then have someone follow him with such little prep to the 2010 World Cup, he said, "fine then, I will just have to coach through 2010."
Aw heck. England should just name him coach until 2018 when they're bidding to host the World Cup.
Or maybe just make him coach for life. Naw, that's too Italian sounding. :)
---
Speaking of Italy, the Keystone Cop League that is Serie A may finally be starting up as the whole Genoa match fixing scandal has reached its conclusion with that side being demoted to Serie C (or whatever they call their third division in Italy) or maybe it was another one due to financial difficulty.
Sure the report was in English translated from Italian but it all felt like Greek to me. :)
In the end, Ascoli and Treviso, were promoted from Serie B. I think, and this is where it get really confusing, another club was actually supposed to be promoted but they're having money trouble.
The whole sordid affair is spelled out in the above link. I threw my hands up weeks ago. The fixture list should be out for Italy some time before 2007. Or when they leaders of the Italian federation are done lounging in a cafe in Venice and decide to get to work on it. Whichever comes first.
---
Tomorrow is an international day, so I'm told. But, searching through the fixtures, I couldn't find more than a couple that actually matter so none of my usual schtick about all the games with meaning - but there are a couple.
Sadly, Fox Soccer Channel, that bastion of meaningless UEFA qualifying matches actually has the one that means the most in Europe as Russia take on Latvia. The Russians, currently in third in Group 3 on 14 points can pull even with Slovakia (though will still be far behind in goal differential) by making up this game in hand.
Latvia, otherwise known as the old folks home in the Baltics (they had the oldest squad in Euro 2004 and it ain't getting any younger), should they lose are toast. A win will leapfrog them over Russia but leave Slovakia (who should have a pretty easy time of it tomorrow at Liechtenstein - not really a nation state but a nation state of mind) and group leaders Portugal still ahead (the latter with a game in hand) to crush the poor little country's dreams. Though anything is possible in this group of Portugal and the Portugettes. And since Latvia still has games left against both Portugal (away on October 12) and Slovakia (home on September 7).
Besides that, we get to see who's the crappiest minnow in Europe in the quadrannual - MINNOWPALOOZA!
Yes, if you've got some sort of telepathy, you can see the Faroe Islands play Cyprus and, don't get out of your seats yet because it gets better -- you can also see Georgia travel to Kazakhstan!
Does the fun ever start? :)
---
There are four matches in Asia and that horrible region has assigned four of it's 4.5 spots already. Still one of the matches actually matters.
Kuwait travels to Uzbekistan. If the Uzebeks win, they face Bahrain for the right to face the fourth place team in CONCACAF for a real live spot in the World Cup. In the even of a draw, Kuwait makes the much shorter trip across the Arabian desert to face their emiratish "neighbors" still for the right to face the fourth place team in CONCACAF for a real live spot in the World Cup.
At least Asia's going to be over after this! I don't think I can take the pain of it anymore!
---
Finally close to home, there are the CONCACAF games. They'll be entertaining but the games with Mexico and the United States involved are meaningless if the favorites win.
Panama at Guatemala does mean a lot. If Guatemala can hold at home and Costa Rica loses, both of the central American countries will be on 7 points with four matches to go. If Panama wins, well the whole thing gets more muddled.
One thing to watch is Costa Rica in Mexico City. They are the only team to win at El Azteca against Mexico - EVER. While it's doubtful they can do it again, there's always hope.
There's hope that there will be some more exciting matches to decide 3rd and 4th come September. :)
On one side of the fence, you've got Sven-Goran Eriksson saying that he's really sorry to Alan Smith for a terrible misunderstanding. You see, he miscounted the amount of matches he had played and so he called him up saying:
"I think it's my fault that I didn't communicate what happened to more people. It was also a little bit my fault as I didn't check how many games he had played."
But, here's the question. Did he play too many or too few games to be match fit? I mean if he played too many, what's he doing in the Manchester United reserves games and if he's played too few, what's the harm in getting some match fitness in a friendly?
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the FA, Brian Barwick, has taken a much harder line saying that Alan Smith's international career is now over after the snub.
Who's in control here?
And to think, Sven is the Swede in the whole equation. He's acting pretty American movie-ized English in that he's being overly apologetic (anyone who's seen Michael Palin's role in "National Lampoon's European Vacation" knows what I mean). Perhaps he really needs to be made England coach through 2008 because he's definitely learning some stereotypical aspects of the culture.
Although I heard an interview today where when the BBC presenter asked him if it was weird to coach through Euro 2008 and then have someone follow him with such little prep to the 2010 World Cup, he said, "fine then, I will just have to coach through 2010."
Aw heck. England should just name him coach until 2018 when they're bidding to host the World Cup.
Or maybe just make him coach for life. Naw, that's too Italian sounding. :)
---
Speaking of Italy, the Keystone Cop League that is Serie A may finally be starting up as the whole Genoa match fixing scandal has reached its conclusion with that side being demoted to Serie C (or whatever they call their third division in Italy) or maybe it was another one due to financial difficulty.
Sure the report was in English translated from Italian but it all felt like Greek to me. :)
In the end, Ascoli and Treviso, were promoted from Serie B. I think, and this is where it get really confusing, another club was actually supposed to be promoted but they're having money trouble.
The whole sordid affair is spelled out in the above link. I threw my hands up weeks ago. The fixture list should be out for Italy some time before 2007. Or when they leaders of the Italian federation are done lounging in a cafe in Venice and decide to get to work on it. Whichever comes first.
---
Tomorrow is an international day, so I'm told. But, searching through the fixtures, I couldn't find more than a couple that actually matter so none of my usual schtick about all the games with meaning - but there are a couple.
Sadly, Fox Soccer Channel, that bastion of meaningless UEFA qualifying matches actually has the one that means the most in Europe as Russia take on Latvia. The Russians, currently in third in Group 3 on 14 points can pull even with Slovakia (though will still be far behind in goal differential) by making up this game in hand.
Latvia, otherwise known as the old folks home in the Baltics (they had the oldest squad in Euro 2004 and it ain't getting any younger), should they lose are toast. A win will leapfrog them over Russia but leave Slovakia (who should have a pretty easy time of it tomorrow at Liechtenstein - not really a nation state but a nation state of mind) and group leaders Portugal still ahead (the latter with a game in hand) to crush the poor little country's dreams. Though anything is possible in this group of Portugal and the Portugettes. And since Latvia still has games left against both Portugal (away on October 12) and Slovakia (home on September 7).
Besides that, we get to see who's the crappiest minnow in Europe in the quadrannual - MINNOWPALOOZA!
Yes, if you've got some sort of telepathy, you can see the Faroe Islands play Cyprus and, don't get out of your seats yet because it gets better -- you can also see Georgia travel to Kazakhstan!
Does the fun ever start? :)
---
There are four matches in Asia and that horrible region has assigned four of it's 4.5 spots already. Still one of the matches actually matters.
Kuwait travels to Uzbekistan. If the Uzebeks win, they face Bahrain for the right to face the fourth place team in CONCACAF for a real live spot in the World Cup. In the even of a draw, Kuwait makes the much shorter trip across the Arabian desert to face their emiratish "neighbors" still for the right to face the fourth place team in CONCACAF for a real live spot in the World Cup.
At least Asia's going to be over after this! I don't think I can take the pain of it anymore!
---
Finally close to home, there are the CONCACAF games. They'll be entertaining but the games with Mexico and the United States involved are meaningless if the favorites win.
Panama at Guatemala does mean a lot. If Guatemala can hold at home and Costa Rica loses, both of the central American countries will be on 7 points with four matches to go. If Panama wins, well the whole thing gets more muddled.
One thing to watch is Costa Rica in Mexico City. They are the only team to win at El Azteca against Mexico - EVER. While it's doubtful they can do it again, there's always hope.
There's hope that there will be some more exciting matches to decide 3rd and 4th come September. :)
posted by incendiarymind at 7:58 PM
1 Comments:
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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