Give Capello and England a chance
August 21, 2008
If you picked up a newspaper this morning and read the back page I am pretty sure that a majority of the headlines are slamming England and Fabio Capello.
For those of you not in the know, England drew 2-2 with the Czech Republic last night after twice going behind.
It makes me mad sometimes to see these reports.
Firstly, the Czech Republic qualified for the Euro’s where England failed so to get a result against them is not a bad thing at all!
Secondly, the papers are saying that “the pampered stars shame the national game” how ridiculous! They showed the strength and will to pull back from behind twice in this game. These players are mostly lads in their twenties, little more than kids. Yes they lead a rich and privelidged lifestyle but that’s something that come’s with the territory. Does anybody really think that these players don’t care about results? If they do they are idiots, even the most pampered richest player in the World, David Beckham, still hates losing!
Thirdly, capello is still adjusting and is still trying different players out. The damage done by previous manager, Steve McClaren, will take a while to sort out. But all in all I look at his team selection and think theres not much different I would do either. Maybe Crouchy would feature more but that’s just my opinion. I certainly don’t think I can tell Mr Capello how to do his job. He’s a good coach, end of story.
I’m a Welshman, a part of me would love to see England flop but the football loving part of me wants them to perform to the best of their ability something they are not yet doing, but give mr Capello the time and freedom to do what he needs to do and I think they will qualify for the World cup. And that should be enough. Don’t expect England to be pushing to the quarters or Semi’s, just accept that qualification will be an improvement and if they achieve that, Capello will have succeeded in his job and can then set himself the next target.
3 days to go and counting!!!!
The opening day of a major tournament is quite often a cagey affair with no teams wanting to be the first to concede in a championship.
The opening games on Saturday are Switzerland vs Czech republic and Portugal vs Turkey.
I can’t see there being too much to get excited about in the opener and expect it to be a 1-1 draw, both teams have a couple of decent players but neither have anything that makes the pulse race and get me jumping off my feet.
The second game on that opening day of Euro 2008 though is a different story. Portugal are many peoples favourites, with the remarkable Christiano Ronaldo lining up to drive his country men on to greatness. Let’s not put them down as a one man team though as they are anything but. They have oodles of talent throughout in the likes of Deco, Nani, Gomes, Postiga and Carvalho and that is why I am thinking that perhaps the best time to play these guys is in the opening game. Hit them before they have a chance to get into their stride. A couple of games in they’re going to be hard to beat as players find their form and the team starts playing a high tempo, smooth passing game. Turkey therefore are in for a difficult opener but not an impossible one.
If they can hit the Portuguese early on and stun them with an early goal I fancy the Turks to cause an upset right there on day one!
Turkey, fresh from a 2-0 win against finland, are quietly fancying themselves to do a job on Portugal an I for one won’t be surprised to see them get that job done. My prediction Turkey 2 – Portugal 1
