Three and in – not just another football blog

Whilst the drama of the England squad announcement was diluted by the steady drip of leaks throughout the day, the decision to drop Theo Walcott still comes as something of a shock.  Since his hatrick against Croatia in September 2008, Theo has been a regular favourite of Fabio Capello.  Only a couple of months ago the Italian called the Arsenal winger an “important player”, and starts in England’s two warm-up friendlies seemed to confirm Walcott’s seat on the plane to South Africa.

Not so.  It emerges than instead of attempting to settle Walcott in to the first XI, Capello was offering a stage from which to stake one final claim for a place in the squad.  An injury hit season has halted the youngster’s progress, but Capello is man of faith: Walcott’s role in England’s qualification earned him a chance for a reprieve.  He would have wanted the player to seize the opportunity.  Capello will be as disappointed as anyone at what he actually saw.

The decision to promote Walcott, almost two years ago now, was one of the pivotal moments of Capello’s time as England manager.  His pace and direct running saw him move ahead of David Beckham in the pecking order, providing balance to the side and allowing the manager to field Steve Gerrard as a narrow left-midfielder.  The brief to Walcott was simple: provide an overlap, exploit space, and deliver crosses for the two forwards.  The fact is that recently Walcott has not done any of those jobs sufficiently well.

Some will say dropping Walcott on the back of two friendlies is unfair.  The truth is that had he played well in those games, selecting him would have been just as unsubstantiated.  His form over the course of the season does not justify inclusion.  Can you remember a significant moment Walcott produced for Arsenal this season?  Can you remember a major positive contribution for England since that night in Zagreb?

Walcott is a player who is both a beneficiary and victim of our ‘hype’ culture.  The attention he receives, both commercially and from the likes of Capello, is due in large part to a reputation that stems from the stratospheric rise he experienced as a teenager and the fact that he is cartoonishly quick.  His technical ability still trails behind that of many of his rivals.

Oliver Kay of The Times said that last night Capello was toying with the idea of leaving Aaron Lennon at home.  In the end, Lennon’s superior form and greater versatility seem to have won the day.  Shawn Wright-Phillips is the arguably surprising beneficiary of Walcott’s exclusion; Adam Johnson, Man City’s promising left-footer, will join Walcott in hoping future World Cup’s bring greater fortune.

After being the shock inclusion in the 2006 World Cup Squad, being the shock exclusion this summer isn’t the kind of progress Walcott will have targeted.  Five years in to his senior career, it’s hard to pick out a period of extended good form.  There have been moments, doubtless – flashes of instinctive ability – but it has never translated in to anything approaching consistency.

His only option now, ironically given much of the criticism of his playing style, is to get his head down.  His international place has gone, and his club place is under threat too – even when fit he often found himself on the Arsenal bench, usurped by the likes of Emmanuel Eboue and Tomas Rosicky.  The reputation that has both buffered and buffeted him throughout the last five years is now in limbo – he finally has a chance to escape it.  Walcott has to learn that a match is about ninety minutes, not one blistering sprint, and at 21 he’d also be well-advised that his career doesn’t have to be defined by this moment.

Walcott has the luxury of being at a club who’ve already shown tremendous patience with him.  If anything, perhaps he has been a little too comfortable.  Maybe now he has the motivating factor he needs to fulfill his potential.

It’s just your average football training camp, replete with slapstick crashes, bizarre costumes and allusions to hit movie March of the Penguins.  Click on the pictures for more.

Germany’s Michael Ballack has been ruled out of the World Cup after the ankle injury inflicted on him by Portsmouth’s Kevin Prince Boateng was much worse than feared.

While I have sympathy for any player injured after a bad tackle – and Boateng’s was certainly that – I do wonder if Ballack might now wish the cup final ref, Chris Foy, had been a bit stricter. A few moments before the tackle which injured him, Ballack was involved in an incident on the edge of the Portsmouth box which saw some pushing and shoving as the Pompey players believed the German had slapped Hayden Mullins. It was very much a case of flailing arms and I think Ballack knew he could do that, and possibly make contact without anyone being able to say it was deliberate.

There was then a bit of pushing and shoving and Ballack pushed one of the Portsmouth players in the face. It might even have been Boateng himself. The letter of the law says that if you raise your hands like that it’s a red card. It might have been soft but we’ve seen them given before.

I’m not saying the injury was karma but I bet he’s not as relieved now as he was then to get away with it.

Brazil coach Dunga is not a man prone to bowing to public pressure, and he stuck to his guns when naming his 23-man World Cup squad, ignoring calls to include old favourites including Ronaldo, Adriano, and Roberto Carlos.

None of these are particularly surprising omissions: the pair of strikers are over-weight and under-motivated in the backwaters of Brazilian football, whilst Roberto Carlos recently turned 37.  But there is one absentee which has raised eyebrows.  The squad announcement was bereft of one Ronaldo de Assis Moreira – better known as Ronaldinho.

Unlike Ronaldo and Adriano, Ronaldinho is still playing in one of Europe’s top leagues with AC Milan.  This season he has weighed in with ten goals and fourteen assists, and a series of performances that whilst not approaching the heights of his Barcelona form, have shown flashes of that mercurial ability.  In particular, he was credited as Milan’s best player in an otherwise disappointing two-legged showing against Manchester United.

A look at the midfielders Brazil have selected sees plenty of graft but little craft – the likes of Klebersen, Melo, Gilberto, Baptista and Ramires are not likely to work the ball around a metaphoric parked bus.  The exclusion of Ronaldinho places enormous burden on Kaka – a player who hasn’t had the best of debut seasons at Real Madrid.

Dunga has been praised for adding organisation and steel to the Brazil team.  He ought to beware, however, eschewing the beautiful game that makes them great.

“44 years of hurt” might not be as catchy, but it’s just as painful. This Summer, however, England expects. Lord knows why. Half a century of near misses suggests we should know better. At least England were spared the pain of an inevitable quarter-final exit at Euro 2008 – they have Steve ‘Schteve’ McClaren to thank for that.

The once-heralded ‘Golden Generation’ are losing their sheen: Rio Ferdinand is no longer jovially merking his team-mates, but nursing an ageing spine; John Terry burned his Bridge and saw his form go up in smoke too; and as for David Beckham, he won’t even be there, unless he’s called in for emergency cheer-leading duties.

Hope, it seems, lies in the hands (or, in one case, at the feet) of two men: Fabio Capello and Wayne Rooney. The latter, recently crowned PFA Player of the Year, has been in such irrepressible form as to drag an otherwise below-par Manchester United side to within clutching distance of the Premier League title. A groin injury has ruled him out of the best part of the run-in – a curse for United fans, but a blessing for England supporters, who can but hope he is now resting up in specially padded metatarsal-protecting slippers.

And then Capello, a man so commanding that no-one dares question the wisdom of selecting Aston Villa’s third-choice striker at centre-forward. English hopes have not rested so heavily on an Italian since Paul Gascoigne rang Pizza Express during Euro 96 in the hope of a midnight snack. Can he and Rooney secure the trophy before riding off in to a South African Sunset?

I’ll be in South Africa myself, and whilst I’m going principally to enjoy a festival of football, it’s clear my allegiances are nailed to my own nation.  We’ll need a bit of luck, but I can’t help but feel a tingle of belief that those who travel to South Africa this summer will, whether they’re on safari or not, hear the roar of three lions.

Today Fabio Capello names his 30 man provisional squad.  I predict he’ll go for:

Goalkeepers: Green, James, Hart
Defenders: Johnson, Carragher, Brown, Cole, Baines, Ferdinand, Terry, King, Upson, Dawson
Midfielders: Walcott, Lennon, Gerrard, Milner, Barry, Lampard, Carrick, Huddlestone, Downing, Joe Cole, Wright-Phillips
Strikers: Rooney, Heskey, Crouch, Defoe, Zamora, Bent

My own squad would make room for Phil Jagielka and City’s Adam Johnson, though I’m not sure they’ll feature as prominently in Capello’s thoughts.

The next task is knocking that down to 23.  If Capello is able to make those choices himself, rather than have injuries decide for him, he’ll be delighted.

“Representing your country is the ultimate honour, especially in the World Cup.

Not to me.”
Jamie Carragher, September 2008

So apparently Franco Baldini has put Cameron and Clegg to shame with his negotiating skills, and managed to persuade Jamie Carragher to come out of retirement.  Whatever next – will he be making an SOS call to Darius Vassell?

One can understand Capello having concerns over the form and fitness of Ferdinand and Terry, but Carragher has spent the season looking a good deal older than his 32 years in a Liverpool side set to slump to a disappointing seventh place finish.  Setting aside his previous lack of interest in representing his country, selecting Carragher simply doesn’t reflect the manager’s claim that he’ll pick the form players.  The likes of Tottenham pair King and Dawson have both outperformed the scouse stopper this year, and if it’s versatility that you want then Everton’s Phil Jagielka looks a much better bet.

If Carragher is selected in the final 23, it’ll be as a right-back rather than a centre-half, making a mockery of his initial retirement on the grounds of not being selected in his best position.  Those who’ve got England this far, the likes of Upson and Wes Brown, will have every right to feel aggrieved if they miss out in favour of this Jamie-come-lately.