England on the verge, but it's just the beginning!
After England's 4-0 win away at Kazakhstan on Saturday and the draw that followed it later that evening between nearest group rivals Croatia and Ukraine, Capello and his men are now tantalisingly close to World Cup qualification and South Africa in 2010. The performance may not have been the most convincing, but professional was probably the most frequent and polite description of how England overcame the Kazakhstanis in Almaty.
In the extreme unlikelihood that the Ukraine will fail to defeat Kazakhstan tonight, England would be all but mathematically certain to win the group and be qualified, again withstanding any heroics by Belarus in it's remaining fixtures. So on that basis we can start to plan ahead for next summer already, my concern is that we will face an increasing frenzy of hype as the next domestic season continues.
This is natural, and though I hate to endorse excuses, I will do so anyway in this case. It has to be said that there is some truth in how the amount of pressure England players have been put under in the past, has contributed to their impotence in major national tournaments. This doesn't excuse some of the disappointments of recent history though. Indeed, I have mentioned before how England's mentality needs to match that of the Brazilians and Germans, to be able to handle pressure and to have an over-riding sense of self-belief. At the same time it is important for the England team to remain focused on their ambition and to not get too carried away with the hysteria that will go on around them.
It is worth noting how Capello himself refuses to be drawn into talking about our prospects in South Africa. He knows that to get the best out of England the players will need to respect all opposition, and as we saw on Saturday, to be patient and professional. Football is a world which is famed for its speaking in clichés, but Capello is one of the best managers in the game partly because of that.
Capello will not be willing to whip up the storm around England, rather like we have seen at every club he has operated at, he will be determined to analyse and study to an obsessive degree how he can mould England to avoid defeat and to achieve positive results. Whether or not that sometimes involves grinding out results like Italian teams of old, I do not care- ultimately winning is all that matters.
As for tonight's match at Wembley, it remains to be seen just how many fans and members of the public will be able to attend. The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) commenced with a 48 hour strike at 18:59 yesterday evening. With the impending threat of the strike going ahead, the FA stopped selling the remaining 20,000 tickets last week. In reality, of the 70,000 tickets that have been allocated there will be significantly less than that who will be able to make it to Wembley Stadium, all the Tubes running to the area won't be stopping and Wembley Park station will be closed.
It is quite sad that England will therefore face Andorra far short of it's usual atmosphere, though it won't affect the result at all. Still, you have to wonder if the RMT calculated their strike action to coincide with the fixture in order to place extra emphasis on the necessity of the Tube infrastructure. After all, probably the one major drawback about Wembley Stadium (aside from the spiralling costs in it's construction) is the fact that it is notoriously difficult to get to by car due to the lack of parking.
Ideally the FA could have perhaps aimed to boost the attendance for tonight's match by cutting their losses and giving away the remaining 20,000 tickets to local schools etc. If they were local enough then transport may not have been as much of an issue, it's not as if the stadium isn't used to having 90,000 people around it anyway. More to the point, it always seems like a wasted opportunity to me to have so many empty seats. The same is seen in some of the less attractive Premiership stadiums and so on, football needs it's grassroots and should react quicker to looking after them instead of taking advantage of them. By giving away unsold tickets to local youngsters, surely it is a logical way to attract interest in the sport, particularly in those areas that never sell-out anyway.
A mention must also be made for Gary Neville! The odds seem good for him earning his first England cap since February 2007, injuries have played a major part in him being omitted, but more recently the consistency of Glen Johnson has come to the fore. Mr Gary Neville may regularly come high on polls of disliked players, but if he does indeed play tonight then he will finally draw level on being the most capped full back for England. An 86th cap would leave him level-pegging with the Arsenal legend and favourite Kenny Sansom, and barring any more injury set-backs he may earn the record outright in future.
Capello is being strongly rumoured to be considering resting not only Glen Johnson, but also Emile Heskey and David Beckham, as all three are a yellow card away from missing the Croatia match in September. Gareth Barry is definitely out due to suspension and so we can expect a more attacking dynamic to the team, even if it's only through necessity. Either way it 'should' be enjoyable rather than frustrating against the team ranked 196th in the world. Then again, I know better than that- I'll plump for 3-0 and hope for more!
In the extreme unlikelihood that the Ukraine will fail to defeat Kazakhstan tonight, England would be all but mathematically certain to win the group and be qualified, again withstanding any heroics by Belarus in it's remaining fixtures. So on that basis we can start to plan ahead for next summer already, my concern is that we will face an increasing frenzy of hype as the next domestic season continues.
This is natural, and though I hate to endorse excuses, I will do so anyway in this case. It has to be said that there is some truth in how the amount of pressure England players have been put under in the past, has contributed to their impotence in major national tournaments. This doesn't excuse some of the disappointments of recent history though. Indeed, I have mentioned before how England's mentality needs to match that of the Brazilians and Germans, to be able to handle pressure and to have an over-riding sense of self-belief. At the same time it is important for the England team to remain focused on their ambition and to not get too carried away with the hysteria that will go on around them.
It is worth noting how Capello himself refuses to be drawn into talking about our prospects in South Africa. He knows that to get the best out of England the players will need to respect all opposition, and as we saw on Saturday, to be patient and professional. Football is a world which is famed for its speaking in clichés, but Capello is one of the best managers in the game partly because of that.
Capello will not be willing to whip up the storm around England, rather like we have seen at every club he has operated at, he will be determined to analyse and study to an obsessive degree how he can mould England to avoid defeat and to achieve positive results. Whether or not that sometimes involves grinding out results like Italian teams of old, I do not care- ultimately winning is all that matters.
As for tonight's match at Wembley, it remains to be seen just how many fans and members of the public will be able to attend. The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) commenced with a 48 hour strike at 18:59 yesterday evening. With the impending threat of the strike going ahead, the FA stopped selling the remaining 20,000 tickets last week. In reality, of the 70,000 tickets that have been allocated there will be significantly less than that who will be able to make it to Wembley Stadium, all the Tubes running to the area won't be stopping and Wembley Park station will be closed.
It is quite sad that England will therefore face Andorra far short of it's usual atmosphere, though it won't affect the result at all. Still, you have to wonder if the RMT calculated their strike action to coincide with the fixture in order to place extra emphasis on the necessity of the Tube infrastructure. After all, probably the one major drawback about Wembley Stadium (aside from the spiralling costs in it's construction) is the fact that it is notoriously difficult to get to by car due to the lack of parking.
Ideally the FA could have perhaps aimed to boost the attendance for tonight's match by cutting their losses and giving away the remaining 20,000 tickets to local schools etc. If they were local enough then transport may not have been as much of an issue, it's not as if the stadium isn't used to having 90,000 people around it anyway. More to the point, it always seems like a wasted opportunity to me to have so many empty seats. The same is seen in some of the less attractive Premiership stadiums and so on, football needs it's grassroots and should react quicker to looking after them instead of taking advantage of them. By giving away unsold tickets to local youngsters, surely it is a logical way to attract interest in the sport, particularly in those areas that never sell-out anyway.
A mention must also be made for Gary Neville! The odds seem good for him earning his first England cap since February 2007, injuries have played a major part in him being omitted, but more recently the consistency of Glen Johnson has come to the fore. Mr Gary Neville may regularly come high on polls of disliked players, but if he does indeed play tonight then he will finally draw level on being the most capped full back for England. An 86th cap would leave him level-pegging with the Arsenal legend and favourite Kenny Sansom, and barring any more injury set-backs he may earn the record outright in future.
Capello is being strongly rumoured to be considering resting not only Glen Johnson, but also Emile Heskey and David Beckham, as all three are a yellow card away from missing the Croatia match in September. Gareth Barry is definitely out due to suspension and so we can expect a more attacking dynamic to the team, even if it's only through necessity. Either way it 'should' be enjoyable rather than frustrating against the team ranked 196th in the world. Then again, I know better than that- I'll plump for 3-0 and hope for more!
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