Join Matilda and myself for some chit chat about understrength England vs understrength (but still scary) Brazil, from about 30 minutes before kickoff on Saturday, November 14th, 2009. If you’re in the UK it’s a 5pm kickoff on ITV1. If you’re in the US it’s a 12 noon kickoff on Fox Soccer Channel.
England [...]

Bad news. Our list of the fallen is now about as long as Peter Crouch’s leg. The BBC so kindly tells us that we’re missing Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, David James, Theo Walcott, Emile Heskey, David Beckham, Aaron Lennon, Carlton Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Glen Johnson. That’s 12 of our [...]

What: England vs Brazil (or Brazil vs England), friendly game of football
When: Saturday November 14th, 2009. 5pm kickoff UK time. 12noon US eastern time.
Where: Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar
I Don’t Live There! Is it on TV? UK: ITV1 5pm, USA: Fox Soccer Channel 12noon
First question to ask about this bizarrely located game, who’s the [...]

Fabio Capello has named his England squad for the November 14th friendly vs Brazil in Qatar. There was a bit of complaining in the run up, with Fergie suggesting the whole thing was a waste of time, and Rafa Benitez asking that Steven Gerrard be excused.
Capello ignored Fergie and selected as many Man Utd players [...]

Arsene Wenger thinks 20 year old Arsenal left back Kieran Gibbs is “ready to play” for England. I’d rather stick with Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge for World Cup 2010, thanks Arsene, but after watching Gibbs play in Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Wolves today, I think we can definitely file Gibbs under “near future”.
First [...]

Wayne Rooney contributed what looked like a good all round performance for Man Utd vs Blackburn on Saturday, featuring some nice link play and a sweet sweet goal which he swept home to make it 2-0 (around 4:10 in the above video).
I saw about 15 minutes of the game live, and there was also a [...]

If you had asked me six months ago who was England’s best centre back I would have undoubtedly said Rio Ferdinand. However posed with the same question now I would be a little less sure. I think that the talk that he’s “over the hill” is overly dramatic, but Ferdinand’s form this season has definitely [...]

Interesting story in Bild recently, suggesting that Fabio Capello has been asking Stuart Pearce to keep an eye on Werder Bremen’s 23 year old attacking mid/forward Aaron Hunt, who you can see above scoring twice for Werder Bremen (in white) this weekend. The second goal (which tied the game at 2-2) is an absolute cracker [...]

Sir Alex Ferguson has always enjoyed a good moan. Especially when it comes to England friendlies. So it wasn’t a huge surprise to hear him complain about England’s upcoming game vs Brazil in Doha, Qatar on November 14th.
Ferguson doesn’t mention the Brazil game specifcially. But he may as well have. It’s a long old rant, [...]

You may be wondering why the name at the top is neither Daryl nor Rob. I’ll introduce myself, I’m Matilda, I also write for Bolton Offside. Both Rob and Daryl will still be writing here, I’m just a little addendum.
Milan chief executive, Adriano Galliani, has come out with the wonderfully self contradictory statement:
“It’s practically certain [...]