Bit of a weird game. We looked decent going forward, but made two absolutely woeful errors in defence. First Rio Ferdinand gave the ball away, and then stood back to see what would happen. A Dirk Kuyt goal was what happened.
Next it was Gareth Barry’s turn to pass the ball directly to an Oranje shirt [...]

No LiveBlog for this one, but here’s the England starting XI:
Robert Green; Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole; David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, Ashley Young; Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney.
I likes the looks of that, and fingers crossed Ashley Young puts in a decent performance.
And if I was a betting man, my money [...]

We might have been playing against a side that couldn’t care less, but England recorded a confident 4-0 win over Slovakia this evening, thanks to goals from Heskey, two from Rooney (by far England’s best player), and Lamaprd.
Probably the most notable thing about the match however was the cursed striker position. Not long after [...]

So Spain beat England two-nil tonight, and I don’t really know how much we really learned. We were, certainly the second best team, promising opening 15 minutes aside. For most of the game though we didn’t look that threatning on goal, which probably shows that we still are a little way behind, probably the best [...]

Does anyone else wonder why three managers in a row (Sven, Steve van der Klarijn and now Fabio Capello) have wasted all their friendlies?
Seems like every friendly game – and especially games at Wembley – have been squandered. Instead of giving some untried players a proper runout, it’s been Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham, Rooney, Owen. Same [...]

So England drew 2-2 at the home of expensive hamburgers tonight, but only thanks to an injury time equalizer that might possibly be the worst goal ever in the history of the world.
Football fans avert your eyes:

And there’s a very definite feeling in the air that Fabio Capello’s honeymoon as England manager is over. It [...]

Here’s tonight’s lineup:
James, Brown, A Cole, Ferdinand, Terry (Captain), Beckham, Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Defoe, Rooney.
Look familiar? Steve McClaren could easily have picked that team. So could Sven for that matter.
Only vague bit of newness is the Defoe-Rooney partnership. Could work, really could. Defoe pushing up on the last man and Rooney dropping deep and playing [...]

Good news: I bought tickets for England vs USA at Wembley tomorrow. First trip to New Wembley. Can’t wait to taste one of those £8 hamburgers. Mmmm, do you want ripoff sauce with that?
Bad news: John Terry is going to be captain (click here for an explanation of why this is bad news).
Still at [...]

The good news from England’s 1-0 defeat to France is that Beckham’s 100th cap is out of the way. We don’t have to talk about it ever again. The only question now is whether he adds to his collection. On last night’s evidence I’d say… maybe. He looked pretty much match fit, especially for guy [...]

Lineups very recently announced. They look like this:
France: Coupet, Abidal, Gallas, Makelele, Malouda, Toulalan, Clerc, Thuram, Trezeguet, Ribery, Anelka. Subs: Landreau, Mexes, Cisse, Govou, Squillaci, Alou Diarra, Flamini, Evra.
England: James, Brown, Ferdinand, Terry, Ashley Cole, Beckham, Hargreaves, Barry, Joe Cole, Gerrard, Rooney. Subs: Robinson, Johnson, Lescott, Bridge, Bentley, Downing, Owen, Crouch, Walcott, Green.
England will play [...]