England vs Brazil Preview, Or: Who Here Can Play Right Back?

November 12th, 2009 | by: Daryl | Comments(4)

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 home team? Apparently it’s 3,232 miles from London to Dohar, but 7,212 from Brasilia (Brazilian capital) to Dohar. So I’m saying England. Sort of.

Second, who has the stronger squad? Or, more accurately, who has the least depleted squad? England started without Gerrard, James, Walcott, Lennon, Ferdinand, Cole and Heskey. We’ve since lost David Beckham (MLS playoffs), Frank Lampard (thigh injury) and Glen Johnson (mysterious injury). So our only “usual first XI” players from World Cup qualification will be Terry, Barry and Rooney. Uh-oh. Apparently we were even reduced to asking Luke Young to reconsider his international retirement. Wes Brown will play right back, since he’s the only one that can.

Brazil are missing players too, but their squad still includes the likes of Maicon, Dani Alves, Lucio, Kaka, Robinho and Luis Fabiano. In short, I’m a little worried about how we’re going to do.

After the above mentioned withdrawals, our current squad looks like this:

GKs: Rob Green, Ben Foster, Joe Hart;
Defenders: Wes Brown, Wayne Bridge, Stepehen Warnock, John Terry, Joleon Lescott, Matthew Upson, Gary Cahill;
Midfielders: Shawn Wright-Phillips, Ashley Young, James Milner, Tom Huddleston, Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Jermaine Jenas;
Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Darren Bent.

Not ideal and definitely not even full strength. But maybe a good chance for guys like Ashley Young and James Milner to press their claims.

So… my new favourite starting XI would look something like this:

Green
Brown – Terry(c) – Upson – Bridge
SWP/Milner – Jenas/Carrick – Barry – Young
Rooney
Crouch/Defoe

Defence more or less picks itself. Brown is the only right back, I trust Upson more than Lescott, and Bridge needs a game after his terrible performance vs Ukraine. Wouldn’t be upset if Warnock started at left back instead though.

Out wide, it has to be Young on the left. Hopefully he gets 90 minutes. SWP or Milner at right mid, maybe a half each or so? Central mid is a tough ask. Carrick is obviously senior to Jenas, but Carrick’s not in great form and is maybe a little too similar to Barry. Would be nice to see Huddlestone get a respectable number of minutes, just to see how he copes.

Up front, Rooney is a given. But big man Crouch or fast man Defoe to partner him? Can we combine them both somehow? Who would you pick?

Hopefully we’ll have a LiveBlog/chit-chat here on England WCB, so stop by and join us if you’re LiveBlog inclined.