I know it’s only a friendly, but tomorrow game against Spain is a great test. They’re European Champions and - arguably - the best team in the world right now.
And while we don’t have our full squad available - no Rooney, no Gerrard, no Joe Cole - we’re not too far off. And I [...]

The year 2008 and all that was bad about it is now gone. Euro 2008? History. Let us never speak of it, or Steve McClaren, again. We can speak about Theo’s hat-trick in Croatia and beating Germany in Berlin, but apart from that it’s best forgotten.
The year 2009 is all set up very nicely for [...]

In honour of tomorrow’s friendly between what’s starting to look like two B teams, here’s a quick reminder of four monumental matches between England and Germany.

So the Four Associations Cup is go for 2011. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland will compete in a round robin league format with two matches in February 2011 and the rest in May. All games will take place at a (by then) refurbished Lansdowne Road in Dublin.
So it’s basically the old Home Nations tournament [...]

Please don’t fall asleep. I know this is an old question, but it’s one that Fabio Capello will have to answer for England’s next World Qualifiers (Kazakhstan at home on October 11th and Belarus away on October 15th, since you ask).
Assuming Fabio Capello agrees with everyone else in the world (except Sven) that Gerrard and [...]

Here’s Croatia boss Slaven Bilic’s take on yesterday’s game:
“In the first half, we were looking good and we thought we could get a positive result,” Bilic said. “But, we were brutally punished in the second half.”
“We knew that Capello had two options, either Walcott or Beckham,” Bilic said. “It turned out that Walcott was the [...]

Fabio Capello has named his 23 man squad for Andorra/Croatia, and it looks like this:
Goalkeepers: David James (Portsmouth), Robert Green (West Ham United), Paul Robinson (Blackburn Rovers)
Defenders: Wayne Bridge (Chelsea), Wes Brown (Manchester United), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), John Terry (Chelsea), Joleon Lescott (Everton), Matthew Upson (West Ham United)
Midfielders: [...]

That’s right, Michael Carrick has pulled out of the England squad with an ankle injury, and Jermaine Jenas has been called up to replace him.
It’s times like these that make me think about how dull the England team really is.
Sigh.

…why can’t we?
I always thought of Spain as our brothers in underachievement. Lots of quality players, but never in danger of actually winning another trophy. We even won our last trophies at about the same (Spain Euro ‘64, England WC ‘66). Their failure made me feel better about ours.
But Spain went and ruined all that [...]

Not much going on with England other than the constant reminders that we’re not involved with Euro 2008. I’m sure Colin Kazim-Richards is a nice lad, but Turkey having a half-English winger isn’t quite the same as us having a team there is it?
Above is a funny but depressing “Three Lions” pardoy video capturing the [...]