The idea is that potentially, we could come up with a group of Russia, Australia and the Ivory Coast. Or Portugal.

So, below is a quick look at the expected seeding according to his post, and our best and worst case scenarios.

Copied verbatim from that Telegraph article:

Expected World Cup seedings

Pot 1 (seeds): Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, hosts South Africa and France/Republic of Ireland.*

Pot 2 (rest of Uefa): Denmark, Greece/Ukraine, Holland,Portugal/Bosnia, Russia/Slovenia, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland.

Pot 3 (AFC + Concacaf): Australia, New Zealand, Honduras, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mexico, United States
.
Pot 4 (CAF + rest of Conmebol): Algeria/Egypt, Cameroon, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Paraguay, Nigeria, Uruguay/Costa Rica†

*If Ireland win, Portugal would probably step up and the Irish would go into Pot 2.

† If Costa Rica win, they may go into Pot 3, with New Zealand in Pot 4.

So, England probably will be seeded, which means we avoid Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany and erm South Africa.

So we’ll get one team from each of the other pots. Pot 2 does look a bit scary. Assuming Russia and Portugal make it through, i fancy neither in the first round. Both have done for us in too recent memory, and both have good sides, despite the fact that Portugal appear to be struggling a bit at the moment. Really don’t want Holland either, and Serbia might go a bit further in this tournament as they have a few good players.

Switzerland would possibly be the best case scenario. I think we could deal with Greece, or despite that qualifying result, Ukraine, pretty well as well.

In Pot 3, I think New Zealand are the weak ones we can hope for. They’ve made their first World Cup since the 80s, and have a Championship striker up top.

Australia tend to do alright at tournaments, and would be fired up to beat England at anything. South Korea and Japan too, usually have a tricky energy at tournaments, Mexico eventually qualified alright and have a few good players, and the USA have beaten Spain.

Not gonna pretend I know loads about all the countries in Pot 4, but I do think that the Ivory Coast might make a break through for African Sides this summer. If they can keep them fit they have Drogba to get them goals, and the two Touré’s, Yaya and Kolo to shore them up behind. They’re a bit unlucky that they are going to get a pretty tough group though, but I hope its not England’s.

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, England had 12 players injured or rendered unavailable for a variety of reasons. Give or take a few players this was basically a second string side. So losing 1-0 to a slightly understrength Brazil isn’t too bad. Many players gave encouraging performances. That being said, Brazil fully deserved the win, and we were outplayed through the whole match.

I was the most worried about our back four, especially since they would be facing someone so fear inspiring at Kaka. With Ferdinand, Terry and Johnson out, it was thorough improvised made up of Brown, Upson, Lescott, and Bridge. You can see why I was worried? But through most of the game, with the obvious exception of the one goal (Nilmar just zipped straight through Bridge and Upson), they were pretty effective at shutting Brazil down. Brazil were pretty effective at launching attacks, however Foster wasn’t forced to save that much thanks to his defense.

Which brings us to Foster. I am not his biggest fan, I think he always looks extremely panicked in games, which is definitely not desirable in a keeper. And while that crazy look crept into his eyes several times, for the most part he kept his head. Of course, as I said earlier, he wasn’t really tested that much but hopefully this game will serve as a confidence booster (the goal conceded really wasn’t his fault).

Our attack was pretty much nonexistent. When we did get past the halfway line (which was not very much) we lacked width, we lacked inspiration. Rooney, Bent, and eventually Defoe (when Bent made room for him) were rendered mostly useless. Whenever Rooney actually got the ball it was because he dropped incredibly far back, a place where not even he could score. The midfield had trouble getting the ball forward and bursting up the wing. Young James Milner looked really good on defense, chasing balls down left and right, but needs to work on his long balls and passing in general.

Of course this is just a friendly, but it could have some ramifications. There is a chance that we would have to field this side in the World Cup, it’s unlikely but not impossible. And really, considering they were playing a quite good side they did alright. Hopefully the players came away with a clear picture of what they did well and what they need to work on between now and June. I’m sure Mr. Capello has a very clear picture of what he wants them to work on.

Our illustrious captain Wayne Rooney said:

“It was a difficult game for us. We created some chances but Brazil were the better team and deserved to win, that’s disappointing. Brazil move the ball so well, they make you chase every yard, and that’s hard over 90 minutes, but we’re better than we showed tonight. We’re looking to improve with every game and thankfully this is only a friendly, so we’ll try to move on.”

I know, I’m surprised at the relative eloquence as well. I agree with everything he said. That game is done, England will move on. We don’t play again til March, so there’s a lot of time for tweaking to be done.

There are several spots where England is quite obviously weak: right back, and goal keeper. However there are a lot of question marks and men that need to prove themselves in that starting XI. We have two quality central defenders, but we don’t seem to have any reliable substitutes for them. We have several promising youngsters donning the England shirt (Milner comes to mind) in midfield, but our number of tried and true is basically down to Frank Lampard and David Beckham at a stretch. Hell, Rooney doesn’t even have a consistent strike partner (Crouch or Defoe?).

This game against Brazil, even though it doesn’t really matter, may crush our World Cup hopes and dreams 7 months before the tournament even begins. Well obviously it won’t literally prove the downfall of our run, but it is definitely showing our many weaknesses. Players get injured in tournaments, playing so many games so close together is hard on the body. Most clubs pitch a fit if they have to play 2 games in 4 days (looking at you Sir Alex). There’s a good chance that we could see many of those players who are sitting on the sidelines now will be right where they are this June. Our little Lions have a lot of growing up to do, because they may just find themselves out on the pitch world’s biggest tournament comes round.

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.

So yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and thusly the reunification of Germany. To mark the occasion I watched the rather brilliant film Goodbye Lenin! (recommended, if you haven’t seen it), which basically takes place during the fall of the Berlin Wall, from the East German perspective.

Anyway, one of the subplots of the film is the newly reunified Germany’s run in the 1990 World Cup, in Italy, in which they famously beat a brilliant England team thanks to Chris Waddle’s inability to keep his penalty in the stadium (above, at the end of the video)

The penalty is shown, and I absolutely cringed as I watched it, but as the film progressed, I realised that actually, it wasn’t such a bad thing that Germany went all the way.

Alright, so i’m morally obliged not to be happy about the Germans winning, but think about it, 20 years ago, Germany was facing a real identity crisis, as its two sides had to approach living together for the first time in a long time.

Their run in the World Cup bought the Country together, literally, as it gave the two sides, one which had been living in capatilistic excess, and the other which had been living under strict Communist conditions, some immediate common ground.

And really, it provided that unique thing about football – it brings people together. Germany might have been playing – for the final time – under the “West Germany” banner, but the German people as a whole got behind the team, and politics was forgotten, as people from East and West could talk about how bloody good Lothar Matthäus was.

So its actually quite nice that Germany won that World Cup. And we might not have ended our 24 years of hurt, but we did get alot out of that World Cup, Gazzamania, Terry Butcher and Chris Waddle dancing, John Barnes rapping with New Order.

So I don’t hate Germany for 1990 anymore. 1996 though? I’m not forgetting that in a hurry.

Capello ignored Fergie and selected as many Man Utd players as he wanted (including Wes Brown, who I’m glad to see back in the squad). But he agreed to Rafa’s request and gave Steven Gerrard the week off.

I thought I’d be angry about the Gerrard thing. Mostly because I wanted to see a full strength England squad take on Brazil. Mostly because that’s the only way we have a chance.

But it makes sense to let Gerrard rest, and not just because it keeps Rafa sweet. The Liverpool captain clearly needs the rest. And a break now has to be good for him in the long run. I still say friendlies are important, but Gerrard’s fitness in June 2010 is infinitely more so.

David James and Ashley Cole have been left out due to fitness worries, and still no callup for Michael Owen (who only played a handful of minutes for Man Utd vs Chelsea on Sunday, despite Dimitar Berbatov being unavailable). Emile Heksey (who I see as massively important to this team) is injured.

Enough about who’s not in the squad. Who is in the squad?

We’ve mentioned Wes Brown. The other notable callups are Villa’s Stephen Warnock (who may have the chance to establish himself as England’s third choice left back). James Milner and Ashley Young are in there, which is always good to see, while Jermain Jenas is back and big Tom Huddlestone gets his first senior callup. Last but not least, Darren Bent finally gets a reward for his Sunderland form. Here’s the squad:

GKs: Foster (Manchester United), Green (West Ham), Hart (Manchester City)
Defenders: Bridge (Manchester City), Brown (Manchester United), Cahill (Bolton), Johnson (Liverpool), Lescott (Manchester City), Terry (Chelsea), Upson (West Ham), Warnock (Aston Villa)
Mids: Barry (Manchester City), Beckham* (Los Angeles Galaxy), Carrick (Manchester United), Huddlestone, Jenas (both Tottenham), Lampard (Chelsea), Milner (Aston Villa), Wright-Phillips (Manchester City), Young (Aston Villa)
Forwards: Bent (Sunderland), Crouch, Defoe (both Tottenham), Rooney (Manchester United).

*withdrawn, MLS playoffs.

Here’s the XI I’d like to see start this game.

Green
Johnson Terry Brown Bridge
Milner Lampard Barry Young
Rooney
Crouch

Any arguments?

UPDATE: After another round of dropouts, the squad now looks like this.

First and foremost, this youngster is quick. Not just regular quick. Theo Walcott quick. More than once I saw him go past Michael Kightly like the Wolves winger was standing still, and as a Wolves fan I can tell you Kightly’s no slouch himself.

I may have mentioned this in an earlier post about Jack Wilshere (update: turns out I didn’t) but am happy to repeat it now: How great would it be if Arsenal started producing England internationals?

The quality of youngsters at the Emirates is arguably better than anywhere in the world right now, so if only one or two English players make it through that youth system and into the Arsenal first team, then we’ll have plenty to smile about.

Could this work of art kill England's World Cup Bid?

OK so perhaps the title is a tad hyperbolic, but really things are getting ridiculous. A quick refresher course for those of you who have missed this: England (as you all should know) is bidding to host the 2018 World Cup. Recently there was a conference in London at which Jack Warner, a FIFA vice-president, was present. Geoff Thompson, former FA chairman and current FIFA vice-president, held a dinner which Warner and his wife attended. At said dinner Geoff Thompson presented Warner’s wife with a Mulberry handbag (and let me just state for the record that I’m incredibly jealous) valued at £230.

Here’s where the controversy starts. Apparently Jack Warner’s wife thought that this was just a pleasant gift from the FA for her birthday (let us skip how little sense this assumption makes), but the wives of the 23 other men on FIFA’s executive committee also received a handbag. Now, roughly two weeks after receiving said handbag, Jack Warner has sent it back with a very angry letter (kindly published here, nice stationary Mr. Warner) claiming the handbag was “tainting her character and mine”.

Now that you have the general gist of things, lets go look at some details. In his speech in the conference Mr. Warner wondered point blank why England hadn’t showered him with goodies yet (Australia and Qatar already had), I quote “Why isn’t there a bag for England? People are looking at these things and asking themselves questions[.]” If you read the letter in full then you will have read this: “I also wish to state that there is nothing that your FA can offer me to get my vote.” How is the FA supposed to suck up to Mr. Warner with such mixed signals?

While he never explicitly stated that the reason the handbag was so character tainting was that it implied him and his wife in bribery, this is the widely supported hypothesis (and quite honestly I can’t think of another reason to give up a lovely Mulberry handbag. Though I still wouldn’t give it up. Readers Note: If you ever need to bribe me, this would work). However Jack Warner who has been involved in multiple monetary scandals in football (the highlights of which are so kindly outlined by TheSpoiler.) I hate to break it to you Mr. Warner, but your character is pretty tainted at this point. A (perfectly legal under FIFA regulations) gift of a handbag isn’t going to change your legacy.

Lastly one must seriously question the common sense of both Mr. Warner and his wife Maureen. Did the Warners seriously think that the FA loved Maureen so much that they would just give her a (rather expensive) handbag for her birthday? And did it really take the couple two weeks to realise that 23 other women also received handbags? Either the two really are incredibly thick or they are lying somewhere.

As you may have surmised by this point I think this whole affair is ridiculous. Unfortunately, however irrational it all seems, it may seriously harm England’s (not too shiny) World Cup Bid. Being implicated in a bribery scandal does not make your country look like an idyllic place to host the biggest sporting event on Earth. And even though we can all see how silly it is (at least I hope you can see), you can never rely on the geniuses at FIFA to be reasonable, and our bid does rest tenderly in their unforgiving claws. I do think, in my undying optimism, that this will all blow over eventually and the real meat of the bid will be what it is judged upon, and we can all look back and laugh someday (preferably in England, summer of 2018) at the complete idiocy of FIFA and everyone in it.

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 magic little inside-of-the-foot-with-back-to-goal pass that somehow didn’t make the Match of the Day cut.

So why am I gushing about Wayne Rooney? Because I’m thinking about the impact he might make at World Cup 2010.

We haven’t seen the real Wayne Rooney at an international tournament since he lit up Euro 2004 as an 18 year old (which could make a good England Flashback post, assuming I can find some good YouTube footage). After Rooney was injured in the quarterfinal, and Portugal knocked us out on penalties, I couldn’t wait to see the boy back in a major tournament.

But at World Cup 2006, Rooney was basically injured and shouldn’t have been there. Euro 2008 we didn’t make it (less said about that the better). So World Cup 2010 could be billed as the return of (the real) Wayne Rooney to international tournament football, a full six years after Euro 2004. Please no injuries in April or May. Please.