Are Beckenbauer and Platini off track ?

May 9th, 2010 | by: SoccerLimey |

franz beckenbauer

Recently, two of European football’s most influential figures, Bayern Munich President Franz Beckenbauer and UEFA President Michel Platini both stated they they consider England to be amongst the favorites to win the 2010 World Cup in South Africa this June. Lofty goals indeed when you consider England’s track record in this tournament since 1966. However, these men are not given to making off the wall statements without having good reason so how close are we to realizing those predictions ?

Let’s start by looking at the current form of the potential starting line-up against the USA on June 12th.

David James – Probably the starting goalie although a nightmare season at Portsmouth hardly fills you with confidence. Let’s hope that “Calamity” misses the flight.
Jamie Carragher – Recent addition to the squad following his self-imposed exile. Solid defender will shore up the back line on the right flank.
Rio Ferdinand – Lack of match practice this season and recurring back problems make his selection only a possibility.
John Terry – Drop in form after personal issues and stripped of the captaincy as a result means he has confidence concerns.
Ashley Cole – Only just returned from serious ankle injury. Lacking match fitness. No cover at this position so he needs to be ready.
Gareth Barry – Out for a month with an ankle injury. May miss England’s opener. Unique left footed holding midfielder
Steven Gerrard – Horrible season with Liverpool and cloudy future at Anfield. Needs to shake it off and get back to true form.
Frank Lampard – Great campaign at Chelsea. We’ll need his goals. He’ll need to carry the water in midfield if we’re to challenge.
Aaron Lennon – Just returned from injury. It’s a toss up if he starts or Walcott. Either way neither in great nick.
Wayne Rooney – Golden boy with his best ever season in the bank. Realistically will be heavily marked by better teams.
Peter Crouch – Great end of season form puts him in front of Heskey. Always scores in an England shirt and foreign defenders hate him.

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Doesn’t exactly fire up the senses when you read those comments does it ? I would love to be more positive about our chances, and I’m the craziest England fan when it comes to the World Cup, but while my heart is telling me ” Yeah, Baby ! “, my head is saying something different.

There’s no doubt that Capello has his work cut out here because the irony is that the current in-form players are the inexperienced ones such as Joe Hart, Ledley King, Michael Dawson, Adam Johnson, and Bobby Zamora, and we already know the manager is not known for blooding new talent, and I’d be reluctant to do that too with so little time left. This is not the same side that romped through the qualifying group and we all know that in football, a year can change everything. Fitness is obviously a huge concern now too with Gareth Barry not sure to even make the trip as Capello has already said that if you’re not fit you don’t go.

So Franz and Michel , am I missing something here, or is it just my England paranoids acting up again ?

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Coventry Fan

Ever the optimist – although, as an England fan I understand your hesitations.

The truth is that this IS the same side that “romped through the qualifying group.” The attack is identical to the team that stomped Croatia (by the way, Heskey will start over Crouch – I guarantee it). Sure this team comes w/ some bumps and bruises, but which country isn’t dealing w/ that right now? Spain may not have Xavi, Torres and Fabregas. Kaka hasn’t been in proper form for Brazil. The Dutch attack is all dinged up – from Snyder to Van Persie. This is the state of the world – players at the top level play far too many games in a season…especially when they play internationally as well.

But enough about that. Let’s look at the positives:

1) Carragher is going to fill a huge void at that right back position.

2) Terry has gotten a lot of flack for losing his mental edge, but Chelsea just won the title, and, as captain, he deserves a lot of credit for that.

3) Ashley Cole may be coming back from a huge injury, but he is one of the fittest players to ever play the game. If anyone can bounce back from an injury, it’s him. Let us not forget that he is the best left back in the game right now…a huge asset for us.

4) Gerrard did have a dreadful year, but I feel that a lot of that comes from the lack of support he got from his teammates. Plus, he isn’t playing as vital a role as before. He is tucked behind Rooney with Cole running the flank behind him. His role is to draw defenders from Rooney OR drill shots from the edge of the box. England won’t lose a game if Gerrard doesn’t perform, but they may win one if he does.

5) It doesn’t matter if it is Lennon or Walcott that starts, no one can keep up with their pace. I think whoever gets the starting nudge (my vote is for Walcott) will frustrate defenders. England has the rare luxury of having two player that can play the same role, so if one is out of form, the other can easily fill that void. I foresee a few penalties and/or opposing red cards coming from these two.

6) Lampard’s recent form – need I say more?

7) With all your mention of players just returning, don’t forget (I hesitate to say this out loud in fear of jinxing us) that we have a relatively easy group. We will have a few games to help get comfortable.

Overall, this is the best England team we’ve put together in some time. Best in the world? Doubtful, but plausible. I honestly think that on any given day we can beat anyone. Doing it day after day will be the true test.
seif

The provisional squad will be announced tomorrow. I think it will be something like that:
1.green
2.james
3.hart
4.terry
5.ferdinand
6.king
7.glen johnson
8.ashley cole
9.carragher
10.baines
11.upson
12.lennon
13.walcott
14.adam johnson
15.milner
16.SWP
17.carrick
18.barry
19.lampard
20.gerrard
21.huddlestone
22.parker (hargreaves)
23.rooney
24.heskey
25.defoe
26.crouch
27.carlton cole
28.zamora
29.dawson/ jagielka/ cahill
30.ashley young/ downing/ joe cole/ bent
seif

But i hope that the extra winger will be etherington…
http://soccerlimeyinamerica.com SoccerLimey

I would love to share your optimism, but I’m a realist and I’ve been force fed a ton of crap from England players and managers over the years that we are READY to win now, only to find out after the fact that it was all sweet talk. I agree with some of what you say. Carragher is a positive move and Terry maybe has got some bad press this past couple of months.

How you deem Cole to be “one of the fittest players to ever play the game” is beyond me. Anyhow, that doesn’t mean a darned thing if you’re hurt or not mentally sharp. I would consider Rooney to be one of the fittest players in the squad but he’s been plagued by injury this past month. Seems to be a broken record now for England to carry injured players to a World Cup. I hope Capello practices what he preaches.

I agree also that Lennon and Walcott are valuable weapons and on their day are game changers but both players are woefully inconsistent. Lampard is Lampard and we don’t have an easy group – nobody does at a World Cup. Frankly, if we are as good as we think we are, the group shouldn’t matter. I’m worried about after the group when we face the better teams. Remember, we could get to play either Germany or Serbia in the first knockout stage.

The scary part is that both Brazil and Argentina are better than they were in qualifying, and Italy and Germany always have strong tournaments. We’re limping into this one and it worries me. When I hear people say “without Rooney we’re dust”, it makes we think , are we really as good as we think we are ?
seif

And the 23 should be: 7 df, 8 mf, 5 strikers:
green, james, hart, carragher, glen johnson,king, terry, ferdinand, ashley cole, baines, lennon, walcott, barry, lampard, gerrard,parker or huddlestone or hargreaves (NOT carrick), adam johnson, milner,defoe,rooney, heskey, crouch, zamora.
I also hope that carragher will start against stronger opposition as johnson is awful and we don’t need an attacking right-back when we field a pacey right winger.
Coventry Fan

SoccerLimey – I definitely understand your pragmatic views. I fully acknowledge the likelihood of me eating all of these words two months from now, but with the w.c. coming every four years, I’d rather look at it with a glass half-full attitude…but that’s just me.

As for my comments on Cole, I merely meant that he is one of the strongest/healthiest players in the world. He sprints up and down the pitch for 90 minutes (his block against Ecuador in ‘06 comes to mind) and still to this day shows no signs of easing up. Ask any physical therapist and they’ll tell you that 50+% of recovery from orthopedic injuries has to do with muscle development. Either way, he’s looked great the last few matches at Chelsea…I’m not worried about him.
Carlisle fan

We can win world cup but all the talk needs to be about the keepers, its an obvious but key point. All best sides have a great keeper, for whatever reason, its a fact relevant not just to our squad. And the only exception to it is, ironically, brazils world cup winning teams as going fwd there just always worlds ahead. Wonder about the whole attacking unit though now with no ronaldinho-mental edge and togetherness will make THE difference
http://www.raduprisacaru.com Radu Prisacaru

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bluemoon

Franz and Michel always throw the pressure to the other and call every teams to kick the team on the way to world cup trophy.