Fifty years of hurt, Never stopped me dreaming

So that’s it, the waiting’s over, the friendlies played, winning the last three albeit not so convincingly and now its time. On Friday at 8pm BST (British Summer Time) the hosts France take on Rumania and at 8pm on Saturday night it’s Russia first up for the 3 Lions tournament rollercoaster.

You never want to lose any game, and definitely not the first. Let’s face it, we should win this group with Russia, Wales and Slovakia as the opposition. However, it’s the rollercoaster that has come to be England’s tournament trademark.

After watching ‘When football came home’ with Shearer interviewing all the old boys from ’96, you have to believe it can still happen. Remember this goal? And the subsequent famed celebration.

Instead of Scotland, we’ve got Wales this time, or Gareth Bale plus 10, at least that’s what it was on Sunday when Sweden beat them 3-0. You can be sure they’ll put up more of a fight against us though.

We’ll see if Kane and Vardy can continue their goal-scoring form from the Premier League into the Euros, and if Rashford will turn heads and up his market value.

Back then, 20 years ago frighteningly, we started off in typical England fashion drawing to Switzerland. Then it hotted up, beating Scotland 2-0 at Wembley and then the 4-1 demolition of Holland. We even won a penalty shootout, against Spain.

Then, just as we were all starting to believe we could win, we come up against the Germans, and as Lineker said ‘Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win’, and they did, in a penalty shootout.

4 years ago, it was yet another penalty shootout that sent us home, with Italy being the more decisive from the spot. I hope Roy’s been training them hard at spot kicks and that we know who is and who isn’t going to be taking one.

When Saturday comes Hodgson must be finished with his deliberations about formation and put out a team to attack Russia, score goals and concede less. Is the picture of Ray Lewington’s team formation in today’s press a gaffe or a deliberate ploy…

Get ready for the rollercoaster…

‘Cause I remember,
Three Lions on a shirt,
Jules Rimet still gleaming,
50 years of hurt, 
Never stopped me dreaming’

England to open their account with a 2-1 victory against Russia

Rash got the nod!

So that’s it, the torment of waiting over for who will be on the plane to France in a few days.

No begging to John Terry as suggested by Danny Mills, so we’ll be reliant on the defence that has looked a bit shaky in the warm-ups, to balance our firepower up front.

With Rashford and Sturrdige in the squad, it gives Roy options and headaches, but ultimately it should prove to be an England squad capable of scoring goals, and that’s what we need to do to win and progress.

The final warm-up is against Portugal on Friday at Wembley and Roy must be thinking of his starting 11, so now the first headache.

Given Ronaldo isn’t playing it could provide the 3 Lions the opportunity to get the Wembley send off they need before leaving for France.

England 2 – 1 Portugal 

 

It’s all about to kick-off

With Roy’s announcement of the initial 26 man squad on Monday the feeling that we’re entering into tournament territory, or frenzy, is in the air. The Premier League is over, Leicester deservedly taking the prize, the FA Cup and Champions League finals still to be played, but on Sunday the 3 Lions run out at Wembley to face the first of 3 opponents in their final preparations for Euro 2016.

The surprise, or maybe not, in the extended squad was the inclusion of Man Utd’s wonder Marcus Ashford and the criticism the lack of centre halfs picked by Roy.

This England squad looks like it has goals in it, but it also looks like it can concede them, even with the safest pair of English hands available. With Rashford scoring 7 in 16 appearances for United, and Kane and Vardy being the Premier League top scorers, the ‘weaker’ of the 5 selections on current form are Sturridge and captain Rooney.

So, as usual, it’ll likely be another roller coaster ride for England in this years Euro 2016.

First however, we have Turkey (22/5), Australia (27/5) and Portugal (2/6) to test the 3 Lions and Roy has to submit the final 23 names by the end of May.

Turkey, the opponents on Sunday have never beaten England, in fact have never scored against England, with a couple of 8-0 victories. However Turkey have developed as a footballing national over later years, and our last meeting in 2003 was a 0-0 draw.

What will be interesting over the remaning 21 days (yes, only 3 weeks to go) is to see how the 3 Lions develop as a team before the big test comes. We start the final tournament as the only team to have a 100% record from the qualification phase, however we didn’t have the hardest group.

So, to Sunday, England to maintain their record against Turkey, 2-0, maybe even with Rashford strengthening his bid for a place in the final 23.

30 years of hurt…. and the rest!

Reading the ‘obituaries’ in the various papers, online of course, it’s 56 years since such an exit by the 3 Lions. We haven’t even played the last group game and it’s over. What a washout!

This is the first time in a 35+ year period of watching the 3 Lions, that this feeling exists. Lowered expectations in the several month build-up, normally we’re planning the route to the final, positives in the defeat against Italy, and then the wheels completely falling off. Not even having anything to play for in the last match against Costa Rica.

There are a lot of theories and undoubtedly the hunt for scapegoats will run it’s course in the press.

Canny lad Waddle has an insightful view.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02191f7

We never ever, ever learn!

It appears however that Roy is safe, for the time being at least, we’ll see if that changes based on the outcome of Tuesdays’s match with Costa Rica. A match that means nothing!

Roy seems safe

“Three Lions on a shirt,
Jules Rimet still gleaming?
48 years of hurt,
Will we ever give up dreaming?”

3 Friendlies then it’s Brazil!

Later today the 3 Lions will play Peru in the first of three friendlies before it all kicks of in Manaus on the 14th June.

Hodgson is prepared to test many of the squad in the next two matches in Miami against Honduras and Ecuador but tonight is likely to see the starting line-up for the first match against Italy.

There has been much speculation about Rooney’s state in the run up to this World Cup, questioning if he is ‘past it’, and whether Hodgson has the balls to drop him if he doesn’t perform as he hasn’t in the past few tournaments.

An attacking diamond of Lallana, Sterling, Rooney and Sturridge could be on the cards and this proves to have pace and goal scoring ability, two much needed abilities if we are to progress in Brazil.

In the run up to the World Cup all the noises coming from the England Camp are upbeat, much different from that of the Capello era, which must be a good thing for the mental state of the players.

Rooney and Gerrard relaxing

Tonight’s game is the Wembley send-off for the 3 Lions and the crowd will be hoping to see a few goals given the opposition who can’t really be a serious comparison to Uruguay as billed by the FA. If we do have the attacking diamond with Sturridge on top and they’re on form we should be expecting at least 2 or 3.

England 3 – 0 Peru

Danes get 2014 World Cup preparation under way

Wednesday see’s the 3 Lions first outing of 2014, the year of Rio, or Manuas if you’re English.

With just 3 months to go until it all kicks off in Brazil, it is the Danes that provide the first friendly opposition we have, along with Peru, Ecuador and Honduras before we meet Italy in the Amazonian heat.

In advance of what won’t be a sell-out Wembley fixture, there is some new blood in Luke Shaw, the Saint’s left-back and an older face in that of Jermaine Defoe soon to leave for Canada.

Luke Shaw gets call up

Denmark, along with their Nordic cousins Sweden, miss the festival of football in Brazil this summer but will still look to the test against England as part of their preparation for the Euro 2016 qualification campaign that kicks off in September.

Having a handful of players getting regular football in the Premier League, the best know being Daniel Agger, Nicklas Bendtner and Anders Lindegaard, the Danes have some experience of who they will be up against at Wembley.

Five players, including one potential midfield talent Andros Townsend, missed training on Monday.

It will be interesting to see who Hodgson picks to play up front for the 3 Lions, and how they perform on the night. We need to have two, in-form, natural goalscorers in the squad when announced in May, who will they be?

What will Wednesday night bring? A 2-0 win for the 3 Lions to start of another year of high expectations.

Rickie saves Roy

Friendly…

Can a match between England and Scotland ever be classed as a friendly?

The first meeting since ’99 proved to be a hard fought battle, just like Culloden.

It was ‘journeyman’ Rickie Lambert’s first ever touch wearing the 3 Lions shirt that separated the two, saving Roy Hodgson some serious questions and pressure from the press.

The Wembley crowd, many of which wearing kilts, witnessed a competitive match that saw Scotland take the lead twice, first through James Morrison that Theo Walcott scored to equalise. Then later through Kenny Miller and Danny Wellbeck put us level again.

Rickie’s first touch

It looked like being a hard earned draw till Rickie Lambert, on the field for a couple of minutes on his International debut at 31, rose above the Scottish defence to head home Baine’s corner. What a saviour!

Only 3 weeks to go to the first of 4 World Cup qualifiers.

Home Internationals – Leg 1

Tomorrow night the Republic of Ireland visit Wembley in the first of 2 friendlies with other members of the British Isles. The second, after the summer, is against the old foes Scotland. Two friendlies…

It will be the first time England have played the Republic since the England ‘fans’ turned to violence in 1995 and the match was abandoned.

1995 match abandoned due to crowd trouble

Now things are different, we hope and expect. The FA have asked fans not to sing IRA songs, as they did in San Marino apparently.

After the completion of the domestic season and the sadly all German Champions League final; a bit bizarre given the Wembley stage, this and the away game against Brazil on Sunday are the last tastes of English and England football before the summer.

A few ‘first choice’ players are already out of the frame, Gerrard and unfortunately Wilshere among them and Kyle Walker who suffered an injury last week in the Bahamas. This leaves Johnson likely to start adding pace from the back. After a period of good form since his Chelsea departure Sturridge is given a first start to partner Rooney up front.

Ashley Cole to captain England

Tomorrow, to honour gaining his 100 Caps a couple of games ago, Ashley Cole will lead out the 3 Lions. After a somewhat confusing communication from Hodgson, first stating that Frank Lampard would remain captain and then confirming that after discussion with Lampard, Cole would be the captain for the match with Lampard’s blessing.

No IRA songs, and a 2-0 victory for the 3 Lions.

Danish ‘beer’ and Yank shirts

What’s the world coming to, or rather the English Football Association?

First it was the pollution of the 3 Lions national home with Carlsberg Lager, not at all ‘probably the best beer in the world’ as the Danes would have you believe. With the abundance of great English ales I have never understood why we are subjected to this cold, pale yellow, ‘Europiss’ from plastic glasses.

But that has been there for a while. I guess there was hope with the new Wembley that some true English ale, like Newcy Brown or London Pride, would replace the condensation covered green pumps, but sadly no.

Not enough with that, now Nike will be the shirt provider. Gone are the days of Umbro. After Nike’s smart acquisition of the traditional football brand, and then it’s subsequent sale last year the writing was on the wall. You could see the signs when the previous England home shirt came out with small gold spots, or whatever they were, all over the shoulders, very nice!

The new shirt will be worn by the 3 Lions very shortly. It isn’t the one below, sadly.

Umbro no more

When will the US giant start calling the shots on Roy’s squad selection, or even who starts. Remember Ronaldo’s surprise appearance in the 1998 World Cup final, he wasn’t on the team sheet 72 minutes before kick-off, the power of Nike!

Goodbye Umbro…

Only 2 wins will do

Yet another encounter with the minnows of European football beckons on Friday. Even after the 5-0 summary beating in October I still remember vividly the first goal by San Marino in our 7-1 win many moons ago.

But now things are different, right! On the back of beating Brazil the 3 Lions head into the away matches on Friday and Tuesday needing the maximum 6 points if the hope of automatic qualification is to be kept alive.

England are without the midfield maestro of Jack Wilshere for both games, not likely to pose a problem on Friday, but against Montenegro (I can’t believe I’m saying this) he would have been needed.

However, it’s not of the absent Jack Wilshere everyone is talking about, it’s Rio’s England snub. After meeting Roy Hodgson in London and Ferguson seemingly confirming Rio would join the squad, he had now pulled out due to his ‘pre-planned training and medical programme’ with Man Utd.

Ferdinand snubs England

Whilst this is probably the final nail in the coffin of his England career, it leaves us with some challenges at the back when we play Montenegro next Tuesday. It’s also a strange way for his career to end if that is the case. Many will think back to the debacle between Hodgson, the FA and Ferdinand in the run up to Euro 2012, when he was omitted from the squad for ‘footballing reasons’ amid the John Terry case with his younger brother Anton.

Well, Roy’s the boss and he has the amiable task of making the players on the pitch perform and collect the 3 points, hopefully in both games as that is what we need. Who will Roy play at the back?

Friday’s away match against San Marino should not be any cause for concern, they haven’t scored a goal and have conceded 16 in their 4 matches to date, 5 at Wembley. Montenegro have already played San Marino twice and scored a tally of 9.

England to beat San Marino by at least 4-0 on Friday night!