It’s been an interesting week or so, watching England amass eight goals, let in two, and yet still not look entirely convincing. Hence The Spoiler has decided to down tools for a couple of minutes and do Capello’s job for him. At last count, he’d made probably about five mistakes in two games - not involving Ashley Young or Micah Richards in his squads. Allowing Carragher to stay retired. Persisting with the ridiculous Lampard/Gerrard combo. Dropping Owen altogether. And thus we’ve come up with, injuries permitting, the team that will get England where they need to go.
Richards comes into the back four to add a bit of oomph to the right hand side. Wes Brown has been alright, but spends too much time with his mouth wide open watching the midfield pass it around.
Go anywhere on the planet, and you’ll see that animals are treated differently. In areas of the North Pole some of them are given jobs, and even in this country we build them little houses - or “hutches”, if you will. In Australia, however, it seems people are less tolerant of anything furry or feathered. Lucas Neill proved as much against Uzbekistan last night, when an innocent young owl/dove/crow wandered mindlessly onto a football pitch, only to find the burly West Ham man in no mood for inter-species relations.
Yes, the Czech Republic looked awful in their opening game and Portugal barely needed to break a sweat to overcome Turkey. But the Czech Republic almost always get the better of cocky Portugal, and they have a great opportunity to do so again tonight - here’s why:
1. Portugal have failed to win any of their last four encounters against the Czechs.
2. Euro 96 was the only time the pair have met at a major tournament and Czech Republic won the quarter-final 1-0.
3. The Czech Republic haven’t lost a competitive game away from home since the last World Cup two years ago
4. Czech Republic may not have looked too impressive in their opener, but they have lost just one of their last 13 matches (a friendly against Poland).
9. Portugal have won just two of their last five games.
Because there’s no such thing as a stupid question
Thinking about the current World Cup holders, a member of The Spoiler’s staff posed the following question:
Italy’s flag is green, white and red – why do they play in blue?
The answer is actually quite simple – blue is the colour of the House of Savoia, the ruling family in Italy between 1861 and 1946.
During that period, the nation’s flag always had the coat of arms on it (as pictured above). Only when Italy changed from a Kingdom to a republic after World War II did they adopt the tricolor national flag you see today. Spoiler quizzical bonus:We can think of two other teams who
Mysterious yet vastly experienced individual makes contact with St James’s Park
Headhunters of the north east - you can stop scurrying around now and take a rest; the man you’re looking for to take over at Newcastle has revealed himself. Writing in the Newcastle Chronicle, Alan Oliver announces proudly “Today the
Attempts to emulate Alan Shearer’s World Cup netbuster. Fails. Remember when Alan Shearer rifled this indirect free kick into the back of the net in a 1998 World Cup qualifier against Georgia?
