It’s Friday and we’re all preparing for a weekend of fantastic footballing fare. In the world of the England national football team it’s been a relatively sleepy week, but one or two stories have been bubbling under nicely. Here’s TSC‘s brief roundup of the week’s news.
With the Olympic Games in London now looming on the horizon – it’s there, just ask the advertisers – the Team GB debate is melting away into the nitty-gritty of organisation and the inevitable re-ignition into a full-blown row. This week, we discovered that GB coach Stuart Pearce will have 184 players to choose from; according to The Telegraph that includes David Beckham and Ryan Giggs. Only seven players have ruled themselves out, while we’ll never know how many of the 184 actually want to play, and how many couldn’t be arsed to provide a written response.
We all know that Beckham is the one man who definitely wants to play, and more power to his elbow – personally I couldn’t care less. What I do care about is Major League Soccer, and I am very pleased that the former England captain has extended his stay in Carson, California. His two-year deal with LA Galaxy (as reported by Soccer By Ives) is a real boost for the league and re-affirming his often unclear passion for the American game, or rather his position within it.
Premier League newcomers Swansea City have been the talk of the town this week, with their fantastic possession football being given a fitting stage and a positive result in their victory over Arsenal. In an article on Football365, Swans manager Brendan Rodgers has backed his English players, saying that he thinks his England counterpart Fabio Capello should spend more time in South Wales, and would be surprised to find one or two candidates for his squad.
One of those players is Scott Sinclair, the former Chelsea youngster who’s found his feet since landing in Wales and helping to guide Swansea to promotion. According to Wales Online, four Swansea players were contacted about the Olympics, and Sinclair was not one of them. The player hopes that leaves him in a position to make a late charge into the squad for UEFA Euro 2012.
World Cup 2014 might be in a dry football nation – Brazil doesn’t sell alcohol at sporting events – FIFA has put its foot down and will be proudly presenting a boozy World Cup in South America – I learned this from the godfather of football blogging humour, Brooks Peck of Dirty Tackle. A victory for the fans? Hardly. Not all of FIFA’s partners would benefit from a dry World Cup, so host nation be damned. Right, Jerome Valcke?
Finally, some more football nostalgia from EPL Talk. This time it’s World Cup 1998, and some stickers from Merlin. Hang about, isn’t that Rob Lee?!
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