Avoiding the Drop

The Portugal strips are hideous.

The memo pinned to my office door this morning reminds me to tell you that we’re looking for a new staff member, and details can be found here.  The submission period ends Friday March 12 at 10:00 PM EST.  Now, the perks are that you get to work with Fuse, Adam and Mags, who are tireless and talented.  The downside is we’re going to make you write up the World Cup previews for all the teams we don’t want to cover.  Oh, and you have to sit in the smelly office at ATD headquarters (Fuse likes his lutefisk, sorry!).

Right, so here we are after a week of internationals, and did we learn ANYTHING this week that will be pertinent for the World Cup?  I felt like the USA’s first team played with much more creditability against a top 10 side like the Dutch, but with Davies, Onyewu and Dempsey not available it’s still hard to fully grasp what they are capable of.  I was troubled by the fact that they were able to muster such pressure AND score at the end (the Dutch had clearly taken their effort down a notch, but no so much as to turn it into a joke) but could not muster that same pressure when the Dutch were vulnerable down the left wing.  I gave the USA performance a B- because I felt like Robbie Findley and Jon Bornstein were REALLY sub-par in their efforts, and Landon Donovan was mostly invisible (which can happen, I’m not having a go).

Algeria had a rather pathetic effort against Serbia, losing 3-0.  I watched the match and it really appeared to me that Algeria struggled with a much more physical European side (unlike Egypt, who effectively dominated for a half, but I’ll get to you, England, oh yes I will).   Serbia is part of a group of Balkan teams that would be truly frightening if all the nations hadn’t split apart a while ago, and they have a LOT of talent.  They will be an extremely tough out with that ridiculous Group D.  Nevertheless, Algeria was mostly punchless against a fellow World Cup side and for supporters of England and the USA, I’m sure confidence improved a bit.  They had real difficulty handling Serbia’s midfield, which to a certain extent is the strength of both the USA and England.

I’ll admit I didn’t see any of Slovenia 4 – 1 Qatar.  The scoreline is probably very indicative of a World Cup side playing a side ranked #92 in the world.  I certainly hope to see them play before the World Cup, though.

Now, to England.  I felt like the 3-1 scoreline flattered to deceive slightly, as once again, the first 45 proved that England’s first choice side oftentimes can look as if they just met each other down the park for some keepy-uppy.  Egypt played a bold first half in which they pressured through the lanes and kept the central midfielders back on their heels constantly, and got a goal.  I’ve always felt that you must look at matches as a whole and not just the parts you were happy with, and so the positives here were that Fabio Capello got the tactics, formation and substitution pattern correct for the second half.  He’s done that in the past and it gives the England supporters (which of course, I am) a lot of hope for South Africa.  I’m not going to get into the Peter Crouch “should he or shouldn’t he” argument because I feel now more than ever that he should come off the bench when appropriate, and start when appropriate.  Capello will know how to handle it.  All in all, I gave England a solid B, but I felt like it could have been higher had they been able to adjust to Egypt’s wonky 3-5-2 formation in a quicker fashion.  The second half effort was superlative, to be honest.

So, on to a Saturday of highly charged club football.  If it’s actually true (one thing about the English rags is that you can never fully believe ANYTHING they craft as a story) that Sir Alex gave Wayne Rooney the hair-dryer treatment over him playing 86 minutes at Wembley the other day, today’s clash with Wolves could be a bit interesting.  Wolves, of course, were fined for their lineup choices the last time these two sides met, so they may be looking to prove something to the Red Devils today.  Manchester United can take the outright lead in the Premier League if they are victorious, so the match at Molineux could be highly charged (we hope, anyway).

Here is the television/internet schedule:

Portsmouth v Birmingham   0730   FSC Plus [England - FA Cup]
Koln v Bayern Munich   0925   ESPN360 [Germany]
Brescia v Grosseto   0930   RAI [Italy - Serie B]
Arsenal v Burnley   0945   FSC Plus [England]
West Ham v Bolton   1000   FSC [England]
Fiorentina v Juventus   1155   FSC Plus/ESPN360/RAI [Italy]
Deportivo La Coruna v Tenerife   1200   ESPN Deportes/360 [Spain]
Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur  1200   SDD   1700   FSC [England - FA Cup]
Borussia Dortmund v Borussia Monchengladbach   1230   ESPN360 [Germany]
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Manchester United   1230   FSC/FSE [England]
Almeria v Barcelona   1400   ESPN Deportes/360 [Spain]
NAC Breda v PSV Eindhoven   1445   ESPN360 [Netherlands]
Real Madrid v Sevilla   1600   GolTV [Spain]
Venezuela v North Korea   1730   FIFA.com [International Friendly]
Jaguares v Chivas   1800   Azteca [Mexico]
Monterrey v Pachuca   1800   Telemundo/mun2 [Mexico]
Medellin v Junior   1800   GolTV [Colombia]
Morelia v Tecos   2000   Azteca [Mexico]
Once Caldas v Deportivo Cali   2030   GolTV [Colombia]
Atlas v Toluca   2145   Telemundo [Mexico]
San Luis v Cruz Azul   2145   Telefutura [Mexico]

 Enjoy the matches.  You know where to find us, and hey, write something up and submit it.  Thanks for reading.