From Vava Voom to Vava Doom

So the question on everyone’s lips at the moment seems to be about England’s ‘worries’ after their embarrassing 0-0 draw with Algeria, but a glance across to the French camp and things look a whole lot more troubled for the great footballing nation.

Today during the New Zealand v Italy clash reports broke that the French side had refused to train today after an on pitch argument/fight between the players and management team over the decision to send star striker Nicolas Anelka home yesterday after a dispute between himself and out going manager Raymond Domenech.

The decision to send Anelka home came after France’s shocking display against Mexico after the striker reportedly voiced his opinion against Domenech at half time in the eventual 2-0 defeat which leaves the 1998 champions of the brink of elimination.

Patrice Evra after the game labelled the whole campaign as ‘Catastrophic’, a word I would describe as an understatement. ‘Disgraceful’ seems a more appropriate. For France there seems very little chance of progressing to the next phase of this World Cup and you can’t help but have a little chuckle to yourself after the disgraceful way they reached the finals.

Thierry Henry’s handball in the lead up to the vital goal against the Republic of Ireland in the play-off was inexcusable and the goal should never have been allowed to stand, let alone for France to make the finals thanks to it, a decision Henry maybe regretting as he has played little part in this campaign.

As a nation France has always been seen as a huge footballing country and they won the World Cup just 12 years ago in their country, something that now looks a million miles away. A further blow to the already despairing French fans is that it is believed that Nicolas Anelka has since retired from international football.

So is there any hope for this nation that currently finds themselves in the footballing wilderness? Well yes. After the tournament, presumably Tuesday for France, current manager Raymond Domenech is leaving the post and will be replaced by former Manchester United defender Laurent Blanc and he may just be regretting the decision to accept the job after this latest episode

Strawberries and cream, guaranteed rain and a British flop... Can you guess what it is yet?

Yes it’s that time of year again….. The Wimbledon Championships are back. At midday on Monday thousands will flock to Wimbledon Centre Court to see the action start all over again and all eyes will be focused on British number one Andy Murray.

Last year expectations were high for the Brit and he nearly surpassed all expectations as he was knocked out in the semi-final after a thrilling match against eventual runner up, American Andy Roddick.

This will be the second year of the famous roof that now covers centre court at Wimbledon. Although only used in two matches last year in its debut Championships, it could be argued it hosted the most exciting and certainly latest finished ever match in the tournament of 2009.

A finish time of 22.38, yes twenty to eleven at night had never been seen before, however with the roof and floodlights in place for the first time, Andy Murray was able to scrape past Swiss born Stanislas Wawrinka to take his place in the quarters.

With recent criticism of the LTA, they will certainly be hoping that Murray and other Brits can perform at their ‘home’ tournament. The form of Murray has recently dipped however with many blaming a lack of commitment and concentration from Murray.

Murray will be looking to hit back at these claims by at least reaching a semi-final again, and who knows maybe winning the Championships and in doing so becoming the first male Brit to do so since Fred Perry in 1936 a massive 74 years ago, who said the football team had a bad record?

Other Brit’s that will feature at this year’s event include: Jamie Baker who will look to go as far as possible although not much is expected from him while Elena Baltacha will probably hold the best chances of the women in the women’s side of the tournament.

Of course there are major contenders that Murray will have to overcome if he is to win this tournament. The favourite for the title will be Swiss Roger Federer as he looks to gain his seventh Wimbledon Championships.

Other contenders will also be Spanish born Rafael Nadal as he looks to win his 2nd title, the last coming two years ago in the epic battle with Federer that lasted over four hours, another challenger to Murray will again be Andy Roddick, the man Murray failed to get past last year in the semi’s.

So as Murray kicks off against the world number 80 Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic all fingers will be crossed that finally a Brit will be able to win the Wimbledon trophy for the first time in 74 years.

I would also like to know who you think will win this year’s Championships and how far you think British number one Andy Murray can go?

A Rivalry Worth Watching

This summer’s main attraction is bound to be the football World Cup in South Africa for most sports fans, yet next week England’s summer of cricket continues with a five one day series against the ‘old enemy’ Australia. But what can cricket fans expect from the series?

With England looking to retain the Ashes down under for the first time since 1986-87 this winter, many fans thought that a five one day series against Australia was unnecessary, but lets face it any chance to get one over on the Aussies is always welcome in my eyes.

England has quite simply had a fantastic last 12 months, which saw them regain the Ashes from Australia last July with a 2-1 series win on home soil. The good form then continued as they surprised many pundits and fans as they won their first ICC competition when they brought home the ICC World Twenty20 trophy back from the Caribbean, again beating Australia in the final.

England’s summer of sizzling cricket started with a two test series against minnows Bangladesh, which England took comfortably with a 2-0 win, despite some rallying cricket from Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal offering some resistance. The main man though for England was Steven Finn who took nine wickets in the first test at Lords before grabbing another five-for at Old Trafford as England wrapped up the 2-0 series victory.

So next Tuesday (22nd June) the rivalry between these two great cricketing nations begins again as the first match takes place at a re-developed Rose Bowl in Hampshire. This will be the first game held at the Rose Bowl with all the work completed, and what a match it is likely to be with the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss on show for England and Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting for the visitors, big shots are more than likely to entertain the crowds.

By the time the series reaches its conclusion on the 3rd of July at the home of cricket Lords, England will hope and many fans now expect the Three Lions to have wrapped up a series victory that would give a major psychological boost ahead of the ‘real’ test of the Ashes down under.

So if the likes of Japan V Cameroon and New Zealand V Slovakia aren’t quite exciting you at the World Cup and the constant noise of the now famous vuvuzela is driving you mad, then why not switch and cheer on the England cricket team this summer - after all this is a team that has already won a World Cup this year.

Why Capello should stay Green rather than have a change of Hart !

Despite Robert Green’s howler against the USA on Saturday evening in England’s World Cup opener which cost the Three Lions a perfect start to this year’s competition in South Africa, I still believe Mr Capello should stick with the Hammers keeper and here’s why:

First of all Green’s shot stopping is second to none, I mean lets face it he had lots of practice at Upton Park this year as they battled against relegation from the Premier League.

We also seem to forget that Green saved us from defeat in Saturday’s game as he turned Jozy Altidore’s strike against the post as he raced past Jamie Carragher.

Capello will most probably stick with Green as it was his decision to start with the West Ham shot stopper and the boss is certainly someone who would not want to admit he got a decision wrong.

Another reason that Capello should stick with Green is he is probably the most reliable keeper England have at the finals, Now I know that seems absurd after such a disastrous mistake but when you look at England’s other keepers it hardly fills you with much more confidence.

In David James we have an experienced shot stopper that has played over 50 times for England, however with age comes not just experience but also an ageing body that leads to injuries, something James is reportedly suffering with now as it would appear a knee injury could prevent him from making a start anyway.

James has also suffered with poor form over the years which led to the nickname ‘Calamity James’.

The other keeper on England’s books is Manchester City’s Joe Hart who spent last season on loan at Birmingham City where a fine array of performances helped him squeeze his way into Capello’s squad ahead of former England number one and now Blackburn Rovers keeper Paul Robinson.

Granted that Hart’s performances at Birmingham last season were exceptional however with no England experience you have to wonder how the pressure of keeping at a World Cup would affect the youngster and that would certainly have been at the front of Capello’s mind when picking his team last Saturday.

So on Friday I hope that the whole nation and certainly Fabio Capello support Rob Green and he is picked for the crucial clash against Algeria as we all try and put 44 years of hurt behind and try to escape group C and win the World Cup.

Only one thing left to say….. COME ON ENGLAND

Is 44 years of hurt really set to end?

With so many pundits and fans tipping Fabio Capello’s men to end the 44 years of hurt that many English fans have had to endure, I am looking at if Capello’s men can really bring home the World Cup.

When on the 14^th December 2007 the Football Association appointed Italian born Fabio Capello, English fans were still hurting from the teams failure to reach the 2008 European Championships in Austria and Switzerland after the embarrassing qualifying campaign under Steve McLaren, later to be known as ‘The Wally with the Brolly’.

Under McLaren’s leadership, England lost crucial games home and away to Croatia, with the home defeat at Wembley on that fateful Wednesday evening condemning England to failure of not reaching a major tournament for the first time since the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.A.

As the rain lashed down, an unorganised and shambolic England side slipped to a 3-2 defeat, leading to ‘The Sun’ newspaper the next day leading with a headline ‘Wally with the Brolly’ after images of McLaren under a brolly looking clueless.

Since that day England and in particular new boss Fabio Capello has not looked back. Capello started with an unconvincing 2-1 victory in a friendly against Switzerland at Wembley, but it was to be the start of a regime that has simply shone from the very beginning.

Even the most optimistic England fan couldn’t have expected a World Cup qualifying campaign that was to follow. In a group alongside Andorra, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine and the dreaded Croatia, it was always expected that England would make the World Cup in South Africa, although many thought it may have had to be via a play-off.

Capello’s World Cup campaign began with a potential bananna skin visit to ‘little’ Andorra, however two goals from Joe Cole saw the Italian master get off to the perfect start. Next up for Capello was one of the hardest fixtures in the group with a visit to Croatia; however Capello’s new hard man regime was sensational as they left Croatia with a 4-1 win under their belt with Theo Walcott impressing with a hat-trick.

England secured qualification with a 5-1 victory at Wembley against Croatia erasing memories of the dreadful night under McLaren. Only defeat in Kiev against Ukraine in the penultimate game of qualification ended England’s chances of qualifying with a 100% record, although they had already qualified.

So what has Capello changed? First of all it’s the attitude that everyone is part of the team and no one is superior. Under former bosses Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McLaren it was always thought that certain players influenced decisions within the dressing room, however under Capello it is clear who makes the decisions as he seems to give everyone a chance to impress him.

Also under Capello there is a new strict regime, players are expected to eat together without distractions like mobile phones while Capello also demands that players wear suits when arriving to games and representing themselves to media, a stark contrast to when we use to see players arrive and give interviews in their designer clothes or tracksuits.

So what about the players? By and large Capello has used the same team that didn’t make it to Euro 2008. The return of Beckham to the squad was no real surprise as he impressed on loan at AC Milan, however Capello did give others the chance to impress in the qualifying campaign with the likes of Darren Bent, Leighton Baines, Stephen Warnock and Joe Hart all included in Capello’s 30-man provisional squad for South Africa.

Under Capello, fans can expect determination, passion and professionalism and it’s for these three attributes that England fans can get genuinely get excited at the prospect of finally ending all those years of hurt, and failing that we could just rely on 33 goal hero for Manchester United this season, Wayne Rooney.