England's team for Fridays game.....

[joeluke]

........from the team which finished the game against the US, Capello needs to dump Green, Carragher, Heskey and Wright-Phillips

Green's confidence will be shot, we can't afford another of his errors....'Calamity' James is too old, injury prone and makes the odd rick himself......which, by process of elimination, leaves us with Hart - very inexperienced but he's the man in form and was one of the best keepers in the Premiership last season

Carragher is a solid no-frills Premiership defender but not good enough for England - he wasn't good enough in the past so how can he be at 32 after 3 years self imposed exile (he sulked and 'retired' from international football because he wasn't getting a regular game)........when the USA hit the post in the second half the US striker went past Carragher way too easily, it was like watching the hare race the tortoise - he's a donkey/carthorse, how would he fare later in the competition when up against quality strikers?.....Doesn't bear thinking about.........Upson or Dawson would be far better options to partner Terry

Wright-Phillips was a strange choice to come on as substitute for Milner.....he's not good enough to get a regular game for his club so how can he be good enough for England?....Joe Cole would have been a far better option........pity Capello didn't name Adam Johnson in the squad, a young player with a fantastic left foot (crossing and shooting), but instead he chose to take 4 wide players all of whom are predominantly right-footed (Lennon, Wright-Phillips, Milner, Cole)......Johnson would have been a gamble due to his inexperience but look at the German team the other night, 2 of the best players on the pitch were Özil and Müller and they are aged 21 and 20 respectively

(cont)

[jackthehat]

I agree that Hart ought to be given a chance on the big stage.
Carragher is a worry...........he's too slow but very quick with his arms and hands and I think he'll give away a penalty or get booked too easily.
I think I'd choose Upson over Dawson.
Cole over SWP............speed up the pitch does not necessarily mean a good end product.

At least our English team ARE English - Germany used Poles, Turks and a Brazilian.....

[lesblue]

I would only choose Dawson if King was alongside him. I wouldn't touch Upson with a barge-pole. So, by process of elimination, I would have to go with Carragher as Terry's partner. The added bonus here is the Johnson/Carragher link. I would stick with Green though, so my line-up 4-3-3 would be:
Green, Johnson, Carragher, Terry, A.Cole, Barry, Gerrard, Lampard, J.Cole, Lennon, Rooney.

[joeluke]

Jth

Players playing for countries other than those of their birthplace is and has been rife in international football for years (cricket, rugby and athletics too I think)

Brazilians (who one could cynically say are not good enough to get in the Brazil side) have played for Japan, Mexico, Croatia, Portugal and tunisia to name but a few

Some of France's best players wern't born there - Zinedine Zidane (Algeria), Patrick Vieira (Senegal), Marcel Desailly (Ghana), Lilian Thuram and Thierry Henry (Guadalupe), Robert Pires (Portugal), David Trezeguet (Argentina), Youri Djorkaeff (Armenia)

Republic of Ireland have also been doing it for years, as long as one of your parents or grandparents were born there you were in

England may not be the best team at the World Cup but at least its 11 Englishmen out on the pitch

A lot of Holland's best players (Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Ruud Gullit, Patrick Kluivert, Frank Rijkaard) were born in Surinam

[joeluke]

Jth.......impressed by your knowledge of football.......not bad for a woman

[jackthehat]

I'm aware of that joeluke, I was just surprised that the Germans have started doing so..........who'd have thunk it !?!

[joeluke]

Germans have been doing it for years - they've also had players born in Switzerland, South Africa, Slovenia and Ghana

[jackthehat]

But the majority of players on the pitch at any given time is usually German...........I was struck by the number of 'foreigners' in the one team.

Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't have really bothered.........but Germany !!!