Head coach of Denmark, Morten Olsen, has named his final 23 man squad for the World Cup. He has included the promising Palermo centre back Simon Kjaer despite picking up what looked like a potentially serious injury against Senegal yesterday. Kjaer will still undergo some scans so the extent of his injury can be assessed and monitored but the early expectations are that he will be able to play a part at the World Cup.
Three times World Cup winners Germany prepared for the World Cup by beating a selection local players aged under 20 from Eppan in South Tirol by 24 goals to nil. The Germans, who beat Hungary in the 1954 final, Holland in the 1974 final and Argentina in the 1990 final – have thumped a few sides in their time, however the biggest World Cup victory remains the 8-0 win over Saudi Arabia in 2002.
I am inherently biased. I should point out that I wouldn’t have selected Theo Walcott for the England provisional squad in the first place. However, he was selected, so I will try to provide an argument for and against his selection in the final squad.
On the eve of England’s first warm-up match for the World Cup another member of the England set-up has expressed his disappointment at Paul Scholes’s decision to not make himself available for selection – England captain, Rio Ferdinand.
World Cup finalist in 2006 Franck Ribery has signed a new five year contract with Bayern Munich, which ends any speculations of the winger joining Real Madrid. The France international has been continuously linked with the nine times European Champions over the past two season however by penning a new deal which commits him to the Bundesliga champions until 30 June, 2015 has ended any possibility of a move. France will look to Ribery as the tailisman of the side – much like the weight placed on the shoulders of legendary playmaker Zinedine Zidane.
In his first season with a ‘big’ club, Diego Milito has excelled. After yesterdays Champions League final he has now brought his tally to 30 goals for the season; a very healthy return bettered only in the current Argentine squad by Lionel Messi. Yet, it is feasible that Milito may not feature at all in Diego Maradona’s plans.
Lord Triesman has stepped down has head of the FA and chairman of England’s 2010 World Cup big after he made comments to an undercover reporter regarding the conduct of Russia and Spain, with regards to bribing referees at this year’s World Cup finals. The Mail on Sunday reported that Lord Triesman that Spain would end its bid to host the 2018 World Cup if rival bidder Russia helped them to bribe referees in South Africa. Triesman has now embarrassingly stepped down from his post as the England bid team desperately try to patch things up.
There were a few shocks yesterday when the preliminary 30 man World Cup squads were released – with a number of experienced players looking like they will miss out on this summer’s tournament. World Cup winners Patrick Vieira and Francesco Totti, in 1998 and 2006 respectively, are both absent, whilst Diego Maradaona has overlooked the vastly experienced Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso.
Between them they have won eight World Cup Tournaments and have appeared in twelve of the eighteen World Cup finals – but who will be the first nation to reach one hundred World Cup games? Surprisingly, Germany have played one more game than Brazil since they first played in the 1934 tournament, hosted in Italy. Germany played their final game (93rd) against Portugal in 2006, whilst Brazil lost 1-0 to a Zinedine Zidane inspired performance from Les Blues.
Real Madrid and French forward Karim Benzema has declared that he is ‘hungry’ again following an extremely disappointing season with the nine times European Champions. Benzema signed from Lyon in the summer, but has failed to make the desired impact at the Bernabeu – scoring only seven goals in 25 appearances for Los Blancos. Former Arsenal captain William Gallas is also confident that he can make an impact this summer as he declared himself fit for the tournament after suffering a number of injuries.
You are currently browsing the archives for the International category.
