Steve McClaren has not had the easiest of starts as England’s head coach and it is no exaggeration to say that he was facing a somewhat uncertain future before his team’s back-to-back qualifiers against Israel and Russia at Wembley Stadium.

England went in to the game against Israel last Saturday with a sorry record of just two wins in their previous nine games. A defeat at home to either Israel or Russia or both and McClaren might well have been ringing around to see what jobs could be on offer if he needed one.

It was not looking too clever for him either. Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Owen Hargreaves and Gary Neville were all out with injuries while Peter Crouch was suspended for the Israel game.

It was time for McClaren to gamble and he came up trumps.

In came the under-rated Gareth Barry to play alongside Steven Gerrard in midfield. Emile Heskey was beckoned from the international wilderness for the first time in three years. Shaun Wright-Phillips was told to start playing for England the same way he has started the season at Chelsea.

It was an unfamiliar concoction — but the ingredients came together. For the first time in a long time England played as a team.

Unlikely partnerships flourished all over the field: Heskey and Michael Owen in attack, Wright-Phillips and Micah Richards on the right; Barry and Gerrard in the midfield.

England won both games 3-0 to rekindle their Euro 2008 hopes and keep McClaren’s job safe for now.

The circumstances of how he has managed to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear recall Bobby Robson’s England of Italia ‘90 when injuries appeared to blight their hopes of progress.

Skipper Bryan Robson, defender Gary Stevens and forward John Barnes all started the opening match against Ireland, but none of them remained when England went out on penalties to West Germany in the semi-final three weeks later.

Robson was forced to change his team because of circumstances beyond his control and he almost took England to the World Cup final.

McClaren similarly had to juggle his side in ways he couldn’t have imagined two weeks ago. He admits he has no idea why Heskey worked so well with Owen, for example. “It was just a hunch,” he said. “These things happen. You can’t explain them.”

It might have been luck, or perhaps he’s being modest and he had an insight into the players no-one else saw. As Gary Player once said of his golfing success: “It’s a funny thing, the more I practise, the luckier I get.”

McClaren certainly got lucky this week. All England have to do now is keep practising.

Mike Collett, London

Rugby and soccer have always had an uneasy relationship, but it has suddenly become a lot worse in France.

The soccer team were forced to play Scotland in the Parc des Princes on Wednesday because the Stade de France, their usual fortress, was unavailable due to the Rugby World Cup.

France, who won the 1998 World Cup at the Stade, have bad memories of the smaller Paris stadium after missing out on World Cup 94 following a famous defeat to Bulgaria at the Parc (see here for a nice memory jogger).
 
Wednesday’s result may turn out to be just as costly. France went down 1-0 to Scotland in a Euro 2008 qualifier, just as they did in Glasgow in October, to drop from top of Group B to third.

Italy, who drew 0-0 with France at the San Siro on Saturday, are now second in the group after a 2-1 win in Ukraine. Roberto Donadoni, under pressure at home, showed guts by dropping Alessandro Del Piero, Filippo Inzaghi and Daniele De Rossi after poor performances against the French and was rewarded by two goals from largely unheralded Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale.
 
Most other qualifiers ran to form, with Michael Owen scoring two in England’s 3-0 win over Russia to take his international goal tally to 40. England, who beat Israel by the same score on Saturday, have moved up to second in the group following their sudden resurgence under Steve McClaren.

The coach was without Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, David Beckham, Gary Neville, Owen Hargreaves and Aaron Lennon and they will all now face a fight to return to the starting lineup.

McClaren risked ridicule by recalling striker Emile Heskey and it paid off. His partnership with Owen, along with Gareth Barry’s emergence in midfield, suggests that picking a team that works together rather than the 11 best players can make all the difference.

And after France rugby coach Bernard Laporte made 13 changes for Sunday’s World Cup match with Namibia, maybe rugby and soccer can learn form each other after all.  
 
Mark Meadows, Milan

In a well-argued column on USSoccerPlayers.Com, Ken Pendleton looks at the United States’ performance in the 4-2 defeat to Brazil on Sunday and argues that not much has really improved for the national side in the past decade.

[A}re the Americans really that much better than the generation that came through twelve or so years ago? Tim Howard has not yet reached the same heights as (Brad) Friedel, or Kasey Keller. Are Oguchi Onyewu and Bocanegra better than Alexi Lalas and Eddie Pope? Would Claudio Reyna, Earnie Stewart, Cobi Jones, Ramos and Harkes take a backseat to Landon Donovan, Benny Feilhaber, DaMarcus Beasley and Bradley? And one suspects that, post Brian McBride, coach Bradley would love to be able to call up someone who could score goals as consistently as Eric Wynalda.

He argues that while the U.S has a much better structure to draw from and a deeper pool of players avaliable there is a real lack of flair and individual creativity. It is a fair criticism although perhaps Pendleton overstates the lack of progress. The current U.S team is much better than a dozen years ago on several levels (compare again the midfield of 12 years ago with the current one. Is Beasley v Harkes really a close call?) and the past year has seen a significant improvement on the displays at the World Cup in Germany in terms of a more positive and aggressive approach to the game.

But there is something missing in the current squad and it is that sparkle of creativity, someone capable of the unpredictable and the occassionally brilliant. Well-organised, solid and efficient only get you so far as Sunday’s game showed.

One of the players from the past Pendleton mentions, Wynalda, now works as a television commentator on ESPN and during the Brazil match he was asked would the U.S ever produce a player with the exciting skills of Ronaldinho or Kaka? Wynalda blamed the coaching system in the U.S and said they produced “robots” whereas the Brazilians ensured that individuality survived the maturing process.

Which raises some questions. Firstly, is Wynalda right? If so, why do U.S coaches prefer the robotic to the creative? Is it a result of a sporting culture heavily influenced by the ‘game plans’ and rigid routines of other sports? Is it an over reliance on textbooks at youth level? Is it to do with the U.S’s strange lack of self-confidence in soccer? (More of which another time).

And, to be positive, can the new generation of players coming through from the national youth sides — Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore in particular — give some fresh zest and style to Bob Bradley’s side?

Simon Evans, Miami

England’s comfortable home win over Israel did something that looked impossible a few short months ago, and put Steve McClaren, his England team, their fans and the bookies back on good terms.

Specifically for McClaren, it’s kept his mug off the back pages for a couple of days. Where last week they tore him to shreds, today’s Sun carries ‘A message to Russians’ from Steven Gerrard that ‘This Lot are our best EVER’.

When allowed to finish his sentence, the Liverpool midfielder did admit to the underachievements of ‘this lot’, but his optimism has been reflected in the betting shops, where England’s odds have fallen to 8-1, making them fifth favourites to win Euro 2008.

Most surprising of all has been the fans’ reaction. McClaren’s status as lame duck manager has been suspended, it seems, with the BBC’s online 606 forum now carrying threads entitled ‘New era for England’ and ‘Macca’s finally got it’.

But is this renewed spirit of optimism not all a bit premature? Aren’t England still facing their hardest qualification battle in years? (See here for the standings and fixtures.)

Even if England secure a victory on Wednesday, Russia will be left just needing to match the result in the return fixture in Moscow in October and then beat Israel to leave McClaren’s team as good as eliminated.

If, as expected, Croatia win their next three games they would arrive as group winners for a November 21 final qualification match at Wembley and leave England relying on Andorra to upset second-placed Russia.

Optimistic now? Wednesday is a must win, but the hard work only starts there.

Padraic Halpin, London

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said last month that a slimmed down Ronaldo looked like “a model”.
 
Unfortunately for the Brazilian, he is unable to walk down a Milan catwalk or turn out at the San Siro because of a niggling hamstring injury.
 
Milan said he would be fit for the start of the season and then reckoned it would be later in September. In the event the club’s medical staff have said they misjudged the injury and he will now be out for another month.
 
The annoyed striker, who has lost 5.5 kilos in an effort to regain his former glory, has flown to doctors in Antwerp and Brazil in a bid to sort out the injury.
 
Milan will hope he has not been scoffing the first class airline food in his frustration.  
 
Mark Meadows, Milan

Portugal’s national team has turned slightly more Brazilian after the decision to call-up defender Kepler Laveran Lima Ferreira.

Better known as Pepe and selected shortly after being granted Portuguese nationality, he is the third Brazilian-born player to join the squad after Deco and coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. In the event, Pepe then dropped out of the squad through injury, but he remains very much in Scolari’s plans.

Scolari brushed aside criticism, saying naturalised players were part of a worldwide tendency in all sports and citing the example of world triple jump champion Nelson Evora, who was born in Ivory Coast, represented Cape Verde in his early days and then switched to Portugal in 2002.

“We were all happy when Nelson Evora won the world championship,” said Scolari. “So let’s stop being hypocritical. If it’s good enough for athletics, rugby and basketball, why not for football?”

Three years ago, FIFA introduced emergency measures to stop players switching nationalities at will. Players now have to show strong links with their adopted country through their parents or grandparents, or that they have lived there for two years, to play for the national team.

The rule was introduced after three Brazilians who had never set foot in Qatar agreed to play for the Gulf State in the World Cup qualifiers. It has certainly stopped repetitions of the more extreme cases such as the five Brazilians who represented Togo in the 2004 African Nations Cup qualifiers; of Uruguay goalkeeper Luis de Agustini, who admitted he had to look up Libya on the Internet after accepting an offer to play for them; and of the French second division players who turned out for Mauritania.

But is two years enough? How many “ordinary” immigrants would be given even permanent residence, let along the passport, of their adopted nation in that time?

Guillermo Franco is an example of how the loopholes can still be exploited. Franco arrived in Mexico from his native Argentina in 2003 to play for Monterrey. He was naturalised within two years and played for them at the 2006 World Cup — then left the country to join Spanish club Villarreal after what turned out to be little more than a flying visit.

Brian Homewood, Rio de Janeiro

The three biggest contests this weekend look like being England v Israel, Italy v France and Club v Country.

England’s Steven Gerrard has a broken toe and despite Liverpool’s protests, the midfielder may take an injection to play in a Euro 2008 qualifier England need to win.
 
France captain Patrick Vieira has missed the start of the Serie A season with a hamstring strain and his club Inter Milan believe he will not be fit for the World Cup final repeat at the San Siro on Saturday. France coach Raymond Domenech, though, thinks the midfielder can last at least an hour and looks ready to take a risk on the former Arsenal man.
 
Such club v country rows crop up nearly every international week and tend to erode good will between the two parties. The arguments also contributed to the international retirements of the likes of Alessandro Nesta, Paul Scholes and Francesco Totti.
 
FIFA and UEFA have started to work out compensation for clubs whose players are injured on international duty but they may have to do more to address the original club v country battles.
 
Maybe it’s time governing bodies or an independent panel rule on whether a player should turn out for their country. They could hear from both parties and then make a quick decision before a game.

The problem is that clubs could then start asking the panel for compensation if a player was cleared to play and his injury got worse. So who’s going to sanction that?

Mark Meadows, Milan

The Steven Gerrard toe jab saga boils down to one simple question: Is it worth risking the long-term fitness of England’s most important player for one qualifying match at Wembley?

England coach Steve McClaren must decide whether to ask Gerrard to play with painkilling injections in his broken toe against Israel on Saturday, or add another senior player to an injured list that already includes Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard David Beckham and Gary Neville.

Im very, very confident that Stevie G will be with us on Saturday,” McClaren said on Tuesday. He wants to play, I want him to play, the team does, the fans do. The whole country does.”

One man who doesn’t is Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez. “We don’t want Steven to play for England with any painkilling injections,” Benitez said on Friday. “We did that in the game against Chelsea and it took four days for him to recover enough to be able to return to training.”

Liverpool bloggers are also understandably cautious. Anfield Banter suggests McClaren should be the one to make the sacrifice, while at Liverpool Pies Dan Burt says he sees no reason for him to play.

The stakes are so high, though, that it would be no real surprise if England feel they can’t do without Gerrard, who has started the season in excellent form. England are down in fourth place in Group E and victories at home to Israel on Saturday and Russia four days later are essential.

“You’ve got to play for your country, haven’t you?” Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards said on Wednesday. “Previous players have before. You would do anything to play for your country.”

Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.

Kevin Fylan

POLL: We’re running a poll on this over at the Reuters Football site so please pop over and vote.

When Trevor Brooking, one of the most diplomatic of men, says English soccer has a major problem because of the influx of foreign players, the time has come for action.

The trouble is there’s precious little action that can actually be taken to improve the situation Brooking, the English FA’s director of development, is so concerned about.

Since the 1995 Bosman Ruling and subsequent changes to EU law brought down the barriers on cross-border employment, and TV money made the English game the richest in the world, it seems every decent or even half-decent player has tried to earn himself a considerable crust in England.

The impact of this has been obvious for years: imported talent naturally makes it even harder for local youngsters to reach the highest level. The very best always will, but clubs increasingly go out and buy the finished article from overseas rather than wait for their youngsters to mature.

In England, Chelsea and Arsenal in particular have fielded teams that did not include one English player. That is now nothing new. What is new, though, is that because the top teams are fielding fewer and fewer English players, the pool of elite talent from which the national team is selected is diminishing.

As Brooking says, “Its a major concern. In 10 years time you dont want us just being pleased to qualify for tournaments.

England are a long way from securing their place at Euro 2008 and must beat Israel and Russia at Wembley in the next eight days to keep their chances alive. But even if they do win and eventually reach the finals, the problem will continue.

The only answer is for clubs to abandon their search for foreign stars and start developing their own who actually come through and regularly play for the first team of their club. In
England that hasn’t happened since Manchester United — and subsequently England — profited from the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Gary and Philip Neville in the mid-1990s.

Don’t hold your breath. It’s unlikely to happen again soon.

Mike Collett, London

A new coach, and the small matter of 120 million euros spent on players, have transformed Real Madrid into the team everyone wants to watch.

A 5-0 win away to Villarreal got Real fans tingling with excitement and Bernd Schuster, the German brought in to replace Fabio Capello, seemed to enjoy the performance as much as any Real fan.

Theres no need to hold back the euphoria. Its not too often you win like this in a year, a delighted Schuster said after the game, which followed a 2-1 victory over Atletico Madrid on the opening day.

Central to both victories has been the performance of Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder who has now scored three times and set up another for Raul. His desire to move the ball quickly with long and short passes, and lethal shooting from distance has been as important as his tracking back and tackling.

Sneijders understanding with Guti combined with Robinhos ticket to roam proved too much for both Atletico and Villarreal, as they raced forward with swift counter-attacks.

Schuster has still to field his most expensive signing, winger Arjen Robben, who joined from Chelsea for 36 million euros.

Could this side sweep all before them at home and in Europe? La Liga Loca advises waiting to see if this was a freak result or the shape of things to come but most other commentators have been quite happy to join in with Schuster’s euphoria.

Certainly it’s still early days, and their defence still has to find their feet, but they look like they are going to take some stopping.

Mark Elkington, Madrid