Reuters Soccer Blog

Let’s hear it for the World Cup’s 33rd team

While a lucky pool of soccer millionaires can now get down to some serious daydreaming about World Cup glory in South Africa next year, there’s another group of equally well renowned and respected players who will be spending the summer sprucing up the gardens (or getting their agents to buy them fridges).

Here at the Reuters Soccer Blog we’re a little bit saddened by this fact and, doing some daydreaming of our own, we’ve come up with a plan for a 33rd team at the World Cup, made up of players whose countries have failed to qualify.

I’m nominating Sven-Goran Eriksson for the job of coaching them, provided he will agree to swap his plush office at League Two Notts County for a month whipping our World Cup ‘unfortunates’ into shape.

Here’s my stab at a starting XI for the opening game, with a few standbys for the bench.

Sven’s unfortunates (4-3-3): 1-Petr Cech; 2-Yiri Zhirkov, 3-Thomas Vermaelen, 4-Josip Simunic, 5-Christian Chivu; 6-Andrei Arshavin, 7-Luka Modric, 8-Mohamad Zidan; 9-Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 10-Eduardo da Silva, 11-Emanuel Adebayor.

Subs: Shay Given, Razvan Rat, Robbie Keane, Martin Petrov, Dimitar Berbatov, Edin Dzeko, Adrian Mutu.

Razvan Rat makes the cut purely because of the headline grabbing potential of his name, while Shay Given and Robbie Keane deserve something to go right for them.

The weird world of football — Eriksson to Notts County

Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has described his next challenge as director of football at English League Two (fourth division) club Notts County as his toughest test yet.

Some would say that’s an understatement.

“It’s the biggest football challenge in my life,” the 61-year-old Swede told a news conference in the Midlands city of Nottingham on Wednesday.

“I always said I wanted to come back to the (English) Premier League, because it’s the best league in the world. I’ve chosen a difficult way to do it, it will take some years but I’m sure we will do it.”

Has there ever been a more eyebrow-raising appointment in world football?

Of course a lot of money from the new Middle Eastern owners of the oldest club in the world has tempted Eriksson but there will be many soccer fans who still won’t quite be able to believe it.

from Left field:

Eriksson sacked as Mexico coach (Update)

Eight years ago, Mexico lost 3-1 away to Honduras in a World Cup qualifier, sunk by a Carlos Pavon hat-trick, and the defeat cost Enrique Meza his job.

Already under enormous pressure, Meza quit in the dressing room afterwards and has gone on to become a highly successful coach with Pachuca, a friendly club founded by Cornish miners whose modern-day facilities would put many of their European counterparts to shame.

On Wednesday, Mexico lost by the same score against the same opponents in the same stadium in another World Cup qualifier. By a strange coincidence Pavon was on target again, the mercurial striker having been brought back at the age of 35 to replace the injured David Suazo.

The result cost Sven-Goran Eriksson his job.

"This morning we talked to Mr Eriksson and announced his departure," Mexican Football Federation (FMF) president Justino Compean told a news conference. "It's a fact results have not been what we expected."

Eriksson's future seems to have been in doubt almost since the day he was appointed last June.

Should Tardelli even whisper the Italian anthem?

Marco Tardelli is famous for that crazy goal celebration as Italy won the 1982 World Cup.

He loves his country so much that he is ready to whisper the Italian national anthem at Bari on Wednesday despite the fact he is now assistant coach to Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni. 

At least he is honest, but it’s doubtful the thousands of green-clad Ireland fans making the trip to Italy’s heel for the World Cup qualifier will appreciate his words. It will be April’s Fools day after all.

I don’t remember Sven Goran Eriksson’s lips moving when the Swedish anthem played before his England side faced his homeland in the 2002 World Cup.

Current England boss Fabio Capello would certainly keep his mouth shut if Italy ever visit Wembley while Trapattoni may well cringe when he hears the Italian anthem given he has such bad memories from his spell in charge of the Azzurri.

The debate over the nationality of international coaches had seemed to have disappeared before Tardelli’s comments.

Tensions boil over in Mexico camp

Troubled Mexico face a potentially decisive five days in their attempt to qualify for the World Cup and the tension is already starting to tell.

After losing to the United States last month in the opening game of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament’s final stage, Mexico host Costa Rica on Saturday and visit Honduras — where they were beaten in a previous stage of the competition — on Wednesday.

Anything less than four points from those games is likely to end Sven-Goran Eriksson’s short spell as coach and discredit the players even further.

Tempers flared during an extraordinary media conference this week when Ukraine-based Nery Castillo lost his cool after being asked why he had reported late for training.

Castillo, back at Shakhtar Donetsk after his unhappy spell at Manchester City, replied with what, if nothing else, was an interesting diversion.

“You’re happy when the team does badly,” shouted Castillo, who was born in Mexico, left the country at the age of two, raised in Uruguay and began his football career in Greece.

Can it get any worse for Eriksson in Mexico?

Whichever way he turns, Mexico coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, whose team face his native Sweden in a friendly on Wednesday, runs into trouble.

If he looks to Europe for players, Eriksson will find most Mexicans either injured or warming the bench at their respective clubs. Previously seen as a chance to bring a more competitive and professional attitude to the national side, the export of Mexican players has become another headache for the national coach.

That leaves Eriksson with the Mexican championship — but here most of the top players are foreigners. Toluca won the most recent domestic title in December thanks largely to the exploits of their 39-year-old goalkeeper Hernan Cristante, born in Argentina, a stingy defence marshalled by Paraguayan Paulo da Silva and an attack led by Chilean Hector Mancilla, the championship’s top scorer (in previous championships, the topscorers were Humberto Suazo, another Chilean, and Alfredo Moreno, an Argentine).

Many of Mexico’s foreigners have enjoyed their stay so much that they have settled down, raised families and taken out Mexican nationality. But this has brought Eriksson yet another dilemma. Four members of his squad to face Sweden were born outside Mexico, bringing howls of protest from the Mexican media and even members of his own squad. (more…)

Why are Italian coaches so good?

Italy’s Marcello Lippi has equalled the record for the most Azzurri games without defeat and Fabio Capello’s England have managed their best ever start to World Cup qualifying.

We should also not forget evergreen Giovanni Trapattoni, whose modest yet undefeated Ireland side are just three points behind world champions Italy in Group Eight.

It is not sheer coincidence that these three coaches are getting results. There is a lot of talk about “a winning mentality” these days and although it seems a rather obvious commodity for football, the Italians have it in bucketloads.

Italy’s 2-1 win over Montenegro on Wednesday meant Lippi, over his two spells in charge, has equalled 1934 and 1938 World Cup-winning coach Vittorio Pozzo’s record of 30 games without defeat.    (more…)

Lampard and Gerrard: to play or not to play, that is the question

Both are English, both are midfielders, both are top performers in the Premier League, both can’t play together for England…. Sound familiar?

The dilemma that seems a permanent thorn in any England manager’s side has reared its ugly head once more; how do you get Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard to play well together.

England’s World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan on Saturday look set to hand Chelsea’s Lampard and Liverpool’s Gerrard yet another chance to remedy the problem, but what can Fabio Capello do differently to make it work this time?

This week Lampard finally caught up with the rest of the nation in admitting that if he and Gerrard had managed to thread a pass to one another in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, England may have reached the finals in Austria and Switzerland.

However, he says the difference this time is tactics.

It appears the tactical leadership of former England managers Sven Goran-Eriksson and Steve McClaren stretched as far as ‘when one goes, the other one stays,’ but with Capello Lampard seems more comfortable with what is being asked of him.

You know football’s gone mad when…

Italians haven’t quite cottoned on yet to Jose Mourinho’s sense of humour.

Inter Milan have put out a statement pointing out that their new coach was joking when he told a journalist he earned 14 million euros a year.

The excesses of soccer have reached the point where any amount of money sounds plausible to some. (more…)

Is Eriksson the right man for Mexico?

Sven-Goran Eriksson has not even been sacked by Manchester City, yet he already finds himself under fire in Mexico where he is widely expected to be named as the replacement for Hugo Sanchez.

Despite leading Manchester City to a respectable ninth place in the Premiership, it’s been widely reported that Eriksson is facing the chop and at the Mexican Federation they are optimistic about naming him as their new coach as early as Monday.

Striker Jared Borgetti, who has scored a record 43 goals for Mexico, said in a surprisingly outspoken interview this week that the Mexican FA were trying to grab worldwide attention for themselves rather than concentrating on strictly football matters.

Borgetti said that if Mexico want to try their luck with a European coach, then they should appoint him when he has time to experiment and get to understand the psyche of their players.

But with the tortuous CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers just around the corner, Borgetti says Mexico needs a local coach who is familiar with the hostile atmosphere in Central America and the bumpy pitches and physical encounters of the Caribbean.

“I’m not talking about the standard, but in the way you take on the other teams. It’s not just about football, you have to face other things. When you go to play in Central America and the Caribbean, the conditions are very different to Europe,” he said.

The last European coach to try his luck with a Latin American national side was Italy’s Cesare Maldini, who was appointed to lead Paraguay at the 2002 World Cup.