England: I Believe In You

I started this blog about 5-6 weeks ago now. Every time I write on it I get extremely excited about the World Cup. Today I have been looking up England pictures because I am currently making a video to put on here, of great moments and some bad ones too. It is the moments that have defined English football and moments that live in the memory whether good or bad.

While I have been doing this I just keep thinking about that moment in 25 days time when the whistle goes and the tournament begins. My excitement level seems to continue to rise and I don't know how this is possible because at the moment it is pretty much all I am thinking about day and night.

The reason for this post is because I started thinking realistically about our chances this summer. This is what I come up with.

I believe...we have the best manager (Capello) for the job
I believe...the manager has transformed us from a team of great individual players to a great team that can play together
I believe...all of the players have ultimate respect for Capello
I believe...all the players now know that nobody automatically gets picked, the team is picked on form and form alone, not reputation
I believe...Capello is assisted by a great backroom team
I believe...we have a team full of world-class players
I believe...we have a team that has more passion, determination and pride than any other nation
I believe...when the players put on the shirt with the three lions on it means something to them
I believe...that we can win a penalty shoot-out
I believe...we have the best fans in the world
I believe...we can win
I believe...our time has come

I believe all of this things and think every nation will not want to face us. I will be posting the video one day this week when I am happy with the final product.

England Carlsberg Advert and Another Video

I saw this Carlsberg advert promoting England for the World Cup during the Fulham and Athletico Madrid Europa League final and I absolutely love it so thought I would post it on here. It shows a lot of famous faces and every time I watch it I get pumped up and it makes me believe we can win it this summer.
Here it is.




Here's another video I found as well just promoting England for the World Cup and I thought it was really well done.

Capello Announces 30-Man Provisional Squad

So Fabio Capello has announced the 30 players that will battle it out for the 23 spots to go to South Africa. England will be in Austria for a week long training camp and also play against Mexico and Japan before Capello announces the final 23 on June 1st. There wasn't too many surprises in this squad and it is probably fair to say that every player has a chance of going. Here is Capello's 30:

Joe Hart, David James, Robert Green.

Leighton Baines, Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole, Michael Dawson, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Terry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock.

Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner, Scott Parker, Theo Walcott, Shaun Wright-Phillips

Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney.

Capello now has the unenviable task of having to shatter 7 players dream and tell them they will have to stay at home. I think them 7 players will be:
Dawson
Warnock
Huddlestone
Parker
Barry (I don't think he will recover from injury in time)
Johnson
Bent

I just hope he makes the right decision and there are no regrets when we kick-off against USA on June 12th.

Provisional 30-Man Squad Announced Tomorrow

Firstly the premiership ended yesterday with Chelsea winning the league in style beating Wigan 8-0 (I am delighted). It was a season of twists, turns and surprises. There were more surprising results than usual and for the first time in many seasons a new team broke into the top four. Tottenham finished 4th with the other so-called top four team, Liverpool, finishing 7th.

Now away from the premiership. England's provisional 30-man squad for the World Cup will be announced tomorrow. Now the excitement really starts to build. The selected 30 will go to a training camp in Austria before the final 23-man squad will be announced on June 1st. Seeing as the 30 are announced tomorrow I thought I would pick the 30 man that I would select if I was the manager. So here it is:

Goalkeepers: 4
Robert Green
David James
Paul Robinson
Joe Hart

Defenders: 10
John Terry
Rio Ferdinand
Michael Dawson
Ledley King
Sol Campbell
Ashley Cole
Glen Johnson
Leighton Baines
Gary Neville
Phil Jakielka

Midfielders: 11
Frank Lampard
Steven Gerrard
Gareth Barry
James Milner
Aaron Lennon
Joe Cole
Adam Johnson
Tom Huddlestone
Shaun Wright-Phillips
Theo Walcott
Michael Carrick

Forwards: 5
Wayne Rooney
Peter Crouch
Jermain Defoe
Bobby Zamora
Emile Heskey

Spurs English Players Make A Point

Tottenham beat Man City 1-0 last night to secure that coveted final Champions League spot for next season. More importantly than that though, was the performances from the English players for Spurs.

Firstly big Peter Crouch put in one of his best performances of the season. He scored the winner, looked dangerous, won pretty much every header and showed again that he has great technical ability especially for a player of his size. His strike partner Jermain Defoe also put in a good shift up front. They are a good partnership and compliment each other very well. Both should definitely be on the plane to South Africa.

It was another partnership that caught the eye as well. Ledley King and Michael Dawson both looked solid again. They kept City's attacking threats largely at bay and both looked very impressive. Dawson should be going but there are bigger questions about King. He can only train once a week the day before a game and can only play once a week. Can you really take a player like that to such an intense tournament? I don't think so, I think four centre-backs should be Terry, Ferdinand, Dawson and Upson.

Here's quite an old video of Crouch but it shows how good he is and that he can score all different types of goals.

Gerrard Struggling

I've been very surprised this year that not many people have been too critical of Steven Gerrard. This has to be his worst season yet. In past seasons he has inspired Liverpool, often winning games by himself and constantly raising the bar. This year he has been very poor. I think he may have gone a bit stale at Liverpool and it could be time for him to move. He knows he is going to play every week and he is always picked for England. If I was Capello I would be seriously considering his position in the England team. Yes, He is a one of the best in the world when he is on top of his game but we have rarely seen that this season and its been extremely rare that we have seen that for England. His performances this year was summed up by the amazing back pass against Chelsea this weekend right into Drogba's path that put Chelsea on their way to a 2-0 victory.

Good news for everyone but Spain. Torres is a major doubt to be ready for the start of the World Cup. The downside is that he is expected to be fit for when the tournament really gets going after the group stages. As well as that Spain do have one of the easiest groups. There are also rumors that Xavi may not be fit. He has a tear in his calf but he is playing through it for Barcelona, hopefully he will tear it even more so he can't play. I say that as purely an England fan because as a football fan he is one of my favorite players to watch.

Here's quite a funny Pepsi commercial starring some of the big names that will be playing this summer.