CAPELLO ERA BACK ON TRACK

 

The last time we faced the USA in a "soccer" match was at Soldier Field in '05. It was the end of the Premiership season and what was then Sven Goran Erriccson's team headed Stateside for a couple of friendlies. The first of which were against the Yanks themselves and Kieran Richardson got an early opener with a free kick before hitting a second just before half time. Clint Dempsey pulled one back for the home side but this was really a cruise for both sides.

This time round, well we're now on our second foreign manager, Fabio Capello and another end of season fixture. This time round it's at Wembley Stadium and both sides have an eye on the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Fabio's side still needed to really move through the gears but the US weren't fielding their best XI so this looked to be a good way to get a confidence boost. It was the first time we'd gone 4-4-2 in the Capello era, Lampard and Hargreves in central midfield, Gerrard left mid(didn't look like the greatest idea) and Rooney and Defoe up front.

Well the opening minutes weren't exactly awesome, both sides were really feeling each other out, in fact it was the US who forced us to dodge one significant early bullet in the form of a DaMarcus Beasley free kick but other than that, the US attack was nothing that the England defence couldn't handle! We then set up camp in the US half, hit the net only for it to be ruled out due to a premature free kick from Beck but then in the 39th minute, our man in the MLS fired one into the box on the whistle and Terry headed it in to give my nephew Tom something to cheer about! So far, so good, let's see how many more we can score in the second half!

The second half proved to be more of the same. The Yanks weren't up to much in our half and having put some fresh legs on at half time, we set out to kill the game off! The result was Barry, one of those pairs of fresh legs finding Gerrard in the 59th minutes who slammed it into the far corner! At which point England pretty much shut up shop, passing it around the field and telling the Yanks to "bring it on". The US attacked, but their plays were generally useless and this has to be the most solid Capello-era performance yet!

The last time Scotland faced the Czech Republic was in the Euro 2000 qualifiers. Back then the Tartan Army came up empty losing 2-1 at Hampden Park(with Eion Jess the scorer) and 3-2 at the Sparta Stadion. The Scots have never beaten the Czech Republic since it came into existence but did see off the former Czechoslovakia on a few occasions. The last of these was in a 1978 World Cup qualifier at Hampden Park, JOe Jordan and Kenny Dalgleish scoring in a 3-1 win. You have to go way back for the only time the Scots won on Czechoslovakian territory though. A 3-1 win at the Sparta-Letna stadion. Put it this way though, the only two Scottish scorers I can find records from from that match are both dead. The year was 1937.

This time round, well the Czechs are heading to Euro 2008 while Craig Burley's still tinkering, trying to find the right combo for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. So this friendly at the AXA stadium got set up with the hope that the Scots would give the hosts a match. The Scots were 4-4-1-1. Cardiff's Kevin McNaughton started at right back, Naysmith and Gary Caldwell central defence, Cardiff's Gavin Rae and Celtic's Barry Robson in central midfield, Boro's James Morrison making his debut at left mid. Fletcher as support striker and Derby's Kenny Miller up front.

The Scots did have a chance early on but the match soon turned into a Czech show with the pressure being on the Scots defence. Said defenders acquitted themselves very nicely indeed despite the quality of opposition without making the Czechs look that bad an outfit. There wasn't much action at the other end though there were the odd counters, a direct free kick and a possible penalty call, the Scots never looked like scoring. Still, the traveling Tartan Army would have been more than happy with this half time score.

At half time the Czechs overhauled their XI. They now had no big names on the pitch and to start with the lack of cohesion allowed plenty of attacking opportunities for the Scots. However that changed in the 60th minute when Libor Sionko surged into the box in the 60th minute before slotting the ball in the net. The Scots looked to limit the damage and had some good chances of their own and late on 1-0 didn't seem that bad a result but then in the 84th minute Michael Kadlec made the Scottish defence look thick as planks to score his first international goal but the Scots made up for it in the 85th when two of their subs combined, Villa's Shaun Maloney crossing to Motherwell's David Clarkson for a scorcher. Scotland fans dared to dream of an equalizer but that effort just left holes in the back and in the 90th minute Sionko used those to finish the game off!

Elsewhere, Wales faced Iceland at the Laugardalsvollur Stadium. John Toshack fielded a very experimental side but it did seem to pay off when Man City's Chad Evans opened the scoring just before half time for his first international goal. Wales continued to have the better game despite the lack of experience on the pitch and with their defence hardly troubled at all, Wales can consider this match a job done and what is the post-Ryan Giggs era for them but well bear some fruit on the road to South Africa.

The Geovanni Trappitoni era has started for the Republic of Ireland. The veteran Italian coach's first match was a 1-1 draw with Serbia at Croke Park which seemed to keep him satisfied enough even though his team looked defeat bound till the last minute. The men in green went one better when they returned to Croke Park later in the week to record a 1-0 win over Columbia, the Irish having to hold on to that lead for most of the match. Credit to them for succsessfully holding out.

Next up for England is a trip to Trinidad.