A year ago after promising performances in the Confederations Cup 45 per cent of
Posted in General on 02. Sep, 2010
A year ago, after promising performances in the Confederations Cup, 45 per cent of Germans thought their team would win the World Cup. That dropped to 20 per cent after a 4-1 drubbing by Italy in March and by the time J?n Klinsmann named his squad last month it was down to seven per cent.. THE EXPERTS
Alan Pardew West Ham manager. Sven Goran Eriksson had a serious dispute with Sir Alex Ferguson over Wayne Rooney’s fitness on Wednesday and he is now prepared to defy the Manchester United manager once again – and the advice of the country’s leading orthopaedic surgeon – by risking the player in the group stages of the World Cup finals. Another extraordinary 24 hours in the recovery of Rooney has revealed Eriksson to be uncharacteristically tenacious in his desire to have the 20-year-old back in his team, although at a potentially great cost. Should Rooney be called back early – before 20 June – United believe that he would be at serious risk of further injury. That is a risk that, it seems, Eriksson is now prepared to take.
It was this basic conflict that lay at the heart of Wednesday’s intense negotiations between United and the FA. The day ended with Rooney back in Germany and a dramatic statement from the club in the early hours yesterday, when Wednesday’s course of events became clear.. Not all the disappointment surrounding Wayne Rooney’s return to Germany will have been confined to Manchester United. For Jermain Defoe, the sight of the smiling England No 9 waltzing through the doors of the team hotel on Wednesday night was confirmation that his World Cup was over.
Barring a dramatic injury to one of his fellow strikers over breakfast at the Schlosshotel B?rh?this morning, Defoe will be omitted from the final 23-man squad that Sven Goran Eriksson submits to Fifa, the world governing body, and be left with the stark choice of going home or prolonging the agony by remaining with the squad.. No group has been anticipating the start of World Cup action more keenly than the bookmakers and betting-exchange operators who expect to break all records for money wagered over the next month. They have come up with a tempting array of prices on every conceivable market from the top Premiership striker in the tournament (Thierry Henry is 9-2 favourite with Coral) to the toe of England’s prize asset and whether it will prevent him taking to the pitch.. The sarong, the haircuts, the tattoos; David Beckham has become accustomed to ridicule since he moved into the stratosphere of celebrity but nothing would have prepared him for the reaction had he taken the foreign influence on English football a step too far last weekend.