Football Update: England Coach, Capello’s 23-Man Squad For August 11th Friendly Against Hungary
The England national team coach Fabio Capello has announced his squad for the upcoming friendly match against Hungary on Wednesday, 11th August. England supporters were expecting quite a few changes in the squad but few would have thought of a complete overhaul. Only 10 players of the 23-man squad who represented at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa were able to retain their places. Most of these 10 players, if not all, are expected to be in the starting line-up against Hungary, so there is in fact less of a change in the core of the playing team that played in the World Cup matches.
There were definite changes expected in the goalkeeping department, as England’s worst moment in South Africa came when the goalkeeper Robert Green made an infamous blunder to let a speculative but easy shot through his arms in their opening match to lose an early lead. This mistake proved too costly as the English squad could never recover their morale for the tournament. Green paid the price for this mistake, and was replaced with David James for the next three games.
Both these goalkeepers, however, could not make the squad for the revamped squad for facing Hungary and were replaced by Ben Foster and Paul Robinson. The latter ignited a little more controversy when he announced his retirement shortly after the squad was made public, stating he did not consider himself a number three of four keeper and found the role of warming the bench very frustrating.
Joe Hart, who was the best English goalkeeper in the English Premier League last season, was amazingly not given a chance in South Africa but in the current renovation of the English squad, he would be given enough time to impress and make the English number 1 jersey his for many years to come.
In the defensive ranks, Matthew Upson, Ledley King and Stephen Warnock made way for Wes Brown, Phil Jagielka and Gary Cahill. England’s regular skipper Rio Ferdinand is still nursing his knee injury he suffered in the build-up to the World Cup and is still some weeks away from resuming training. King’s fitness was always doubtful even when he was selected in the squad for South Africa and Capello has made the right decision to give chance to young and upcoming defenders to stake their claim for a regular place in the English squad.
The exciting Jack Wilshere is among the three players who have been given their first call-up in the national squad, the other two being his fellow Arsenal player Kieran Gibbs and Bobby Zamora. Wilshere, who is the youngest ever league debutant for Arsenal, could also become the tenth youngest English international on Wednesday if he is given a chance to shine.
Youngsters Ashley Young, Theo Walcott and Adam Johnson have also been called upon in place of the new Liverpool player Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Cole should be disappointed on his exclusion as he was among the better English players in South Africa. Michael Carrick did not play at all in South Africa but was left out by Capello, probably because of the ankle injury he suffered in a recent pre-season friendly in Dublin.
Jermaine Defoe was the only English striker to find back of the net in South Africa but he could not escape the Capello axe and left out along with his Tottenham teammate Peter Crouch. The duo is replaced by Darren Bent and Carlton Cole. With Emile Heskey now returned from international duty, the starting place to partner Wayne Rooney upfront is up for grabs for Bent, Zamora and Carlton Cole.
Capello has apologised English supporters for the poor performances in South Africa and has promised to show difference in the playing style. The real test for Capello will start from the qualifiers for Euro 2012, against Bulgaria at home and Switzerland away in the first week of September.
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