Join Matilda and myself for some chit chat about understrength England vs understrength (but still scary) Brazil, from about 30 minutes before kickoff on Saturday, November 14th, 2009. If you're in the UK it's a 5pm kickoff on ITV1. If you're in the US it's a 12 noon kickoff on Fox Soccer Channel.

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Bad news. Our list of the fallen is now about as long as Peter Crouch's leg. The BBC so kindly tells us that we're missing Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, David James, Theo Walcott, Emile Heskey, David Beckham, Aaron Lennon, Carlton Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Glen Johnson.

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What: England vs Brazil (or Brazil vs England), friendly game of football
When: Saturday November 14th, 2009. 5pm kickoff UK time. 12noon US eastern time.
Where: Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar
I Don't Live There!

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Fabio Capello has named his England squad for the November 14th friendly vs Brazil in Qatar. There was a bit of complaining in the run up, with Fergie suggesting the whole thing was a waste of time, and Rafa Benitez asking that Steven Gerrard be excused.

Capello ignored Fergie and selected as many Man Utd players as he wanted (including Wes Brown, who I'm glad to see back in the squad).

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Arsene Wenger thinks 20 year old Arsenal left back Kieran Gibbs is "ready to play" for England. I'd rather stick with Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge for World Cup 2010, thanks Arsene, but after watching Gibbs play in Arsenal's 4-1 win over Wolves today, I think we can definitely file Gibbs under "near future".

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Could this work of art kill England's World Cup Bid?

OK so perhaps the title is a tad hyperbolic, but really things are getting ridiculous. A quick refresher course for those of you who have missed this: England (as you all should know) is bidding to host the 2018 World Cup. Recently there was a conference in London at which Jack Warner, a FIFA vice-president, was present. Click to continue reading...

Wayne Rooney contributed what looked like a good all round performance for Man Utd vs Blackburn on Saturday, featuring some nice link play and a sweet sweet goal which he swept home to make it 2-0 (around 4:10 in the above video).

I saw about 15 minutes of the game live, and there was also a magic little inside-of-the-foot-with-back-to-goal pass that somehow didn't make the Match of the Day cut.

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If you had asked me six months ago who was England's best centre back I would have undoubtedly said Rio Ferdinand. However posed with the same question now I would be a little less sure. I think that the talk that he's "over the hill" is overly dramatic, but Ferdinand's form this season has definitely been more than questionable.

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Interesting story in Bild recently, suggesting that Fabio Capello has been asking Stuart Pearce to keep an eye on Werder Bremen's 23 year old attacking mid/forward Aaron Hunt, who you can see above scoring twice for Werder Bremen (in white) this weekend. The second goal (which tied the game at 2-2) is an absolute cracker of a chest-volley combo.

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Sir Alex Ferguson has always enjoyed a good moan. Especially when it comes to England friendlies. So it wasn't a huge surprise to hear him complain about England's upcoming game vs Brazil in Doha, Qatar on November 14th.

Ferguson doesn't mention the Brazil game specifcially. But he may as well have.

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You may be wondering why the name at the top is neither Daryl nor Rob. I'll introduce myself, I'm Matilda, I also write for Bolton Offside. Both Rob and Daryl will still be writing here, I'm just a little addendum.

Milan chief executive, Adriano Galliani, has come out with the wonderfully self contradictory statement:

"It's practically certain at 100 per cent, the only thing missing is the signatures, but the agreement is complete.

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Hands up if you'd forgotten about Joe Cole? No need to be embarrassed, I sort of had as well. At least as an England starter anyway.

The Chelsea man has been out since January with a knee injury, but returned to play a starring role as Chelsea thrashed Blackburn 5-0 this weekend.

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I'm not quitting, and neither is Rob. But we both have other blogging commitments and so could definitely use some help here on England WCB. Especially as we begin the buildup to the big football show that is World Cup 2010.

Much like Fabio Capello, we won't settle for just anyone.

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Theo Walcott returned from a back injury and made his first start for Arsenal this past weekend. But 33 minutes later he came off again with what turned out to be damaged medial knee ligaments, thanks to a robust slide-tackle from Birmingham defender Liam Ridgewell.

Word from the Emirates is that Walcott will be out for three to four weeks and will almost certainly miss November's friendly vs Brazil.

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Darren Bent's matchwinning goal for Sunderland this weekend was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that it hit a beach ball on the way in. But the fact is that beach ball deflection or not Darren Bent scored again. Against good opposition. Bent isn't just the highest scoring English player in the Premier League right now with eight goals, he's also the joint highest scoring player in the Premier League alongside Fernando Torres.

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Decent embeddable highlights of England's 3-0 win over Belarus have been hard to come by. If you want to watch again, then The FA's YouTube channel has a solid five minutes available here though.

With qualification assured long ago, and Gerrard and Rooney absent, this game was all about learning.

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Weirdly, I'm kind of excited for England vs Belarus. Neither team has anything to play for, but with Rooney and Gerrard out injured (or as The Fiver put it yesterday: "Wayne Rooney has pulled out of the game against Belarus at Wembley with a severe case of having his wages paid by Manchester United.

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So FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has come out and had a bit of a pop at our attempt to hold the World Cup. He said that not only was the bid lightweight, but he was really impressed by Australia, who gave him a goody bag with Australia 2018 tat in it. Apparently, this could swing the bid. I quote Warner (Via The Guardian):

I came here and was shocked that I got a bag for Australia at the entrance.

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Turns out that if you do this...

...and then let Kenwyne Jones beat you in the air like this...

... while Fabio Capello watches from the stands ... then you get dropped from the England squad. Fabio Capello has named his England squad to face Ukraine and Belarus, and Ben Foster is not in it.

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I've deliberately avoided all the post World Cup qualification hooplah. Mostly because the usual questions: "Can we win it this time?" etc, make me want to stab myself in the leg with a pencil. And anyone who uses the phrase "Can England win it? Yes. Will they win it? No." should be reminded that
a) It's not clever or original if a thousand other people have already said it first, and
b) You deserve to be stabbed in the leg with a pencil.

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Fabio Capello has named a 30 man squad for the games against USA (May 28, Wembley) and Trinindad & Tobago (June 1, Port of Spain). All in all looks good, with plenty of exciting young pacey players. And David Beckham. Full squad below: Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), David James (Portsmouth), Chris Kirkland (Wigan) Defenders: Wayne Bridge (Chelsea), [. Click to continue reading...

You'd think the FA, the people who hired Steve McClaren, would be in no position to make demands about performance. But they've told Fabio Capello that he has to reach at least the semi-finals of World Cup 2010 or Euro 2012, ore he can look for another job. Given that England are, as Laurie pointed out [. Click to continue reading...

So... no England at Euro 2008 this summer. And there'll be constant reminders of that from now until June 29th. No doubt it's a disaster, but at least it brought about a change of management. And that's about the most positive spin I can put on it: No Euro 2008 = No Steve McClaren (Almost seems like [. Click to continue reading...