As Rob mentioned earlier, the England vs Egypt friendly is more important than your average friendly. It's the first game since the John Terry fiasco for example, and we'll all be watching to see how he performs sans elasticated armband. There's the left back situation too. Ashley Cole is currently injured and Wayne Bridge has removed himself from the equation, so Everton's Leighton Baines and Aston Villa's Stephen Warnock both have a shot to booking themselves a World Cup ticket.

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England
Goalkeepers: James (Portsmouth), Green (West Ham), Hart (Birmingham)
Defenders: Brown (Man Utd), Terry (Chelsea), Upson (West Ham), Lescott (Man City), Shawcross (Stoke), Baines (Everton), Warnock (Aston Villa)
Midfielders: Milner (Aston Villa), Beckham (AC Milan), Walcott (Arsenal), Lampard (Chelsea), Barry (Man City), Gerrard (Liverpool), Carrick (Man Utd), Wright-Phillips (Man City), Downing (Aston Villa)
Forwards: Heskey (Aston Villa), Defoe (Tottenham), Rooney (Man Utd), Crouch (Tottenham), C Cole (West Ham)
This is a mixed bag, with obvious problems in defence and between the sticks. Click to continue reading...

The African Cup of Nations is one of the best and most emotionally charged national team tournament in the footballing world. The controversial 2010 edition is down its last two teams as The Black Stars of Ghana will face 2-time defending champion, The Pharoahs of Egypt. Here is a preview of what will be a historic 2010 ACN Final. Click to continue reading...

Everyone knows about Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba and Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o. The superstars of African football. Most will know about Mali's Fredi Kanoute and Seydou Keita too. You don't need WorldCupBlog to tell you about them. So we thought we'd compile a list of 10 players to watch at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, featuring talented youngsters and other players with slightly lower profiles than those listed above.

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There was one spot left in the African region (CAF) for next summer's 2010 World Cup Finals heading into Wednesday, November 18, 2009. Algeria played Egypt with the winner to punch a ticket to South Africa. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Algeria defeats Egypt 1-0 Video Highlights

Algeria clinched a spot in South Africa next summer with a 1-0 win over Egypt.

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The Algeria vs Egypt match was played In the backdrop of potentially escalating violence, a build up to the game which saw the stoning of the bus carrying Algerians and injuries to three of their players.

Following the match, violence broke out in Marseille. In Egypt, 32 fans including 20 Algerians were hurt in clashes in Cairo and Nasr City.

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As the transfer window deadline looms, here are top ten transfers that I would like to see happen.
The Flat Back Four's Top ten transfers
1. Hernanes to Liverpool
2. Eidur Gudjohnsen to West Ham
3. Rafael Van der Vaart to Manchester United
4. Yasuhito Endo to Arsenal
5. Click to continue reading...

With the departure of Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso, the Premiership looks in danger of lacking the Latin/Iberian flair and creativity. It is my opinion that English football needs entertainers while maintaining its physical and energetic characteristics. Players who can bring crowds and viewers to their feet with moments of magic. Click to continue reading...

Egypt is the toast of the Confederations Cup just like Turkey were in the 2008 Euro which lifted much above its weight class.

An agonizing 4-3 loss to five time World Cup winner Brazil over a disputed Kaka goal in the 90th minute and now a 1-0 win over five time World Cup winner Italy.

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Group B
Brazil 4 Egypt 3
Mangaung/Bloemfontein
If Group A provided a soporific opening to the 2009 Confederations Cup, Group B was the wake up call everyone must have been hoping for.
The first game of the day was an exciting encounter between the champions of South America and Africa which proved to be a lot closer than expected. Click to continue reading...

Brazil v Egypt (Group B)
Date: Monday 15 June
Venue: Bloemfontein
Kickoff: 3pm GMT

Five time world champions Brazil kickoff their Confederations Cup campaign on Monday when they take on African giants Egypt at the Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein. You can watch Brazil v Egypt live here.

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Asia
As we've just mentioned in our TV Preview, Asia is awash with three new countries that have qualified for the Finals in South Africa next year.
From Group 1, Australia and Japan are assured of occupying the top two places after the Aussies played out a goalless draw against Qatar and Japan won 1-0 away to Uzbekistan. Click to continue reading...

1. Mohamed Aboutrika At the 2008 African Cup of Nations, the Egyptian midfielder lifted his shirt after scoring against Sudan to reveal a T-shirt bearing the message "Sympathy with Gaza". He was given a yellow card for breaking FIFA's...

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Here, a BBC interview with Egypt's Mohamed Aboutrika ahead of receiving the BBC African Footballer of the Year award. Interesting when he says he'd like to play for a top European club some day ...
To read the full interview, please click above.

Inas Mazhar: What does it mean to you to win the BBC African Footballer of the Year Award?

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Congratulations to Togo and Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor who today won the Confederation of African Football's (CAF) Player of the Year Award.
The Arsenal scoring machine won the award ahead of BBC African Footballer of the Year Mohamed Aboutrika of Egypt.

The award was decided by a poll of African national team coaches, and CAF's figures gave Adebayor 74 points to Aboutrika's 53.

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Congratulations to Mohamed Aboutrika, who won the 2008 BBC African Footballer of the Year award yesterday.

This, from the BBC:
The midfield star won by an overwhelming majority - taking more than half of the total ballot. More than 155,000 people cast their votes for the BBC award - the only one of its kind to be decided by football fans around the world. Click to continue reading...

Congratulations to Cristiano Ronaldo for winning the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year award. While Cristiano Ronaldo wasn't my choice for the award, its easy to see why he won but the beef I have with this award has to do with the choices for the shortlist of candidates. If this is supposed to [. Click to continue reading...

Part II of WCB's World XI will reveal the attacking portion of the team as well as the coach that puts it all together or keeps it together. Let us begin with the right side of the formation. FORWARDS: On the right side, Cristiano Ronaldo. Everyone knows about the year he had with Manchester United and the trophies [. Click to continue reading...