By Davidde Corran
November 11th 2009 @ 3:27am
Verbeek experiments but Socceroos lack depth
Australia's Harry Kewell (left) competes for the ball with Eljero Elia of the Netherlands during the Socceroos v Netherlands soccer match at the Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Oct. 10, 2009. The teams drew 0-0. AAP Image/Paul Miller
It’s time again to take off your club colours and slap on the green and gold. Another FIFA international date is upon us, and thankfully even the A-League is stepping aside for a week – though not the National Youth or Women’s Leagues.
There probably hasn’t been as important a FIFA international date since this time four years ago.
By the end of Saturday, the final World Cup spots will have been decided, we’ll know exactly how much Brazil have humbled England by (despite, according to FourFourTwo, the English having four of the twelve best players in the world compared with Brazil’s one), and the Socceroos will pretty much have their last major run-out until South Africa.
It’s the last of these points that I’ve been thinking about as the latest Socceroos squad makes for some interesting reading. Or more specifically, the omissions and inclusions do.
The biggest feature, obviously, is the absence of Scott McDonald.
So here’s what we know: Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek decided long ago that a cautious 4-2-3-1 was the best formation to utilise Australia’s abundance of wide forwards (Bresciano, Emerton, Kewell …)
There’s also a glut of central and, as Verbeek likes to refer to them, ‘controlling’ midfielders, to shield the centre-backs, which is necessary for this formation.
The other point that has now become obvious is that this squad is being built around Tim Cahill.
There’s no doubt he’s Australia’s biggest threat, and clearly Verbeek is trying to harness his quality as much as possible. That’s why the Socceroos coach has decided to go with Kennedy upfront.
McDonald’s omission is the final admission of that.
So with this structure in mind, we can start to consider the make-up and potential of the Socceroos squad that will head to South Africa next year.
For me, depth seems to be the biggest problem. Looking over recent Socceroos squads, three areas standout.
STRIKERS
Kennedy’s return to form in Japan has been heart warming for any Australian, but what if he picks up an injury?
For the last two years, we’ve just assumed that McDonald would come good eventually. However, Verbeek has now run out of patience with him.
While the door isn’t entirely shut on the Celtic striker, who would feel comfortable with him starting up front in South Africa?
Beyond him, there is the future promise of Bruce Djite and Nikita Rukavytsya but neither has proven to be ready for international football.
Beyond Mile Sterjovski, I agree with Jesse Fink’s point on Friday that striking options from the A-League pool “have virtually zero chance of making the final 23-man squad for the World Cup”.
The backup option for Verbeek then will most likely be playing Kewell out of position as a sole striker.
GOALKEEPERS
The return of Brad Jones and Adam Federici to this week’s Socceroos squad highlights Verbeek’s indecisiveness on the backup goalkeeper position.
No one, other then Adelaide United’s Eugene Galekovic, has had the chance to show their wares.
Still, if incumbent goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer picks up an injury before the World Cup, who would be comfortable with any of the players who’ve made squads over the last few years standing in goal in a high pressure World Cup game?
CENTREBACKS
I believe this is the position which will decide who are successful at next year’s World Cup. Not because I think it will be a defensive tournament, but for the exact opposite reason.
The UEFA Champions League is where the most tactically advanced football is being played and there is a clear trend being played in Europe – sides are playing one man up front.
This is becoming prevalent in international football, as well, and will feature predominantly at the business end of the tournament.
When a flat four comes up against a lone-forward, one centre-back is freed up, and while the other covers the sole striker, the other is freed.
What do you do with this free man?
While defensive forwards have been all the rage recently, I think attacking defenders are the next development.
The seething brain of tactical knowledge that is Jonathon Wilson wrote in the latest edition of Champions magazine that the libero could be about to return.
Remember Gerard Pique’s marauding runs for Barcelona last season? I saw a similar move from William Gallas lead to the opener for Arsenal against Brett Holman’s AZ Alkmaar at the Emirates on Wednesday night.
Even Juventus’ clumsy centre-back Giorgio Chiellini was continuously pushing on to great effect against Atalanta on Saturday.
Lucas Neill is capable to a point of playing this role (look up the goal Neill set up for Louis Saha in Everton’s debut) but beyond him who can? I remember with pleasure Matthew Spiranovic’s run from defence that finished with a shot on goal during the Beijing Olympics.
But few others have shown that ability.
So my fear, especially if Neill gets injured or suspended, is that Australia will miss out on utilising this potential advantage in South Africa.
The Socceroos’ squad depth looks fragile and there are few places on the pitch where quality injury cover will be easy to find. Verbeek is continuing to experiment with his squad, but time is about to run out.
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(55)
Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 5:54am | Report comment
“despite, according to FourFourTwo, the English having four of the twelve best players in the world compared with Brazil’s one” – Well Davidde it would be interesting to see which Brazilian’s you put above Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard? Robinho? Kaka? Ronaldinho? All threeare excellent on their day but the three englishmen are better on a consistent basis and Rooney, will not as mesmerising as C. Ronaldo or Messi has just about every quality you could want in a player.
Terry and Ferdinand are certainly better than any central defenders Brazil has or maybe has ever had.
Art Sapphire said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:23am | Report comment
Freud – your anglophilia is getting the better of you.
Carlos Alberto >> Ferdinand and Terry.
Captain of Brazil 70. Scorer of the greatest team goal in football history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HrjevD2vhk&feature=related
Rio and John score a goal like that only in their dreams.
Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:43am | Report comment
Art, I said “maybe”. Brazil are hardly known for their defensive prowess, they’ve long played by the motto,if you score 4, we score 5 and had defenders who were more-or-less auxiliary wingers.
Art Sapphire said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:58am | Report comment
That was during the days of jogo “bonito”. They won the WC in 1994 by ditching “jogo bonito” and taking the modern pragmatic approach.
Robbos said | November 11th 2009 @ 10:09am | Report comment
Freud, this was pre 1986. The Brazil side of 1994, 98 & 2002 were not remembered as the free flowing sides of the 60s & the 70s. While they still had great individual players, they had the steel with the likes of Dunga & Giberto Silva lately.
By 1992, Brazil had not won the world cup in 22 years despite having the players of the calibre of Zico, Socartes, Falcoa, Eder & many more. Brazil realised that they could no longer just score more than goals than the others.
There was a reason why Real Madrid brought Kaka before Gerrard or Lampard & it nothing to do with affordability.
Rob said | November 11th 2009 @ 11:47am | Report comment
Let’s not forget Brazil’s current captain, Lucio, who is an excellent defender, and I would argue, the equal of Ferdinand and Terry, but perhaps better, given his excellent technique.
Art Sapphire said | November 11th 2009 @ 12:42pm | Report comment
Also, lets not forget Dani Alves and Maicon as the full backs.
You won’t get a better pair in world football.
Freud of Football said | November 12th 2009 @ 8:45am | Report comment
Ferdinand is far better technically than Lucio and mentally, both the english players are far better. Lucio is one of the better defenders Brazil have had in recent memory (I don’t count the fullbacks) but England have always produced good centre-halfs the same as Brazil has always produced fine attacking-midfielders.
Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 6:01pm | Report comment
And let’s not forget the press complained constantly about the Europeanisation of their football team. They would have prefered to lose than play boring, defensive football.
Davidde Corran said | November 11th 2009 @ 10:53pm | Report comment
I love Rooney as a footballer. I cant stand his type of petulance but I love his commitment and work ethic which is coupled with such ability. He is the most important player for any team in England. I got to see him play in the flesh for the first time last week and you can see what he’s all about. That said I feel he’s a fair way off C.Ronaldo in terms of creativity and quality.
However I couldn’t disagree more with your comment about Terry and Ferdinand. Firstly I wouldn’t make such a comment as I’ve probably seen less then 1% of all the Brazilian defenders that have played at a high level – making such a comparison impossible. However Rio’s form over the last 18 months has been poor to awful. I would take Lucio over him in a heartbeat. Terry is quite a decent defender but how easily he sold himself to Valencia in the first half on Sunday, by squaring up his positioning and allowing Valencia to fly past him, (Valencia should have been awarded a penalty) was an example of his fallibility. He’s a quality defender on most days but he really isn’t much better then most other defenders playing at the top level in Europe. Terry being the best defender in the world is a myth perpetuated by those who mainly watch English football.
Freud of Football said | November 12th 2009 @ 8:55am | Report comment
Davidde, a fairly accurate reflection on Rooney I’d have to say, watching him live is amazing, his work-rate etc that you don’t see on the camera is just incredibly and I think Terry isn’t necessarily so highly rated for his defensive skills, that is just a part of it, it is his leadership, he’s the kind of guy you’d want leading you into battle and I think it’s this aspect that makes the myth.
As for Lucio, I have seen a lot of him at Bayern and while he is a good defender and good on the ball he isn’t as good as Ferdinand whom I think you’ve been particularly harsh on. Remember he has been playing with back injuries for the past 12 months and his form has only really dropped off in 2009 (admittedly, quite spectactularly), for the entirety of 2008 Ferdinand and Vidic were the undisputed best central pairing in world football.
I have seen a bit of Italian football (although I’m sure your knowledge in that area would dwarf mind) but I couldn’t come up with a better individual defender there either, in the most defensive league in the world. Serie A relies far more on team tactics than individual feats and Spain is hardly renowned for top defenders while Germany has fallen too far behind the pack to have any serious contenders.
I fail to see a real contender to the crown, particularly amongst the Brazilian ranks.
SImone` said | November 12th 2009 @ 12:48pm | Report comment
Serious dude, Chiellini, Lucio, Nesta, Cannavaro, Silva, would be better or just as good center backs, not even mentioning the full backs such as Maicon, Grosso etc… You have to stop watching only EPL and then commenting on ‘best in the world’, typical anglo comments.
On a side note I’d rate Vidic (last season) as better than Terry and Ferdinand.
Freud of Football said | November 12th 2009 @ 4:19pm | Report comment
“serious dude”, i do watch enough Serie A to make a judgement and I would still rate the current english defenders as better, sure in the past Italy have had some excellent backs (while I’m only really talking central players) but currently they don’t, Lucio I already mentioned before, Chiellini has done nothing in football yet but has the talent and Nesta & Cannavaro are at the end of the road.
SImone` said | November 13th 2009 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Each to thier own I guess… They may be at the ‘end of the road’, but if you have watched thier form this season they are still 2 of the top defenders going around. The English defenders you mentioned are also coming along in thier career, so it’s not really a valid point, just because they old they are finished.
Robbos said | November 13th 2009 @ 9:00am | Report comment
That’s a great point Vidic is far better than Terry & Ferdinand (on current form).
Terry is a great leader, but doesn’t have the techinque, I rate Carvello better than Terry at Chelsea.
I agree Ferdinand is up there with the likes of Vidic (though on current form Vidic better), Lucio, & Nesta.
For me Cannavro circa 06 was the best defender in the world we had seen for awhile, but in the Real Madrid years, not so good.
Midfielder said | November 11th 2009 @ 8:27am | Report comment
Matthew Spiranovic’s on the outter with his coach… but he is the an excellent playerneeds to find a new club… Jedi I think can also play a central defense role…
I think our squad will be stronger in the future but we appear to lack those one two or three real world class players… Harry, & Dukes … especially Harry were among the best in the world at their best. Harry rated as one of the top five left sided players in the world when he was at Leeds…Dukes had something about him that draw defenders and created space for others…
We don’t appear to have replacements for our top players…
Pippinu said | November 11th 2009 @ 8:34am | Report comment
Jedi in central defense? C’mon Mid – this isn’t CCM in the A-League we’re discussing!!
Midfielder said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:47am | Report comment
Pip
I think that is his more natural position and in time he will move back in his club team as well I think…
Midfielder said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:50am | Report comment
Besides I am feeling in a good mood and I don’t feel guilty about it… don’t know if was on this forum but I was looking for a English word to describe … at the joy and happiness you feel at watching someone else’s pain and misery” … no English word but found a Germany and Chinese word for this feeling…
Well I had one this morning… and I feel happy…
Art Sapphire said | November 11th 2009 @ 10:04am | Report comment
Schadenfreude – the feeling we will have when MV travel up to Gosford and take the 3 ponts
Robbos said | November 11th 2009 @ 10:13am | Report comment
Art, I think CCM has your measure this year.
AGO74 said | November 11th 2009 @ 8:48am | Report comment
I’d love to see Harry given a run at striker this week. His form in Turkey is brilliant with 7 goals so far this season. I believe he is playing as a striker (though I may be wrong) most of the time for Gala. With respect to Bruce who has not played or Brosque who is playing great at Sydney but barely scoring he is surely the best option (good to see an A-League player get recognised by the way). Watching Harry over the last couple of years, he just doesn’t have that turn of speed anymore which made him so dangerous but is still skillful enough with the ball to make things happen. If he goes well, he could provide a real alternative to Kennedy. It’s funny with Josh Kennedy – when he plays well for us he was on the outer at club level in Germany but since he moved to Japan and has been first choice there his last couple of games for us have been amongst his poorest in green and gold.
Midfielder said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:52am | Report comment
Has he the body to take the hits a striker gets… is my only concerns..
Viscount Crouchback said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:03am | Report comment
England’s record against Brazil is pretty good.
Rob said | November 11th 2009 @ 11:49am | Report comment
When was the last time England beat Brazil? And more importantly, when was the last time in a major tournament… I can’t think of any.
cbowden9000 said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
Danny Vukovic should be the 3rd choice keeper. He is by far the best keepr in the A-League and has international experience with the young roos and olyroos. He is still young and full of potential, so it would be great for him to tag along with the sqaud and get some experience.
Macs.football said | November 11th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Brazil to humble England, not sure about that. England have the better coach and the better players.
AGO74 said | November 11th 2009 @ 10:12am | Report comment
Next year in Sth Africa, let’s just hope that somebody or anybody knocks out England next year! I may put aside traditional sporting rival in cheering for NZ this saturday (see today’s other blog) but I will never go for England!! You saw how berzerk they went in ‘05 with the Ashes. Imagine how impossible they’d be if they won the World Cup.
Midfielder said | November 11th 2009 @ 11:36am | Report comment
I always have two teams I go for .. the Socceroos and the team playing England
Lmacca said | November 11th 2009 @ 11:51am | Report comment
——-Schwarzer
Wilkshire Neill Moore Chipperfield
—–Culina Valeri
Emerton Cahill Bresciano
——-Kewell
That’s my guess at what Verbeek will start with. I would like to see Wilkshire in at DM with Culina, and Williams given a start at RB. Carney might be better suited to the pace of the Oman team than Chippers too. I think Verbeek is looking for 1-0.
danny said | November 11th 2009 @ 12:32pm | Report comment
agree a lot with what you’ve put up. i too would like to see some minor changes but would agree that pim’s selections wouldn’t vary too far from that.
i would also like to see wilkshire in DM with culina, and williams at right back. i’d also swap cahill and kewell, give timmy a go at playing the lone striker role with kewell in the middle. maybe instead of carney in for chippers, i’d start with chippers and once he tires bring on lowry. the other alternative would be to have bresh playing as one of the DM’s (apparently he’s playing something similar for palermo these days) and perhaps vidosic on the wing.
dasilva said | November 11th 2009 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
I wouldn’t mind Wilkshire at DM for a couple of games to see how that works out.
However I would just put Culina as a right back instead of Rhys Williams.
After all he was voted the 2nd or 3rd best right back in the Eredivisie last season
Bresciano as a more advance controlling midfielder seems an interesting idea.
Bresciano seems to put on more work on his defensive game when I saw him play against Bahrain so that might be an option
What about the idea of Kewell as a deep lying playmaker (our Pirlo/Alonso) partnering Grella/Valeri.
I do remember Kewell playing some excellent through balls from deep in our Ireland match. He has experience as a centre back for Galatasaray so he may be able to put in the defensive work as well.
danny said | November 11th 2009 @ 12:52pm | Report comment
i think we need to harness kewell as a goal-scoring option, and the deeper he plays the less he can do that. i think he plays his best in the centre of the park, and he’s one of the few players we have with the skills to pass it around in the front third, so i think an advanced playmaker would be good. cahill, while less effective as a striker, doesn’t really have the ability to be a playmaker and this really contributes to our lack of fluidity in my opinion. if i were to pick my favourite 11 using pim’s formation, and allowing for a decent degree of experimentation, it would look something like:
————schwarzer
williams–neill–milligan–chippers
——wilkshire–bresciano
emerton—-kewell—-vidosic
————–cahill
but….. experimentation is not something pim’s particularly fond of.
Rob said | November 11th 2009 @ 1:29pm | Report comment
Danny,
Probably the only thing I would change here would be to perhaps put Carney in instead of Chippers, but then, i think Chippers is the more accomplished defender, so I’m probably not sure on that one either. I agree that Williams should be given a crack. He might be even more useful as a defensive mid, where he has been playing for Middlesborough, so you could swap Wilkshire and him around in that case. Williams can provide a bit of go-forward, which players like Culina don’t really seem to provide us.
vladimir said | November 11th 2009 @ 1:42pm | Report comment
vs oman
——————schwarzer
emerton-neill-moore-lowry
———-wilkshire-culina
bresciano–kewell–carney
————–cahill
maybe bring on bruce if we need to score or have the game wrapped up to see what he can do…
lowry is at lb as chippers is too slow and carney isn’t a good enough defender…
FIsher Price said | November 11th 2009 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
Let’s see if Lowry’s up to it shall we…
vladimir said | November 11th 2009 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
well they need someone more suitable there so they might as well try him…
AndyRoo said | November 11th 2009 @ 1:49pm | Report comment
I would love to see Kewell in Cahill’s position and Wilkshire in DCM for Valeri (Valeri isn’t playing club football so now is the time if ever)
vladimir said | November 11th 2009 @ 2:13pm | Report comment
valeri plays every week in serie b…
AndyRoo said | November 11th 2009 @ 2:21pm | Report comment
He is having a contract dispute with hs club and even though he is the captain hasn’t been in the match day squad for over a month.
vladimir said | November 12th 2009 @ 9:10am | Report comment
contrsct dispute? do you have any more information…
AndyRoo said | November 12th 2009 @ 9:24am | Report comment
It seems until he signs a new contract with his current club they aren’t going to play him. You can probably find more detials on 442 somewhere but it’s old news.
The end result is he hasn’t been playing lately.
md said | November 11th 2009 @ 1:54pm | Report comment
Davidde – Interesting point regarding the defenders. In addition to Lucas, Millsie, Ljubo and Colosimo are all pretty decent attacking defenders. You would expect that Millsie at least will be there.
The exclusion of Scotty Mac should not be too much of a surprise – although the term is no longer derigeur, all the dutch coaches look for an element of total football from their players. Scott is the least good at total-football amongst our top squad. He plays as a small forward in a big-n-small – or not at all. If we do play a big-n-small, he is down the pecking order of best options for the “small” behind people like Timmy, Bresc and Harry (who are also capable midfielders and can defend if needed – unlike Scotty) – possibly now Dario too.
Also, the 4231 is much more flexible than we give it credit for and it’s often overlooked that Pim’s preferred version of it utilises the fullbacks as wingbacks – so it’s not like everything is channeled through a static and crowed midfield. If the defenders defend high up the park, it becomes a 4-2-4 because everyone pushes on and plays short. When we break down the wing, it briefly becomes a 3-2-5. It’s not all that bad.
On the other hand, it is silly to over analyse at this stage: the most crucial thing that will happen to the Australian team between now and next June is that they will get a month in camp with each other. We all remember the changes Guus wrought to the Socceroos in that time. I suspect the same will occur here. The days of writing Pim off as one dimensional are long past. There will be a set plan for each of the teams in our group and then for the permutations of who we might face thereafter. If that means a change in formation or personnel, he will do it without question.
Cheers
md
FIsher Price said | November 11th 2009 @ 2:00pm | Report comment
“The days of writing Pim off as one dimensional are long past. There will be a set plan for each of the teams in our group and then for the permutations of who we might face thereafter. If that means a change in formation or personnel, he will do it without question.”
Not sure what leads you to that conclusion. Are you Verbeek’s agent?
md said | November 11th 2009 @ 2:34pm | Report comment
Yeah, you are right. The qualification campaign was a complete fluke and we were so lucky that nobody figured out our one dimensional style of play. Verbeek is pants isn’t he.
FIsher Price said | November 11th 2009 @ 3:55pm | Report comment
Pants? I fear so.
dasilva said | November 11th 2009 @ 2:48pm | Report comment
I think that’s a reasonable point
Our style of football under Guus wasn’t that great against Uruguay.
Lets face it if it was a boxing match. I would say Uruguay would have shaded on points over the two legs (we should have been at least two goals down after the first leg due to a penalty shout when Schwarzer tripped over recoba and the referee missed it. Uruguay had the better chances in extra time). We certainly didn’t play attractive football until the world cup after Guus had then in camp for a month.
I think the socceroos team at the world cup wouldn’t have needed extra time and penalties to beat Uruguay of 2005.
Pippinu said | November 11th 2009 @ 2:56pm | Report comment
It’s a good point (the value of a month together).
If you ever watch a replay of that Aust vs Uruguay game, you will be struck by how well Uruguay played in ET right up to the 120th, and how unlucky they were not to tie the game up (and thus avoid pens).
Davidde Corran said | November 11th 2009 @ 11:05pm | Report comment
Great point on Milligan. I hope he goes to South Africa. He’s as reliable as any of the other back-up options and he is the future of the Socceroos up back.
I agree entirely with you on the flexibility of 4-2-3-1. I actually love seeing that formation used by those with the ability to employ it successfully (think Liveprool with a spine of Alonso, Gerrard and Torres). Verbeek doesn’t like his full backs to bomb on continuously but when they go, they go hard. My gripe with the way Verbeek utilises it, and I’ve written about this before on here, is the way he employs his two holding midfielders. When one of them is allowed to push into the attack the Socceroos look much more convincing (think Netherlands last year, Ireland this year).
The other issue with the formation is we lack a player who can drift between the lines and exposes other formations. Kewell has some of that ability but I don’t think we get the best out of him when he’s pushed out wide.
I do, however, disagree about the pre-tournament camp changing things. Hiddink never had two years to work with the squad. That’s why he changed so much in such little time. Verbeek has had time to mold this squad and has failed to create an entirely cohesive unit. For this reason I doubt there will be any significant departures from the way the team is playing now.
md said | November 13th 2009 @ 10:34am | Report comment
I think ‘failed to create an entirely cohesive unit’ is precisely what will change with the camp. You are right to focus on the 2 ‘controlling midfielders’ though, getting that right is the key to the the cohesion issue. The main issues that make the team look a bit hot and cold are not rocket science – its tempo and decision making – for which controlling midfielders need to be the quarterbacks.
Its not really stuff you can get right in pre-match camps. 4 weeks though is plenty of time to fix it and we will look like a different team – or more accurately we will look like we do when we play well, just a lot more often.
David said | November 11th 2009 @ 3:00pm | Report comment
Am i the only person who thinks J.Kenndy is no good?? he plays inthe J-league big woop! he stuggled in Germany and no offence does nothin for our field play besides his height advantage i reckon he offers nothing to our national team his like a crap version of Peter Crouch.
At least McDonald can hold but the defence like he did against ROI setting up Cahill
Id rather see Vidoic up front at least his skillful, can shoot and take free kicks.
If not Kewell should be our up front man his still got some pace and his by far the most skillful playerin the squade
Anyone who thinks Strjovski, Archie, Thompson or any A-league play for matter of fact should be our stricker god help us.
i got nothing against the HAL i follow it but anyone who knows anything about football can see the players get way to much space and the game is way to slow.
U put any HAL striker in there they will gt torn apart from not being quick enough in the WC.
We are a weaker side compared to 2006 but in 2006 we has a hard group followed but the eventual winners italy if fortune favors us will get NZ (if they qualify) and a out of form team like france or Protugal will top the group play a weak Asian or African team and make it to the final 8 im parying this happens but who knows
Pippinu said | November 11th 2009 @ 3:10pm | Report comment
I wouldn’t say he offers nothing – you could argue it’s limited.
But Scotty isn’t the complete package either – this is our dilemma – we’ve known it and seen it coming for at least 18 months.
Freud of Football said | November 11th 2009 @ 6:05pm | Report comment
Kennedy is good enough, he did well in Germany, scored enough goals but was playing for a crap team who, even when he was scoring, wasn’t giving him chances and McDonald has a lot of talent, just seems to go missing on the big stage.
Perhaps Verbeek should schedule a friendly against Samoa and let McDonald open his account, then the flood gates may open.
SImone` said | November 12th 2009 @ 12:41pm | Report comment
I concur whole – heartedly… J.Kennedy is no good, unless he sits at the penalty spot and we just cross long balls to his head all day. Offers nothing else. HAL players also shouldn’t make the cut, Scotty Mac scored against United last season and I believe AC? recently, players from big clubs like this we will come up against in the WC. Who cares if he can’t score agains Oman…
Julio said | November 13th 2009 @ 4:55pm | Report comment
only a delusional English paper obsessed with the EPL would ever put 4 of theirs as the best in the world
this is by far the most ridiculous thing i have ever head. EPL is good but sorry England isn’t its simply a fact. Countries like brazil have far more talent that is hidden from the media spot light of europe. I hope Brazil thrash England to prove how wrong these assertions are.