Reflections on the England - Mexico friendly

3 - 1 flattered England for a while but was fully deserved in the end as Mexico faded in the second half.

Playing against a side which is comfortable in possession and capable of breaking at speed is valuable preparation for any tournament.

Gerrard is better in the centre than out on the wing. Rooney also prefers him in this position.

Glen Johnson would make an excellent midfielder. Strong in the tackle, he's also not afraid to run at defenders. What a goal!

If World Cups were won by 'impact players', England could book the homecoming parade today.

Although not at his best in an unfamiliar anchor role James Milner is on the plane to South Africa. Michael Carrick may be sweating about his squad place now.

Presuming both sides match each other's group stage record and win in the last 16, I'll take Mexico in the quarter finals right now.

Predictions for England - Mexico pre-World Cup friendly

Less than three weeks to go before World Cup 2010 starts and the friendlies are coming thick and fast. Here are my predictions for tonight’s game at Wembley.

England will put a 'really, really strong team' out, but, since none of the Chelsea contingent will be picked, we can be really, really sure the team will not be the best XI.

Rooney will operate as a lone striker supported by Gerrard for some part of the game.

The debate over the state of the Wembley pitch will continue when a mistimed tackle takes out half of Fabio Capello's coaching staff.

Jamie Carragher will be booed, whether he plays or not.

James Milner will cement his place in the first XI.

If selected, Glen Johnson will make a horrible defensive error.

There will be plenty of references to Man Utd’s new foreign signing.

There will be a Mexican Wave.

The clashes between Australia and New Zealand in Melbourne and Japan and South Korea in Saitama will be much more demanding. Watch out for some heartbreaking injuries as the tackles fly in.

Is the Wembley pitch a World Cup liability?

Over the next six weeks Wembley will host a rugby match, the FA Cup Final, play-off games and an England warm up friendly days before the squad fly to South Africa. Given the current state of the pitch, is this an accident waiting to happen?

USA World Cup game threatened by political turmoil

The crucial World Cup qualifying match between the USA and Honduras may be moved as tension grows in the Central American country.

Ousted president Manuel Zelaya recently returned to Tegucigalpa but immediately took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy, says the New York Times.

His replacement, Roberto Micheletti, has closed all Honduran airports and introduced curfews and roadblocks.

FIFA’s first option would probably be another Central American state. There is also the possibility of moving the game to a city in the United States while still considering it a home game and gate for Honduras. They apparently enjoyed wide support in Chicago in June when the two sides met.

FIFA and the United States Soccer Federation are now monitoring the situation. The game is scheduled to take place on October 10th.

With two qualifying matches remaining, the USA leads the six-team North, Central America and Caribbean group on 16 points. Mexico are second on 15, followed by Honduras on 13.

Problems mount up for new Costa Rica manager

Rene Simoes was recently appointed to turn Costa Rica’s fortunes around in the two remaining World Cup qualifiers.

But it seems the 56-year-old Brazilian is running into trouble already, according to the Los Angeles Times.

L.A. Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, one of the players Simoes took to the 1998 World Cup for Jamaica, is not optimistic about his old coach’s chances.

“It's not a very good time to come in for Rene Simoes; he has two difficult games coming up” [home against Trinidad and Tobago and away against the USA], Ricketts said.

“It's a very tight group, and for him to impose his style on the Costa Rica team will be very difficult.”

The answer, says Ricketts, may be the counter-attacking game favoured by Simoes.

“When he came to Jamaica for the '98 campaign, we were unbeaten at home,” he said.

“[Simoes] plays a very tight defensive game. Everyone is pulled in and you beat them on the break.”

Complicating the new coach’s situation even more is the attitude of Costa Rica's top clubs, some of whom are not pulling their weight.

“Simoes has asked to have two weeks with his players leading up to the final two qualifying games [in October], but two of the country's top club teams, Saprissa and Cartagines, are refusing to release their players for that long.”

Costa Rica is currently behind the USA, Mexico and Honduras in fourth place. Only the top three automatically qualify for South Africa. The fourth place finisher faces a tough two-game playoff against the fifth placed South American team.

Speculation about likely World Cup bases

A Reuters report out today about World Cup bases makes for interesting reading, not least because some of the teams mentioned haven’t yet qualified and may not even do so.

According to this report France, Sweden and Paraguay have set up coastal bases, despite the South Americans being the only one of the three to have secured qualification.

The French have apparently booked a facility on the southern Cape coast. Coach Raymond Domenech must be thinking the play offs are an inconvenient but easily surmountable barrier.

Other teams looking ahead include Sweden, who have booked in at Durban, and Argentina, Germany, Italy, Mexico and the USA, who have all booked hotels or guest lodges in Pretoria.

Japan and Switzerland are heading for Johannesburg. Japan have already qualified, but the Swiss may not make even make the play offs.

England will allegedly be based at Sun City, although Fabio Capello and his team will probably wait for the draw in December before deciding on the location of their base for the tournament.

Will Cameroon bring Roger Miller out of retirement?

Looking ahead to World Cup qualifiers in September

South America

The top 4 teams qualify for the World Cup. The 5th placed team enters a home-and-away playoff with the 4th placed team from the North, Central America & Caribbean group.

Brazil currently lead the group by one point from Chile (26), Paraguay (24) and Argentina (22).

The real surprises are the Chileans, who have managed to overcome the handicap of ex-Liverpool winger Mark Gonzalez to score 23 goals. We can expect to hear more about the trio which has contributed 13 so far - Alexis Sanchez, Humberto Suazo and Matias Fernandez - next year.

Expect a late surge from Argentina, who’ve been a bit inconsistent so far. They play Brazil and Paraguay in early September, while Chile take on Brazil in the second of their scheduled September games.

Forthcoming fixtures:

September 5th

Argentina - Brazil

Chile - Venezuela

Colombia - Ecuador

Paraguay - Bolivia

Peru - Uruguay


September 8th

Uruguay - Colombia

Venezuela - Peru

Paraguay - Argentina

Bolivia - Ecuador

Brazil - Chile

North, Central America and Caribbean

Three sides qualify directly for South Africa 2010 and the fourth-placed team takes on the fifth-placed finisher in South American qualifying.

This one looked almost done and dusted for Costa Rica until a recent heavy defeat in Honduras put their plans on hold. Now four teams are vying for the three automatic places: Costa Rica (12 pts), Honduras and USA (10) and Mexico (9).

The US has the easiest of the September fixtures, facing El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago in the space of four days. They should win both.

Costa Rica and Mexico also square up in early September. This and the US – Costa Rica clash in October are the remaining key games.

Forthcoming fixtures:

September 5th

USA - El Salvador

Honduras - Trinidad and Tobago

Costa Rica - Mexico


September 9th

Trinidad and Tobago - USA

El Salvador - Costa Rica

Mexico - Honduras

Africa

One team qualifies from each group.

Ghana and the Ivory Coast are looking good in their respective groups. If the latter beat Burkina Faso in early September they will be six points ahead with two games to play.

Cameroon clearly need to bring Roger Miller out of retirement. They have one point from two games and must now beat Group A leaders Gabon to stand any chance of going through.

Forthcoming fixtures:

September 5th

Group A

Gabon - Cameroon

Togo - Morocco

Group B

Mozambique - Kenya

Group C

Rwanda - Egypt

Group E

Malawi - Guinea

Ivory Coast - Burkina Faso


September 6th

Group B

Nigeria - Tunisia

Group C

Algeria - Zambia

Group D

Ghana - Sudan

Benin - Mali

September 9th

Group A

Cameroon - Gabon

Asian play-off

The winner plays New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania Inter-Continental Play-Off

September 5th

Bahrain - Saudi Arabia in Manama

September 9th

Saudi Arabia - Bahrain in Riyadh

Keep an eye out for the scores and results at World Cup Bafana Bafana 2010 from this Saturday.

Latest World Cup qualifying results

Spent some of last night ‘tweeting’ (2010bafbaf) goal news as it came in from around Europe. Discovered that if Croatia and Slovenia score around the same time, and one of the scorers has 17 letters in his name, you will run out of available space or 'characters' as Twitter fans call it. Lesson learned.

Europe

Group 3

Slovenia 5 San Marino 0

Group 4

Azerbaijan 0 Germany 2

Group 6

Belarus 1 Croatia 3

Group 7

Faroe Islands 0 France 1

Group 9

Norway 4 Scotland 0

North, Central America and Caribbean

Mexico 2 USA 1

Trinidad and Tobago 1 El Salvador 1

Honduras 4 Costa Rica 0

Costa Rica. What are you like?