Posts Tagged ‘2010 Qualification’
Gary Cahill called up as Rio Ferdinand pulls out of England squad
• Manchester United defender fails to recover from calf injury
• Replaced in squad to visit Kazakhstan by Bolton’s Cahill
Defender Rio Ferdinand has pulled out of England’s squad to face Kazakhstan in Saturday’s World Cup qualifier having failed to overcome his troublesome calf injury. Ferdinand, who was suffering from the complaint before Manchester United’s Champions League final, has been replaced by Bolton’s Gary Cahill.
Ferdinand will definitely miss the trip to Almaty but could return for the clash against Andorra next week after the problem is assessed. In the meantime, with Phil Jagielka sidelined, Fabio Capello turned to Cahill after the 23-year-old’s impressive season with Bolton.
“I was at home and I got a phone call from the FA saying that they wanted me in the squad,” Cahill said. “I’ve had to get a few tools together – the boots and the shin pads – and now I am really looking forward to the opportunity. I’ve had a good season and I’ve worked really hard. I’ve been in the provisional squad twice before and then this third time I was included once again, so I’m obviously delighted to get the call.”
Tottenham captain Ledley King, whose call-up in March caused controversy as he cannot play matches in quick succession because of a chronic knee problem, would have been another option but he could only have played in one of the two qualifiers.
Cahill now joins Matthew Upson and Joleon Lescott as the players competing for a place alongside skipper John Terry at centre-back for the clash against Kazakhstan. The rest of Capello’s squad have trained today, including Chelsea full-back Ashley Cole, who sat out yesterday after taking a kick during the FA Cup final at the weekend.
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Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole miss England training as a precaution ahead of Kazakhstan game
• Both expected to train later this week ahead of Almaty trip
• Fabio Capello oversees training at Arsenal’s London Colney
The England defenders Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole missed training today as a precaution ahead of the side’s trip to Kazakhstan for their World Cup qualifier.
The left-back, Cole, took a kick during Chelsea’s FA Cup final win at Wembley over Everton, while Ferdinand rested a problem he had before Manchester United’s Champions League final defeat to Barcelona.
They are both expected to train either tomorrow or later in the week in preparation for the game in Almaty on Saturday, followed by the home match against Andorra on 10 June.
The England manager, Fabio Capello, watched all his other squad members training at Arsenal’s facilities at London Colney, with James Milner joining the squad to replace the Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick.
David Beckham, Frank Lampard, the captain John Terry and Joleon Lescott, who all played at the weekend, trained separately from the rest to the squad.
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Football: Michael Carrick is ruled out of the England squad because of a foot injury
• James Milner called into squad as replacement
• Cole pledges to silence England boo-boys
Michael Carrick has withdrawn from the England squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Andorra with a foot injury. The Manchester United midfielder reported to the England team hotel last night and was assessed by the side’s medical staff before being released for treatment. James Milner, a member of the Under-21 squad for this month’s European Championships in Sweden, has been called up as a replacement.
Ashley Cole, meanwhile, intends to replicate his Chelsea form on the international stage to try to win over those England fans who have barracked him at Wembley. The full-back, who became the first player since the 1890s to claim a fifth FA Cup winners’ medal on Saturday, has benefited this season from being pain-free in his ankle after carrying an injury first suffered while at Arsenal during his first two campaigns at Stamford Bridge. A mistake against the Kazakhs last October led to the visitors’ goal in England’s 5–1 win, prompting a section of the home support to boo Cole’s every touch thereafter.
Events off the pitch have also harmed his reputation but Cole is confident he can win over the doubters. “Everyone knows it wasn’t about football, so there is nothing I could do,” he said.
“I feel like I am enjoying my football the most I have for a while, and if I play well then I will change people’s minds. It’s life, isn’t it? I don’t think I was the worst player on the pitch in that match, but there you go. I hope it turns now. I will get on with it and, hopefully I will change a few minds.I just want to win things, and to win something with England.
If I score the winning goal for England at the World Cup maybe they will like me again. There are times when you don’t like playing football, just as you wouldn’t like any job, and there were certainly times when I didn’t enjoy it. But I feel fit now. This is the best I’ve felt, at Chelsea and at Arsenal.I have played in the Premier League with a smile on my face, and I hope to do that too with England.”
Cole underwent surgery to repair the ankle injury and, over the course of this campaign, he has steadily regained his best form. “I’ve got two ankles I can run on, that’s the reason I’m playing well,” added the full-back. “I can run up and down again and I can kick the ball again. That’s the difference.
When I first came to Chelsea I couldn’t kick the ball and it was pointless me playing really. But I tried to play through the pain for the manager who bought me [Josée Mourinho].
The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, has approved the deal for exclusively English football teams to represent Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympics. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland gave Fifa their agreement to take no part in the Olympics and for England to make up Team GB. The way is now clear for the British Olympic Association to announce that England will represent Team GB in the men’s and women’s tournaments.
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Fabio Capello is keeping cool despite England’s perfect start
• ‘We are in a very good position,’ declares Italian
• ‘At set-pieces Beckham is one of the best in the world’
Fabio Capello is refusing to get carried away by England’s perfect start to their World Cup qualifying campaign but had words of high praise for David Beckham.
England registered their fifth consecutive win by beating Ukraine at Wembley on Wednesday and now have a five-point advantage over both Ukraine and Croatia in their World Cup qualifying group. Barring a calamitous run, it is difficult to see England failing to reach next summer’s finals in South Africa. However, Capello is keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground.
“We are in a very good position,” he admitted. “It is the best position because we have five victories from five matches. We still have to play half our games but I understand the situation.”
If England do make it through, Beckham can count on being among the 23-strong party. Beckham celebrates his 34th birthday next month but he remains a pivotal figure and Capello was quick to laud the midfielder’s contribution in midweek, when he provided the free-kick from which Steven Gerrard set up John Terry’s late winner. “At corners, free-kicks and crosses, Beckham is very important,” observed Capello. “He is still one of the best in the world.”
Capello must now sit back and watch the club game take centre stage again as the season reaches its climax. Players from Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United, plus Arsenal’s Theo Walcott, are all at risk of joining up for the next qualifier in Kazakhstan on 6 June on the back of a draining week that starts with the last round of Premier League fixtures and also includes the Champions League and FA Cup finals.
Yet Capello is acutely aware his planning for a game at such a late stage of the campaign could be hampered as clubs want players either to rest or have much-needed surgery so they are back again for the new season. Nevertheless, the Italian is hoping for a repeat of last season’s all-English showdown when Europe’s greatest club prize is handed out in Rome on 27 May.
“I hope the Champions League final will be between two English teams,” he said. “Afterwards I hope the best players will be with me for the preparation for these two games. At this moment I do not know which players will play. I will wait for the Champions League final and then select the best ones who are fit.”
Given the diligent manner in which Capello approaches his job, he will have a strategy in place long before then. It is a dilemma Capello tried to avoid when the fixtures were thrashed out at a meeting in Zagreb just after his appointment to succeed Steve McClaren. So far, it is just about the only area in which he has met with failure.
“Fifa decided the dates we could play, which created a problem for us,” said the Italian. “It was impossible to play Kazakhstan before then because of the snow and when we were arranging the fixtures we asked Andorra if we could play them during February but they refused.”
