Team US gets rogered in the rear by England

Alright folks, open thread time. Ian hinted at it in a comments section, so consider this the pro-active next step!

The game last night was like a David Mamet film: flashes of brilliance amid a sea of boredom. Capello confounded the world by picking the same old England team. My email to someone this morning: Capello was supposed to be the wind of change, but instead, he's just blowing David Beckham.

The idea of putting a relatively unchanged side out, with 18 kiddies on the bench who saw maybe 90 minutes between the lot of them, was ridiculous, but at least we won! Capello will have learned little from the squad's performance, aside from a few obvious home truths, but let's hope the young'uns get a chance against T&T next week.

As for the US, no Landycakes, and the inclusion of Josh Wolff was just baffling.

Video highlights are after the jump, but use the comments to wax lyrical about how crap the USMNT really was. I do rate Bradley and Dempsey, and at least Ricardo Clark had the balls to make a few strong tackles, but that was it really.

Also a fun stat of note: between the two XIs and benches named, only 5 MLS players. Both teams started 1 MLS player a piece, and the US had 3 on the bench, 2 of whom will likely leave in the summer.

Have at it, folks!

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Beckham's PR Machine doesn't come with a "Match Fitness" setting

Don't cry for me, Argentina-beater...
[Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk]

Fabio Capello, in an unprecedented display of balls [other than the ones Mark Roberts regularly puts on show], is leaning towards omitting Beckham from his much-publicized first England squad for the friendly against Switzerland.

They might have shared a buddy-buddy history since their days together at Real Madrid, but Capello's not sold on the dog-and-pony show this time around.

The big question in Capello's eyes is Beckham's fitness; not only does he play in the MLS, but their season ended ages ago and a couple of photo ops thinly disguised as "training sessions" with Arsenal don't exactly pass for match fitness these days, and nor should they!

Beckham spends far too much time talking, and not nearly enough time doing. As I noted in the Point/Counterpoint on this sticky subject, Beckham's past it, and he isn't going to get better. I struggle to recall the last time he played a meaningful, influential full 90 minute game, and I'm sure that given his limited intellect, he'd be hard pushed to recall it too.

It's a drop in the bucket when you put it into context, but I give Capello some minor kudos for this course of action if it pans out [Fabio plans to meet with Becks next week to hear it for himself].

In the past, evidence of Beckham being able to walk in a straight line for 10 steps was normally enough to get him named to an England squad, so this is a refreshing change. Capello's been telling Brooking and Barwick at the FA that they won't have any influence over his squad selection, and this is the biggest indication of that to date.

Beckham can still take free kicks, but that's about it. Hopefully if Capello's going to give him the 100th cap any time soon, it'll be earned on merit and fitness instead of his smooth PR campaigns.

PS. Hirshey -- what does this say about Arsenal's training sessions?

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