Quick Throw: Gerrard Out Three Weeks

A Liverpool spokesman confirmed this morning that Steven Gerrard will miss "about three weeks" of action due to a torn hamstring. The Big Fella's been ruled out for international duty next Wednesday against Spain in Seville, but not the Champions' League match with Real Madrid on February 25-- precisely three weeks to the day he sustained the injury.

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How Do You Say "Boo Hoo" in German?

Sorry Germany, you won't be seeing this facial hair/jersey combo again any time soon.

As if the Cole saga and the Kris Boyd moaning weren't enough, it appears that Poor/Afflicted Footballer Syndrome has reached the mainland, and in particular, the German national team.

Kevin Kuranyi, the prolific 26-year-old Bundesliga striker (84 goals in 202 games is decent, right?), was a little disgruntled about being omitted from the 18-man squad for the World Cup qualifier against Russia over the weekend, so much so that he upped and left at half-time.

The end result? Manager Joachim Low doesn't want him back as long as he's in charge.



Here's hoping young Kevin feels good about his decision in the long-term. He didn't get picked for one game, and now he's out of the running for any future Germany games? Sure, it's predicated upon Low being in charge, but do you think any future coach is going to feel enamored to pick this malcontent?

Reports suggested that Kuranyi was about to retire from international duty shortly, but it's the classic "You can't quit... you're fired!" routine as Low beat him to the punch:

"As a coach, you have got to make decisions like this and you expect that some are hurt or disappointed, but that is my job and the players have got to accept it. It would have been advisable for him to come and talk to me or one of my colleagues. But none of us knew what had happened - we just sat on the bus and waited for him. I am disappointed with the way he acted. I can understand his disappointment, but he should not overreact - that is not right."

Kuranyi's having a tough season, but it doesn't excuse such petulant behavior. Germany are having a difficult time finding strikers who can score goals (something I thought England were struggling with, although not recently!), but he would have had another turn sooner or later. Klose couldn't score a goal if the posts were a mile apart, so it was merely a matter of time until the Wheel of Fortune landed on him again.

And yet, it wasn't enough for ol' Kevin, and now he's going to have plenty of spare time not helping his country to win their first significant tournament since 1996.

So, another sob story invades the news landscape. Who's next: Karim Benzema? Someone Portuguese? Antonio Cassano pulling a gun on Marcelo Lippi?

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Croatia v. England thread, and Scotland too

I know there's a open thread from earlier today, but let's face it, I'm far too lazy to use it. Plus I'd love a few precious lines here to opine about my country's chances.

Simply put, we don't have any tonight. None that I can see. This team is rather shambolic, and the overwhelming weight of history is on Croatia's side -- something about being close to unbeaten at home, Bilic's track record as manager, etc etc etc. That and we can't even score goals against part-timers.

That being said, I'll still blindly cheer for this lifeless collection of primadonnas, beginning in about 5 minutes when everything kicks off. Teams after the jump. Considering that I'm at work, a liveblog looks unlikely, but should my boss disappear early, I'll jump in for the 2nd half.

Oh, and sporadic updates from the other matches too. Can Finland shake ze Germans in the 2nd half? Currently 3-2 there to the Finns with half an hour remaining. Scotland just took the lead in Iceland through Kirk "Useless" Broadfoot, and the Republic of Ireland just walked off with a 0-0 home draw to Montenegro.

Lord, give me strength. I fear the Three Lions will get mauled in this one. 3-1 Croats is my pick, but of course if we win I'll disavow any knowledge of that prediction.

I'll look out for the Scots in this one too.


Croatia:
Pletikosa, Simunic, Robert Kovac, Corluka, Pranjic, Rakitic, Petric, Nico Kovac, Srna, Modric, Olic.

Subs: Runje, Krizanac, Mandzukic, Pokrivac, Knezevic, Leko, Klasnic.

England:
James, Brown, Terry, Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Walcott, Lampard, Barry, Joe Cole, Rooney, Heskey.

Subs: Robinson, Johnson, Beckham, Downing, Defoe, Upson, Jenas.

Meanwhile, in Iceland:
Iceland:
Sturluson, Birkir Mar Saevarsson, Eiriksson, Kristjan Orn Sigurdsson, Gunnarsson, Steinsson, Hreidarsson, Gislason, Gudjohnsen, Helguson, Hallfredsson.

Subs: Torgeirsson, Indridi Sigurdsson, Ragnar Sigurdsson, Palmason, Gunnarson, Thordarson, Thorvaldsson.

Scotland:
Gordon, Broadfoot, Naysmith, McManus, Caldwell, Brown, Darren Fletcher, Maloney, McFadden, Robson, Commons.

Subs: McGregor, Alexander, Miller, Boyd, Hartley, Steven Fletcher, Berra.

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Essien lost for season while on international duty

Way back on Saturday, we put up an open thread for comments on that day's World Cup qualifiers. It took all of two comments for kopper to come in and opine that the games are scary for fans of the clubs who employ the players. All I can say is, it would have been ironic if it were our own Autoglass instead.

You see, Autoglass is our resident Chelsea supporter, and that team lost the Shirley Jackson-esque lottery as to who suffers the worst injury while its players are on international duty. The player lost? Michael Essien.

Essien tore his ACL while on duty for Ghana this weekend. According to the BBC, this is an injury which is very similar to the one Michael Owen picked up at the four-minute mark of the 2006 World Cup. That injury sidelined Owen for 10 months. It is theorized, before surgery even takes place, that Essien is out for the season for Chelsea.

Chelsea will be fine. Even if the early months are a struggle, they will buy somone on January 1st to cover the losses. Heck, Branislav Ivanovic, a mainstay for my FMLive team, may even see the pitch.

The real losers here are Ghana. Not only did they lose Essien, but they lost the match to Libya as well, 1-0. The loss drops them to 3rd lace in their 4 team group with one match to play in first round qualifying. Luckily, they have doormats Lesotho in the final game of the group, while Libya and Gabon tackle each other. Ghana will only need a high second place finish to go through. They should get that, and own the tiebreaker over Libya, should it come to that.

However, Ghana cannot afford the same type of missteps in the next round, should they advance. And given that they will be without an influential bulldog of a midfielder, one can see how difficult it will be for the team that sealed the USA's fate in 2006 to make the field for 2010.

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