New England manager Sam Allardyce has decided to grant Michail Antonio his first invitation to play for the Three Lions.
The uncapped player has started this campaign well, scoring his second of the term in the game against Manchester City. The qualifiers poised for the international break would be a good opportunity for him to earn his first cap for England.
Red Devils player Luke Shaw will be in action when England meet Slovakia on September 4 in the World Cup qualifier. This makes for another surprise from Allardyce since Shaw was yet to play for the three Lions since breaking his leg in the last campaign. Man City’s Joe Hart has been invited to stay in goal despite his problems at the Etihad.
After missing out of the Euro 2016, Arsenal forward Theo Walcott and Leicester City’s Danny Drinkwater have been recalled to the team. The surprises include Jack Wilshere and Ross Barkley. Both players have been ignored, but Everton’s Phil Jagielka received a call to serve.
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The United States national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann has set a lofty target of reaching the semifinals at the World Cup 2018.
The US has steadily shown improvement under the regime of the German. Part of the success has been bringing several players of German nationality – who are also eligible for the US citizenship – into the national team and this has increased the quality quite tremendously. In terms of its World Cup history, the US national team has been on the rise since it hosted its very first World Cup in 1990. Since then, they have qualified for every
World Cup and the tradition is expected to continue for the World Cup 2018 as well.
After having reached the round of 16 in the last two editions, the natural progression for the US national team would be to reach the quarter-finals. Klinsmann, though, has set an ambitious target of reaching the semifinals at this major tournament. It has been speculated for a long time that teams outside the traditional favourites list could go on and win the World Cup at some point in the future. Klinsmann managed to win the Confederations Cup at the first instance in 2013. He will be hoping to use this experience and guide the national team to achieving this lofty target in Russia.
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Wales manager Chris Coleman has stated that he will retire after the 2018 World Cup campaign.
The manager has enjoyed unprecedented success with Wales at the Euros where he has brought them to the semi-final, and he said that would continue until the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
Chris Coleman stated that he would be ending his Wales management career at the end of the campaign whether Wales make it through to the finals or not. He believes that he has been a manager for quite some time now and that it is time to take a break from the Wales national side.
He said that there is talent in the Wales side and that the team is still young. He stated that he would give his best in the World Cup qualifiers so as to help the team make it to Russia. Wales will be starting their World Cup qualifier on the 5th of September and will be facing Moldova.
Chris Coleman said that it is a pleasure for him to manage Wales and that he wants to go to the end of his contract. He stated that he does not want to take advantage of Wales success and use it as a stepping stone to get another contract elsewhere. He stated that he would finish what he has started in Wales and hopes that he can take the team to Russia.
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Brazil manager Dunga claims that he is not interested in proving others that they were wrong in making a judgement call about his abilities as the national team manager.
Instead, he is fully concentrating on winning football matches and ultimately qualifying for the World Cup 2018 in Russia. Brazil are struggling to even come close to the final qualification spot. The South American qualification group for the World Cup is one of the toughest around the world. However, teams like Brazil and Argentina have always dominated the competition. Hence, it is a surprise to see both teams struggling to make an impact whatsoever.
Argentina have slightly fared better after managing three consecutive victories. It has lifted them into the third spot while Brazil are languishing in the sixth spot after having managed only two victories from the opening six matches. Hence, there is real pressure on Brazil in order to start delivering results and more so on manager Dunga. After having not achieve much since taking over from Luis Felipe Scolari after a disappointing World Cup 2014, Dunga is now back in the spotlight. The manager has targeted a win from the friendly against Panama before the start of the Copa America. Read more »
The United States played a crucial encounter against Guatemala. If the US had lost, that would have been a possible end to their World Cup 2018 hopes.
The Yanks defeated their counterparts, the inexperienced Guatemala with a whopping four goals to nothing. The victory was a rather convincing one for the United States.
In the opening minutes of the encounter, both teams tried to outdo one another. This continued until Dempsey’s goal in the 12th minute. A cross came from Gyasi Zardes into the box but wasn’t cleared out in time by the Guatemala team, Dempsey got the ball and fired it past the goal keeper.
The United States continued with the attacks and dominated the game even after the initial goal. The sustained attacks led to the second goal from Cameron in the 35th minute. Michael Bradley sent a free kick for Geoff Cameron to nod it past Motta, the goal keeper for Guatemala. The fist half ended with the two goals lead for the United States.
After the break, with less than a minute played, a re-invigorated US squad scored the third goal. Yedlin led the attack before passing unto Gyasi zardes. Zardes manged to pass the ball to Graham Zusi who buried the Guatemala team. The match progressed rather quickly until few minutes to the match end when Jose Altidore scored the fourth goal. Read more »
A few days ago it was announced that Kenwyne Jones had left Cardiff City as he joined Al-Jazira on a deal which lasts until the end of the current season but much more players of the English club are expected to be on their way out of the club after failing to impress.
Federico Machedaand Alex Revell are the players who are rumored to be offloaded from Cardiff City as they do not play a very important role in the team and the club is prepared to sell them in order to make way for new players.
Macheda is a product from the youth system of Manchester United and he joined Cardiff City on a free transfer back in May of 2014 but he has struggled making an impact in the team with injuries that have kept him in the sidelines unable to play with the rest of his teammates and even when he is fit, his goal-scoring ratio isn’t very impressive with a total of 8 goals in 28 appearances for Cardiff City and it’s believed that the club has lost their patience with the young attacker.
The goal-scoring output of Alex Revell has been even more disappointing as the 32 year old English attacker has only been able to find the back of the net on 2 occasions in 28 appearances which are even lower than his teammate FederichoMacheda. Read more »
September 22, 2016 8:58 am | 