I encourage people to read Pete Gill's piece on F365 (which is normally a bit anti-Arsenal):

He's really got a grasp of the issues at hand here.

OK, it's unfortunate that Eduardo got injured, and it's unfortunate that it was Martin Taylor, because I do believe he's a nice chap, and there's idiots like Roy Keane, Robbie Savage, Joey Barton, Steven Gerrard and so on that have gotten away with worse, more intentional tackles, but only because the other players avoided injury.

The issue here isn't about the individual making the tackle, it's about this ridiculous mentality in British football about "getting in their faces", and "letting 'em know we're there". It's about a coaching staff telling a non-aggressive guy like Martin Taylor to go and start kicking people as soon as they get the ball, and the idea of the tackle not being to "win the ball", but to "stop the man". And then injuries like this happen.

It's ridiculous to hear people defend the tackle. It's one thing to say "OK, he doesn't deserve more than a 5 or 7 match ban", it's another to say things like "the tackle was harmless, he was just unlucky", or "it looks worse than it is because he got injured". That logic is pathetic, and it's ridiculous, and as Gill says in his article - just how lawless is English football becoming, that people think it's OK to get away with this kind of thing? You have people like Stephen Kelly and Garth Crooks saying it shouldn't have been a booking, and Alex McLeish coming out and basically lying outright to the media (probably because he was the one who instructed his players to "get stuck in"), it is absolutely disgusting.

There was a time when the physical defensive play of English football was highly respected around the world - when guys like Adams, Keane, O'Leary, Vieira, Parker, Woodgate, Campbell... even Des Walker - they could slide into thumping challenges from 5 feet away and perfectly get the ball. Why did Rio Ferdinand cost 30 million pounds and why does he play for one of the world's top clubs? Not because he kicks people or injures them, it's because he is good at what he does.

Why have Everton and Aston Villa improved so much and become European contenders in recent years? It's because their midfields have become focussed on playing football with players like Petrov, Arteta, Young, Pienaar, Barry and so on, and their defences have players that can win the ball and use it properly - Laursen, Lescott, Yobo, Mellberg - their game isn't about just kicking opposition players up into the air, it's about playing football the right way. Teams might still be over-physical at times, but they aspire to be more than that.

The next time someone complains about foreigners ruining the English game, and how England doesn't produce any decent players... think twice about it. It's not because skilful English youngsters aren't getting a chance, it's because the manager's first reaction to a player or team of skill that they're facing is to try and kick or foul them, and this style of play becomes a blueprint for football. Even now in the lower leagues, some of the most sought after players are ones that are just big lumps who kick the opposition. There is an absolute paranoia against people that try to play football the right way, and managers respond not by trying to outplay them, but by trying to kick the sh*t out of them.

Joe Cole twice broke his leg as a youngster, but managed to survive to the top level, probably because of being in a good football environment at West Ham. Others haven't been so lucky. Former Arsenal youngster Ryan Smith was one of the club's and England's best youth prospects - a dazzling left winger. One day against an Ipswich reserve team, after another dazzling display of skill, he was taken out by a 16 year old Ipswich player who made no attempt to win the ball, and just wanted to stop the player. Smith's knee ligaments were destroyed, and his career was never the same. He came back scared, without confidence, and his progress was ruined.

So the next time someone asks why England doesn't produce any skilful or creative players, tell them it's because of the sh*t mentality of the game at the moment. Unless they're at a big club like Everton, Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool (where they're well protected), they are either going to suffer many injuries at a young age, or stop trying to play the way they can to avoid getting kicked. Of course some might get through, but the fact is that is very rarely happening.

You can appreciate the English mentality of wanting to always win, but this has to be done the right way. The problem is right now that the administrators of the game seem to think it's OK to tackle and foul people just for the sake of it, and so managers are pushing this to the extreme. They send their players out to kick the opposition first, and play football second, and the FA just seems to allow this. I'm not suggesting that we become like Italy, with the game stopping every 5 minutes, but that bad tackles and bad behaviour are properly punished. Managers should not think that it is an acceptable tactic to try and unfairly stop the opposition, and that violence is acceptable as long as it doesn't do any serious damage. This is what needs to change.

Fabio Capello has gone with a mostly "on-form" starting XI for this England team. Bentley has been the best English attacking midfielder this season, and Jenas has been excellent in the new year under Ramos, playing box-to-box and timing his runs perfectly. James is the best English 'keeper at the moment (fortunate or unfortunate as it may be) in terms of performance and experience, and Matthew Upson offers an all-important, balancing left-foot in defence.

Whilst the exact formation hasn't been revealed, it will probably be something similar to what he used at Roma, when he was short of attacking talent.

I'd guess that it's a 4-1-2-2-1 formation:

James

Brown Ferdinand Upson A. Cole

Barry

Gerrard Jenas

Bentley J. Cole

Rooney

Barry will sit deep and mop up, playing short, simple passes. Gerrard will probably stick a bit more in the centre, controlling the game, getting stuck in, and going on his forward bursts. The thing with Gerrard is that he isn't versatile - play him deep, and his game suffers, and play him too high up the pitch, and his game suffers, so it's best to allow him to do as he pleases in the centre. Barry complements him will.

Jenas' role will be a bit trickier. Off the ball, I think he will assist Gerrard and the fullbacks with ball-winning, but when in possession, he will probably be making forward runs to support the front 3, and will be the one providing runs beyond the striker form the centre.

Bentley will be allowed to do what he does best in his roving right-sided role, and Joe Cole has been playing for long-enough on the left to do so without any bother. Expect him and Bentley to switch flanks often, and if the players are reading each other well enough, Cole, Jenas, Rooney and to a lesser extent Bentley, should all be interchanging positions.

Enjoy the game everyone, and I'd love to hear your comments throughout the match, should make for a fun bit of discussion! 

Obviously the mini-media-buzz that surrounded Fabio Capello's omission of David Beckham from the England squad was reasonably warranted, but it makes us wonder about Beckham's future, as well as the intentions of Capello.

It's understandable that he's well short of match fitness, and one can't hold that against Capello - sentimentality would have been a silly reason to call him up, and I'm sure that both the coach and player would want the 100th cap to be merited, and the call-up to be necessary.

However, on the issue of match fitness - it is a tricky situation. The MLS doesn't start until late March, and it's possible that by then Capello will have become more familiar with the English game and players, and a bit more rigid in his team selection. Capello has in any case not been a big one for rotating players, and if he finds his side working by the time Beckham gets match fit in April, it might be tough.

Granted, there aren't too many international ties between now and then, but International management often involves a lot of behind-the-scenes work and premeditated decisions; because you don't have the players together very often, team selections and tactics are made ready so that when training sessions begin, everything is in place for match preparation.

As for the actual issue of match fitness, the low standard of the MLS will prove to be an obstacle. It's quite possible that the month of training at London Colney with Arsenal has got Beckham in better shape than what a couple (or more) of months in  the MLS would. Arsenal are well known for their intensive training sessions, and the excellent fitness of their players. Beckham spent two weeks on intensive fitness training, and by the end of his stint was fully involved with the players.

The poverty of the opposition (and to some extent his own teammates) in the MLS means that Beckham is going to take a while to find his feet. Physically he might be fit, but match sharpness, especially the level required for the England squad, might be hard to come by. And even if Becks is sharp, and playing well, it's entirely possible that Capello would rather pick someone who is performing well in the Premier League. All the other England squaddies are domestically based, and Capello is not going to travel all the way to the States to watch Beckham play. He will have to rely on the word of his scouts, and TV coverage (assuming he doesn't destroy the TV after 5 minutes of having to put up with the MLS commentary); it's always hard to tell how prepared a player is from so far.

And lastly, there is of course the possibility that Capello is just testing out the other players, before making an eventual decision. He is well aware of Beckham's abilities after he broke back into Capello's Real Madrid side last season, and helped inspire them to the title. He knows exactly what Beckham can bring to his team, and he knows exactly how Beckham operates under his tactics, so he might just be using this time (they are friendlies) to see how the other England candidates do.

What do you think about Beckham's chances for his 100th cap, and his England future? Leave your comments below!

Just thought I'd bring you this short (and classic) Cruyff snippet from news of the Netherlands hopes of jointly bidding with Belgium for the 2018 World Cup.

It's common practise for federations to get famous (/ex-)players and coaches to act as ambassadors for their bids (e.g. Pele, Beckham, etc), and so it came as no surprise that Harry Been, the secretary of the KNVB (Dutch Football Association), wanted Cruyff to be involved in the publicity surrounding the bid.

Cruyff, being Cruyff of course, says he's ready to be involved as long as HE has control over the submission process of the bid. In a quote form Voetbal International magazine he says:

"In principal I am positive about such initiatives in the Netherlands. If I can help them, fine. I am of course obstinate. I had the chance to train Holland in the past, but that went wrong because they didn't allow me to choose my own staff. I only want to take on the responsibility if I get the full power of decision-making."

And that is Johan Cruyff in a nutshell for you - arrogant, obstinate, outspoken, but also gifted and legendary. Whether it's Ajax, Barcelona or the Netherlands, he's always got something to say, and apparently something to contribute as well.

Let's see how his involvement works out, but could you imagine Pele or Beckham being put in charge of their countries respective bids? HAH!

Thank you Croatia, for bringing down to earth the most over-hyped national team on the planet. Exemplified by the hype that Soccernet loves to throw out:

The 2014 World Cup will cost a staggering minimum of 10 billion US dollars for Brazil to organise, the majority of which will be borne by the public sector.

It has been a long time since Brazil hosted a major tournament, and a lot of the stadiums require work, including of course the legendary Maracana, which was built for the last World Cup that Brazil hosted, 53 years ago.

The tournament is expected to be held across 18 cities, and so the money spent on World Cup development will greatly improvement infrastructure all over the country (hence the decision to make it a largely public sector undertaking).

The outcome of the tournament will be interesting, since it was only after hosting their last World Cup that Brazilians went football crazy, and the tournament will return now to the country which produces some of the sport's finest moments and people, both on the field, and off it. 

FIFA has prohibited the ownership of players by third party organisations. The ban is in effect immediately, and was spurred mostly by the massive controversy surrounding the ownership of Carlos Tevez by MSI.

The first incident in this case was the validity of the contract on which he was playing at West Ham, and it began to be investigated late into last season. West Ham United were adjudged to have violated Premier League laws, and were fined a record £5.5 million, but were not docked any points, and Tevez did not serve any suspension.

He was fantastic in the latter half of the season, and almost single-handedly saved the Hammers from relegation. Their safety came at the expense of that of Sheffield United, who were relegated, and responded almost immediately with legal action against the Premier League and West Ham. They called on FIFA and Blatter to intervene, but ultimately their case was dismissed.

The whole situation then intensified towards the end of the summer, with Manchester United's attempts to sign Tevez. Kia Joorabchian, the owner of MSI was claiming ownership of the player, West Ham were too, United were trying to negotiate with both parties, and Sheffield United were watching carefully. Ultimately it emerged that Joorabchian's MSI were the "rightful" owners, but since the league would not allow money to be exchanged between clubs and third parties, a complicated arrangement was finally worked out whereby Tevez signed for United, with MSI and West Ham both receiving compensation, and although there were no official transfer fees, it was indeed a very, very sketchy transfer agreement.

Sheffield United meanwhile re-ignited the fires, albeit in vain, because Joorabchian's part in the whole transfer agreement had proved that Tevez's presence at West Ham the previous season was in breach of Premiership rules.

The whole affair was a huge media circus, and so FIFA have finally acted to try and ban the third party ownership of players. MSI had been a major player in this regard - buying over Brazilian giants Corinthians and signing top players such as Tevez, Javier Mascherano, and Carlos Alberto. Mascherano had in fact joined West Ham along with Tevez, but had been signed by Liverpool in January in an arrangement where a loan/payment arrangement was made with MSI and West Ham. Technically, this was equally as controversial as Manchester United's signing of Tevez, but since Mascherano had been in the reserves, and not playing well, nobody paid much attention or took much objection to this transfer.

MSI had all long intended to make Corinthians into a sort of shop window/clearing house for South America's top talent. Their idea was to buy top players in the region, and negotiate their sales, or partial sales to top European clubs. However, their affairs fell apart in Brazil as well - Corinthians' results were terrible, they lost the fans support, the infrastructure at the club had started to fall apart, and eventual there were also warrants issued for the arrests of Joorabchian and fellow investor Berezutsky by the Brazilian police over financial fraud issues.

On paper, it looks as if FIFA have made a decision to stamp this out, but let's see how strictly they enforce this. Consortiums in Eastern Europe have been running rackets in the trafficking of young African footballers, and in poor countries it will be very difficult to stop this. Additionally, as in the case of Leeds United's purchase of Mark Viduka, clubs can still use third-party investment companies to fund the purchase of players, with the player's registration acting as collateral. It remains to be seen whether this too will be legislated against, or whether it will continue to exist as a loophole.

A strange old match. Brazil's midfield and attack boasted some of the world's most talented youngsters, the Polish side had some decent players, but were mostly a fit, organised bunch. An early goal, a quick sending-off and then dogged determination saw the Polish under-20 team upset Brazil.

Alexandre Pato of Internacional is probably the biggest star of this tournament, and he took the attack to Poland in the opening minutes. However the Poles, even though they weren't anywhere near as skillful, played intelligently, and looked to counter at every opportunity. No chances of note were created, and then in the 23rd minute, Krychowiak put Poland ahead from a free-kick. It was a decent strike, but not very powerful, and i'm of the opinion that the Brazilian 'keeper could have done much, much better.

The elation of taking the lead was then brutally ended when Polish midfielder Krol was sent off. It was a hard tackle, and definitely deserving of a yellow, but somehow the young Pole received a red from Premiership ref Howard Webb. There's no disputing that it was a foul, but both teams got away with the same thing throughout the match, with only yellows or free-kicks being issued. Harsh decision, and it really put Poland at a disadvantage. I'm not sure if Krol maybe swore or said something to the referee, but I couldn't see that.

Brazillian fans might say that on balance of play they deserved to win, because they attacked the most, had the most possession and dominated the game, but they did so against 10 men and never managed to look like scoring. They would probably have dominated against 11 men as well, so the Polish team had to show incredible, incredible bravery and determination to come away with the victory. Time and time again there would be last-ditch tackles, headers and blocks to deny the Brazilians, who despite all their trickiness and skill were less-than-effective, most often passing too narrowly and intricately and allowing the play to breakdown. In fact, Poland 'keeper Bartowski only had 2 or 3 real saves to make... the best of them being from a dribble and shot from Jo.

The Brazilian players really didn't show up either. Much of the focus had been on £18 million Chelsea-target Alexandre Pato, the Internacional attacker and current golden boy of Brazilian football, but he was missing his renowned composure. Manchester United and Arsenal target, Renato Augusto from Flamengo, was flickering but ineffective, and CSKA Moscow's Jo (prolific last year until injury) was threatening but lacked support. It was another talented midfielder, Leandro Lima, who was the most impressive Brazilian on show today, constantly tricking his way past defenders and trying to make things happen.

With 12 shots to Poland's 2, the Brazilians were clearly missing any kind of end product, and they will look to fix this in the next game.

Oh, and the pronunciation from the Canadian commentators is awful.

Hello... since the season is almost over (FINISHED if you're an Arsenal fan) and, quite frankly, not much is happening in the summer apart from International Football (yes, I used CAPS), I thought maybe it would be cool (fun?) to pick up the Copa America and really follow it from start to finish.

Of all the tournaments this summer (Gold Cup/FIFA U-20s/Pan-American Games), it's probably going to be the one with the best football and the best players, but as usual it will probably not be given much attention by the English-language media. I've noticed we have loads of Brazilians and Argentines on here, and more than a few USAians, so there's no reason why we can't make ourselves the best English source for the Copa America this summer. Anyone interested? I promise I won't keep talking about Denilson.

Anyways, if you have a blog and feel like keeping an eye out for the Copa, then have a go, and if you're interested in writing but aren't a member, then sign up!

This past Club World Cup (which NOBODY cares about outside of South America), OleOle probably had the most (and best) coverage of the event, and i'm sure we can generate a fair amount of buzz about the Copa America. This is after all the "World Cup of the Americas"... but I guess that doesn't make much sense. I'll stop now.

Let there be no doubt about this boy's talent. Simply amazing: