Wednesday 12 May 2010

Selection Madness


While Paul Scholes may have turned down Fabio Capello’s last ditch attempt to get the Manchester United wizard to come out of international retirement ahead of the World Cup some of the games top names have not even had the satisfaction of even being asked.

National team managers of the 32 teams competing in South Africa this summer have been busy scratching their heads with the unenviable task of sorting the definites from the maybes to the no hopers as each selects their preliminary squads for the showcase event.

However there appears to be some glaring omissions…..

2006 runners-up France will be heading south without Karim Benzema or Patrick Vieira while Brazil – many peoples clear favourites for the tournament – have a squad that looks, in all honesty, distinctly average after Dunga decided to leave Alexandre Pato, Ronaldinho and Adriano at home in favour of strikers Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Nilmar (Villarreal), Robinho (Man City/Santos) and Grafite (Wolfsburg) – all talented but not likely to put the fear of god into defenders like a Romario, Rivaldo or Ronaldo.

Holland must be confident the likes of red-hot Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt can magic some goals up from somewhere after leaving experienced frontman Ruud Van Nistelrooy at home. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid man has 34 goals in 64 international appearances while Babel and Kuyt have a combined tally of errrrrrr…….17 strikes in 86 games. We’re sure Dutch coach Bert Van Marwijk has his reasons.

Many have ridiculed Argentina’s chances this summer with the erratic Diego Maradona at the helm. El Diego used over 100 players in qualifying with Argentina scraping through by the skin of their teeth. However any side that possesses the attacking quality of Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero cannot be written off….. that was until Maradona tried his best to mess things up again when he named his provisional squad.

Included in the squad were household names such as Ariel Garce, Juan Manuel Insaurralde, Clemente Rodriguez and keeper Diego Pozo (don’t worry I haven’t heard of any of them either) while Inter duo Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso and Real Madrid’s Fernando Gago were left out.

To think that Zanetti and Cambiasso have been key components of Jose Mourinho’s Inter side that are still on for an historic treble of Serie A, Coppa Italia and UEFA Champions League this season makes Maradona’s decision even more laughable.

However there is some good news to come out of all this selection madness…..it surely increases England’s chances of winning the trophy for the first time since 1966 with or without the ginger magician – although Spain may have something to say about that!!!