Mirko’s Pants-Party Comes to Town
Mirko’s Pants-Party Comes to Town
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
Tonight at Wembley a resurgent England face a Montenegro side who have perhaps unexpectedly won their first three qualifying games. The side from former Yugoslavia lie top of the table with 9 points after consecutive 1-0 victories over Wales, Bulgaria and Switzerland. Their most recent win has left manager of the Swiss team Ottmar Hitzfeld in a precarious position after calls for his resignation from the Swiss media and fans alike.
After splitting their international football partnership with neighbouring Serbia, Montenegro have made swift progress up the FIFA rankings, rising from 199th to 40th in three short years, and that position is likely to be even higher after victory over Switzerland. Their performance so far in their group is a far cry from that of their 2010 World Cup qualification campaign in which they finished 5th in their group below lowly Cyprus.
Their opening victories have been largely orchestrated by their inspirational captain Mirko Vucinic who plays his club football with Roma. His latest goal was a fine chipped finish against Switzerland which he celebrated by taking off his shorts and putting them on his head – one that will surely be copied in the playgrounds of Montenegro for years to come. He received a yellow card for his troubles, but an awful lot worse from his teammates in the dressing room afterwards, I suspect.
The man from Rome has an enviable scoring record for his country at international level, and is a man that England will be very wary of. They also have the excellent young Fiorentina player Stevan Jovetic in their ranks, but he is currently out injured after undergoing surgery for knee ligament damage. Another player to look out for is Simon Vukcevic who plies his trade for Sporting, and is a dangerous attacking midfielder.
However, the Montenegro side does have its flaws. Their back four are rather sluggish, and Switzerland’s Streller and Frei caused them plenty of problems when they worked the ball down the wings. If England can employ the pace of Adam Johnson and/or Aaron winger on the flanks they will be able to carve out chances. There has been talk in the papers of this game being a potential banana skin for England, but in reality they should be able to beat Montenegro even with a second-string side.
Darren Bent who probably would have started alongside Rooney up front has pulled out due to a groin injury, which is a great shame after scoring a decent goal against Bulgaria in his last England outing. Defoe is out as well, so Capello is likely to play Peter Crouch from the start. The big man seems to love scoring in qualifiers, so he’ll be licking his lips at the prospect of getting his head on the end of some crosses this evening. Kevin Davies will also be looking to get some game time after being announced as a surprise call-up to the England squad last week. The Bolton man will no doubt relish his opportunity should he get onto the pitch, but many England fans were left bemused and perplexed at Capello’s decision to include the 33-year-old striker when it perhaps would have been a good chance to blood one of England’s younger strikers such as Andy Carroll, who has made a strong start to the season with Newcastle. England fans (myself included) will be hoping that Mr. Davies doesn’t get himself on the scoresheet this evening and limpet himself to the squad like a Heskey-shaped barnacle. No offence to Kevin, but he isn’t exactly the future England are looking for, and his bustling style in unlikely to provide the incision and skill that England need to compete at the very top level.
England’s main problems lie in central defence with the absences of Phil Jagielka (hamstring) and John Terry (back problem). Rio Ferdinand is likely to partner Joleon Lescott, which doesn’t look like a water-tight fit at first glance. Central defence has been the mainstay of the England team over the past decade with Terry and Ferdinand forming a strong bond, but that partnership is starting to wilt, along with the respective club performances of both players. Ferdinand has suffered from persistent back problems over the past season and a half which has greatly impacted on the number of appearances he has made for Manchester United. Whilst still a decent defender, he is no longer the dependable rock he used to be. John Terry also looks to have lost a lot of pace over the past year, and that is something that strikers have managed to successfully exploit in the past season. Meanwhile, Terry’s replacement Joleon Lescott is most certainly not a World-class defender. Having watched him in recent games for Manchester City, I have seen a succession of woeful first touches and some truly terrible special awareness. Sometimes he doesn’t even look good enough for the Premier League, let alone international competition.
If something is to go wrong for England tonight, it will most likely be in defence. Ferdinand and Lescott are an untried partnership and I wouldn’t be surprised if their unfamiliarity with each other leads to some chances for Montenegro. Glen Johnson has also looked very flakey for Liverpool so far, making two very poor individual errors against Blackpool which led to two goals. However, England should have more than enough firepower further up the pitch to see off Montenegro. Ashley Young and Adam Johnson have both been playing very well of late, as well as the mercurial (in recent England performances) Steven Gerrard, and I think that they should be able to produce enough chances for the stuttering Rooney and lanky Crouch to score the goals and win the game for England.
(Source: matchcentre)
