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January 07, 2009 Wednesday
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Abdul Hafiz
Senior Executive Copytaster
So what if England won?
November 21, 2008 Friday, 06:00 AM
Abdul Hafiz Abdul Samad ponders the relevance of Wednesday's friendly.
ARSENE Wenger admitted that the shoulder injury Theo Walcott suffered while training for England could have happened anywhere. The Arsenal winger, now out for three months after surgery, has a hereditary condition that weakens his ligaments, but that is him. What if Gabriel Agbonlahor and Gareth Barry picked up injuries against Germany on Wednesday? There goes Aston Villa's chances of taking the scalp of another Big Four team when they take on Manchester United on Saturday. What if John Terry, whose injury problems have been blamed on playing too many games, had been crocked again after playing the entire 90 minutes against Germany? Liverpool would have been laughing but not Chelsea. What if Portsmouth's top scorer Jermain Defoe suffered more than just the tight muscle that saw him substituted? Even less chance for an upset against AC Milan in the Uefa Cup next week. Just because England's players got away relatively unscathed from Berlin, the question remains: Of what point was the match, other than adding to the bank balance of the Football Assocation, and giving football hooligans an excuse for violence? Fifteen fans were arrested after the "friendly".
Yes the game gave England manager Fabio Capello the chance to try out new players, but the next match is four months down the road. By then those who played on Wednesday might be injured or have lost their form, while others found theirs or have recovered from their ailments. So, really, there was no point. But these kind of matches will continue, even as players, manager, officials all complain about too much football. As long as fans are ready to pay, the players will continue to play. At least some have a bit of commonsense. Chelsea's Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole pulled out from England's squad but were in training for their club on the day of the Germany game. Be assured that if there was a game against Manchester United that day, they would have been ready to play. Players should have pride wearing their national colours. But beating or losing to Germany would have made no difference to England's chances of qualifying for World Cup 2010. But picking up an injury could make a big difference to their club's and paymasters' Premier League ambitions. What do you think? Did Germany vs England have any relevance? Tags: epl, football 
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Support the Singapore National Team lah dey!!!
Players should be honoured to be given an opportunity to play for their country. Every international match is relevant to their footballing career, friendly or otherwise.
However, England or not England, it seems like club loyalty is more important than country loyalty to many professional footballers these days.
Pride or no for the national team? Maybe..they have.
But..its a long way away for many of us..who say.. there is only..and there will always be only..one...team to watch. MANCHESTER UNITED.
The author ought to be asking himself the same question-we are bombarded daily with invitations from so called journalists to effectively write their newspapers/provide content.This mostly provides no entertainment and very rarely any enlightening information.There is no thrill or tension,both of which can be had from even an amateur sports game.What is the relevance of the question
England has that special spice that lights up any tournament they play in, regardless of their form. Don't we all agree that the first thing we look for on the tournament fixtures is checking when England will playing and, after that, checking whether the match is live. Ooops, silly comment. Every England game is a live match, even if they are playing Siberia. As my unscientific research has indicated, the kopitiams are packed full whenever England is on. The crowd is either for England or against them. Nobody cares who the opponent is. I don't see that kind of interest when other teams are playing, not Brazil, not France. At the last World Cup when England played Portugal, it was standing room only at my kopitiam. Even the guy who brings the coffee is watching. At the last Euro, I could get a chair and stretch my legs without knocking anybody. That's the difference for England.
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