International winners and losers

Ger McCarthy

LOSERS
Irish football
Has there ever been a more demoralising Republic of Ireland international football victory? Friday night’s horror show away to Kazakhstan brought back horrible memories of San Marino 2007 under Steve Staunton and served as a stark reminder of just how far the quality of Irish football has fallen behind the top ranked countries and even some perceived minnows. Not even Kevin Doyle’s superb cameo could mask a tactically inept display with the finger of blame pointed firmly at Giovanni Trapattoni. Yet the most worrying aspect of Irish football’s current state of affairs is that the FAI cannot afford to sack their manager even if they wished to do so. Trap’s 4-4-2, aimless long balls and overly defensive tactics are here to stay until the end of the current World Cup qualifying campaign.
 
James McClean
“Delighted as a fan we got the the win.. Personal level #fuming #f*****joke #embarrassing.”
An ill-advised tweet created plenty of unwanted press for the former Derry City winger in the aftermath of Ireland’s disastrous performance in the Astana Arena. Whilst there was a lot of truth to McClean’s statement and his unhappiness with being left on the bench in preference of an out and out striker, Twitter is no place to vent your anger. Being made to apologise in front of the entire squad will have been a sobering experience but hopefully a watershed moment in the young Sunderland player’s international career.

Craig Levein 
Scotland’s international manager saw his side draw a blank in their opening World Cup qualifier at home to Serbia amid renewed criticism of his unwillingness to patch things up with out of favour striker Steven Fletcher. It is easy to see why so many Scottish pundits and supporters are clamouring for Fletcher’s return. The Scots wasted a plethora of chances that — if converted — would have secured a morale boosting victory a week after Fletcher marked his Premier League debut for new club Sunderland with a brace of goals. Fletcher is no Lionel Messi but then Scotland are no Barcelona either and could badly do with his recall. Chances of reconciliation remain slim following Levein’s after match comments: “I am the manager and I pick the team, not the supporters.”

Chris Coleman
The Welsh manager’s torrid start as Wales manager continued with a fourth consecutive defeat on Friday night. Belgium won 2-0 but more worryingly for Coleman is the fact a side containing Gareth Bale, Craig Bellamy and Joe Allen has been unable to manufacture a single goal in over 360 minutes of international football. Granted James Collins’ 26th minute sending off hardly helped matters yet the fact Wales are conceding almost two goals a game since Coleman took over is as troubling a statistic as their struggles in front of goal.

Peter Karl Jehle
Liechtenstein’s goalkeeper will probably need to make an appointment with a decent chiropractor having had to pick the ball out of his country’s net eight times following their weekend defeat at home to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Still, at least the result didn’t overtake Liechtenstein’s record defeat, an 11-1 loss at home to Macedonia in 1996.

 
WINNERS
England
Friday’s victory in Moldova marked the first time England scored five goals in an away international since that famous 2001victory in Germany. Despite the mediocrity of the opposition Roy Hodgson will be delighted with the performance and the manner in which England continued to pass the ball (Trapattoni take note) even when the result was beyond doubt. Tom Cleverly kept up his recent improvement with an eye-catching display, Leighton Baines comfortably slotted in at left back in the absence of Ashley Cole and Jermain Defoe got on the scoresheet to leave England in a healthy position ahead of Tuesday night’s showdown with Ukraine at Wembley. All in all, a good night’s work for Mr Hodgson.

Frank Lampard
The veteran Chelsea midfielder has been written off as over the hill and past his sell by date since the start of the new campaign but produced a vintage individual display to score twice and help England win 5-0 away to Moldova. A converted penalty and a second headed effort reminded Lampard’s critics of his ability to produce the goods at international but more importantly for Roy Hodgson the Chelsea player dovetailed superbly with Carrick, Cleverly, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Steven Gerrard in an effective English midfield. There is life in the old dog yet.

Fabio Capello
Viktor Fayzulin and Roman Shirokov strikes handed Fabio Capello a deserved 2-0 victory over Northern Ireland in the former England manager’s first competitive match in charge of Russia. Capello’s latest adventure sees the Italian coach being tasked with delivering a place at World Cup 2014 in Brazil for a Russian side still smarting from their poor showing at the European Championships. Group F contains tricky assignments against Portugal and Israel but for now at least Capello has the Russians firmly on the rocky road to Rio.

Robin van Persie
The former Arsenal and current Manchester United striker does indeed score when he wants as terrace chants have indicated with the Dutchman breaking the deadlock in the Group D qualifying match at home to Turkey after 16 minutes. Van Persie’s opener set up the Netherlands’ 2-0 win and made it five domestic and international goals since his move to Old Trafford.

Colombia
Take a bow Colombia for the international performance of the week. Reigning Copa America champions, Uruguay, were brushed aside by a magnificent Colombian display in the South American World Cup qualifying group in Barranquilla on Saturday. Atletico Madrid striker Radamel Falcao was on target in a 4-0 victory to elevate a rejuvenated Colombia into fifth place in the qualification standings following the appointment of Argentinean coach Jose Nestor Pekerman.

Follow Ger on Twitter: @germccarthy74

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/iOHyXektCuw/post.aspx

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