LGZ Sports Pundit

England - Time for Change

The England football team has reached a crossroads. The 0-0 draw with Montenegro showed that the team Capello is picking lacks vision, enthusiasm, determination, drive, ambition but above all else cohesion. Against Montenegro I saw a team that could struggle to qualify for Euro 2012, let alone reach the later stages of the competition. So is now the time to aim for World Cup 2016 and use the European Championship to follow in Germany's footsteps and throw our youngsters in at the deep end, giving them the opportunity to sink or swim.

If Capello spoke to the press today and explained to the fans that he is focussing on the future by naming a young squad for the 2012 qualifiers and the competition itself, I don't think anyone would argue. After the epic failure of the World Cup campaign and the way we have struggled in the 2012 qualifying matches against lowly opposition ranging from 17th to 80th in the FIFA rankings, the fans have clearly become despondent and with support for the team waning, something needs to happen to invigorate both the team and the fans.

Focusing on individuals –
Wayne Rooney - if anyone outside the golden 5 of Terry, Ferdinand, Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney had behaved the way he has off the pitch and played the way he has on it, they would have been dropped from the squad faster than they could take a breath, but for some reason Capello clings onto Rooney in the hopes he'll come good at some point. I ask how many more lacklustre, half hearted, ineffectual displays the fans have to be subjected to until Capello wakes up and realises that Rooney is not the messiah but is in fact a petulant child, performing well under par by his own standards, but also in comparison to other forwards praying for a chance of a starting place.

Glen Johnson - Whilst capable of the odd flash of skill a season he is simply not good enough. For club and country he has shown that he is not capable of providing any quality or any level of consistency. His continual mis-placement of passes and failed attempts at taking on players, leads not only to a loss of possession but in many cases, presents the opposition with a chance for a counter attack with our back line needlessly exposed.

Shaun Wright-Phillips - I don’t really need to explain this one in-depth, he is simply not good enough! He can’t get a run of games for Citeh, so why do we expect anything from him at an International level.

How about Capello making good on his post World Cup promise and start placing trust in the youngsters. Andy Carroll has shown form at club level and has lead the line for Newcastle scoring 4 goals in 7 league matches* so far this season. Jack Wilshere sitting on the bench, he’s 18, he’s hungry and he’s having a good run of games for Arsenal so why not throw him in? Injuries permitting, why are Keiran Gibbs, Gary Cahill, James Milner, Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson and Jack Rodwell in and out of the squad, warming the bench only to be thrown on with a couple of minutes to go when the result is all but settled.

Can anyone honestly tell me that any of the above players would not get in the Montenegro team or Wales?

Why then, do we persist with the old guard that have proven themselves toothless against such opposition?

It’s time to give the youth their chance, would any fans boo a team lining up 4-5-1 consisting of

J.Hart, K.Gibbs, M.Richards, G.Cahill, P.Jagielka, T.Huddlestone, J.Wilshire, J.Rodwell, A.Johnson, J.Milner and A.Carroll

More to the point, does anyone think that the above team would struggle to compete against the teams in Englands Euro 2012 Qualifying group?

The current team needs to change their attitude and if dropping them in favour of the youth results in the current untouchables bucking up their ideas and fighting for a place rather than being given it on reputation, then England may be able to look to the future with a glimmer of hope.

*Correct as of 14/10/2010

Is it the Vuvuzela, the Altitude, the Ball or our Expectations?

As we approach the final matches of the first round of games from World Cup 2010 there has been a lot of talk regarding the quality of football being played as well as the poor entertainment value of the opening exchanges.

So far the matches that stand out as the most entertaining have to be...erm, okay it's the Germany Vs Australia match. The Germans were rampant, the Aussies had their backs to the wall and there was a contentious decision when Tim Cahill was sent off for a challenge barely deserving of a booking.

At the final whistle, the Germans had laid the gauntlet firmly at the feet of the other pretenders to the World Cup crown with an efficient, effective very German performance and a 4-0 victory that saw four different forwards score and Mesut Oezil put in a truly world class performance.

Besides this match however, we have been "treated" to a festival of football reminiscent of my "house" tournaments at school, where each house mashed together a team comprising of a few footballers, a few rugby players and people who could run for a bit. Needless to say, passes were misplaced, "long ball" was the choice tactic, clear chances were shanked and any spectators cheering on their house was left feeling that a Maths lesson would have been a preferable experience.

Now a lot of excuses have been made for this drab affair, with the altitude and the ball being the main focus football-wise. As for the entertainment, many fans are cursing the one metre long piece of plastic known as the Vuvuzela, this is a trumpet blown by fans inside the stadium that, when blown in unison, generate a sound akin to a swarm of angry bees. So far, Lionel Messi, Patrice Evra & Cristiano Ronaldo have all stated that the continual drone has effected players concentration, communication and has prevented uninterrupted rest away from the games.

Could the Vuvuzela truly be having an adverse effect on the players?

The matchball, known as the Jabulani is manufactured by Adidas and was developed at Loughborough  University in the UK. It is boasted that it is the "roundest" ball available today. Complaints have been made by Goalkeepers Júlio César, Iker Casillas, David James and Gianluigi Buffon, with Júlio César going as far as comparing it to a "supermarket" ball. Now, with the main complaints coming from keepers you'd have thought that some more goals would have been scored, but it seems to me that the outfield players are struggling as well, with these supposed "World-Class" players averaging a 69.7% pass completion rate* with Germany unsurpisingly managing 88.2% and Paraguay at the other end, only managing to complete 38.0% of their passes. For those interested England were mid-table, completing 67.1%.

As a goal-wise comparison after 5 days at the 2002 World Cup there had been 31 goals in 2006 it was 27 goals and in 2010 18.

Could the ball be preventing the players from displaying their true talents and scoring the goals we so desire?

Altitude is the last of the possible reasons. Among the host stadiums, Soccer City stands at 5,558 feet. The beach-side Moses Mabhida stadium is at only 26 feet. Other stadiums at altitude include Bloemfontein at 4,432, Pretoria at 4,364, Polokwane at 4,035 and Rustenburg at 3,783.

Dave Saunders of Holloway Personal Training UK explains what the altitude will do to the players:

"Oxygen (O2) Levels in the atmosphere drop the higher the altitude gets.  People who live at high altitude have a higher level of Red Blood Cells (RBCs) to combat the low levels O2. RBCs are the transport system for O2 to the muscles and organs, so if there are more RBCs then they have a higher chance of being oxygenated."

"This is affecting all the Footballers at the world cup who live at low altitudes due to their low RBC count. They will find they become breathless quicker due to their bodies craving O2. Saying this their bodies will adapt and the amount of RBCs in their blood will increase due to the low levels of O2 in the air. So further on through the tournament the players will appear to be fitter and the speed of the games will pick up."

Another consideration when it comes to the altitude is again, the Jabulani Ball which is scientifically proven to behave differently in the thinner air. Adidas themselves have stated altitude is the main factor affecting the Jabulani ball not its design and blames players for not practising enough with it.

So is it the altitudes that are effecting the players performance?

With these reasons clearly playing at least a small part in each match, is it fair as fans to swallow these excuses or is the problem not with the players or their tools but with us as spectators. Are we being too hasty in expecting fireworks? Could it be that future games will provide more of a spectacle? I will let you guys and girls decide...

*stats accurate up to and including the 14/06/2010

Speedway - The British Final

If your bored with the World Cup already, England failing to deliver , teams happy to park the bus in front of the goal - turn your TV over to the speedway - Its the British Final !!!

16 riders, including current British Champion , Chris "Bomber" Harris, will compete over 20 heats for a place in this year's final.
You tend to find that riders who wouldn't normally cause you too much trouble raise their game for the British Championship - and who can blame them?

Not only is the title of national champion at stake, but there is the opportunity to earn a wildcard for July's British Grand Prix at the Cardiff Millenium Stadium. This is a showpiece event for riders in the Premier League and those just outside the international level; they really focus in on it and past winners have includend to race in front of 45,000 people.

So riders you wouldn't necessarily see on TV raise their game. In short, it's an opportunity for them to put their name on the map.
It's disappointing that Tai Woffinden, and Lee Richardson for that matter, will not be at the meeting. Richardson was the red-hot favourite going into the 2009 final after winning all five of his heats, a record that gave him the choice of starting gates. But Chris Harris, who is not renowned for his starts, went off like an absolute rocket and by the time the first lap was completed the race was as good as over!

Woffinden would have benefitted from home advantage at Monmore Green a terrific, entertaining track that is always well-prepared but with no Wolves riders in the field it means we have a level playing ground.

The Elite League riders will have an advantage in the sense that they compete there more often. Up until very recently, five-time winner Scott Nicholls would have been the red-hot favourite. He's outside the Grand Prix this year but has been riding very well for Ipswich and scoring a hat-full of points for them home and away. But Harris has run into form at just the right time. He finished third in the last Grand Prix in Denmark and has been in improved form for the Coventry Bees recently and on Saturday won the GP Qualifier in Croatia after a run off with Eastbourne's - Matej Zagar. This is shaping up as a titanic struggle between Harris and Nicholls for the Championship.

Nicholls is desperate to try and re-establish himself as Great Britain's No 1 after a very disappointing season last year. Not only would he like to regain the Championship but he'd relish the opportunity to ride at Cardiff in July.

Throw Simon Stead into the mix after winning his GP Qualifier in Italy, Eddie Kennett who has enjoyed the Cardiff wildcard for the past two seasons and the enigma that is Lewis Bridger? The Monmore track is well suited to Coventry's recent recruit, but even Lewis will admit a lot depends on which Lewis Bridger turns up. He would be an outsider for me to pinch the Cardiff wildcard.

Should be a night of entertaining racing and not a vuvuzula in site - hopefully.

Keep turning left !!!!!

CRUMP WINS OPENER !!!!

Wounded world champion Jason Crump stormed to victory in the European Grand Prix in Leszno, but admitted he had not expected to launch his title defence until June.

The Aussie tore from the tapes to win a re-run final ahead of local favourite Jaroslaw Hampel and Russian starlet Emil Sayfutdinov.

Crump was unsure whether he would start the 2010 season after suffering severe burns and broken bones in a crash at Belle Vue last September, which nearly cost him the 2009 championship. But the 34-year-old declared himself fit to race in Leszno and cruised into the semi-finals with 10 points from his five heats.

He then led a determined Sayfutdinov home to reach the final, before producing a classy tapes-to-flag triumph to top the rostrum. Crump’s success clearly left the Aussie international baffled. He was surprised he even raced at the Alfred Smoczyk Stadium, let alone won the meeting. The injuries are so serious that the World Champion can run, but can’t really lift anything with his left arm.


The SGP championship leader said: “I didn’t expect to be here today, so it was a bit of a bonus really. At the end of last season, I thought I would be able to start defending the World Championship in about June if I was lucky. So it’s a big bonus to be here at the start of the season and an even bigger bonus to get into the final.”

Hampel, who made his SGP return after a two-year absence, also kicked off his season with a bang. He topped the heat scorecharts with 11 points, before pushing the Aussie all the way in the final. Third-placed Sayfutdinov bagged 10 points in his heats, but was unable to keep up with Crump and Hampel from the tapes in the decider.

Wild card Kolodziej made a great impression on his Polish Ekstraliga home circuit with 10 points, before bagging second place behind Hampel to secure a spot in the last four. But his night was ended when he lifted and collided with Sayfutdinov going into turn three in the first staging of the final. Referee Krister Gardell excluded the Pole from the re-run.

Three-time world champion Nicki Pedersen will have been disappointed with his start to the campaign after scraping through to the final with eight points, before missing out behind Crump and Sayfutdinov.

Kenneth Bjerre (10), Rune Holta (9) and Chris Harris (8) made positive starts to their SGP seasons. But Freddie Lindgren, Hans Andersen and Chris Holder will have been gutted to miss the semi-final cut on countback, despite scoring eight points apiece.

HEAT SCORES:
Jaroslaw Hampel (3-1-2-2-3) 11
Jason Crump (3-3-3-1-0) 10
Emil Sayfutdinov (3-1-1-3-2) 10
Janusz Kolodziej (1-3-3-2-1) 10
Kenneth Bjerre (1-2-2-2-3) 10
Rune Holta (2-3-1-1-2) 9
Chris Harris (2-3-0-0-3) 8
Nicki Pedersen (3-2-0-0-3) 8

Freddie Lindgren (1-1-3-3-0) 8
Hans Andersen (0-2-2-3-1) 8
Chris Holder (2-2-0-2-2) 8
Tomasz Gollob (2-0-2-1-1) 6
Andreas Jonsson (R-1-1-1-2) 5
Greg Hancock (0-0-3-0-1) 4
Magnus Zetterstrom (1-0-0-3-0) 4
Tai Woffinden (0-0-1-0-0) 1

Semi-Final 1: Hampel, Kolodziej, Holta, Harris.
Semi-Final 2: Crump, Sayfutdinov, Pedersen, Bjerre.
Final: Crump, Hampel, Sayfutdinov, Kolodziej (exc, foul riding).

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Jason Crump (19), 2 Jaroslaw Hampel (18), 3 Emil Sayfutdinov (14), 4 Janusz Kolodziej (12), 5 Rune Holta (10), 6 Kenneth Bjerre (10), 7 Nicki Pedersen (9), 8 Freddie Lindgren (8), 9 Hans Andersen (8), 10 Chris Holder (8), 11 Chris Harris (8), 12 Tomasz Gollob (6), 13 Andreas Jonsson (5), 14 Greg Hancock (4), 15 Magnus Zetterstrom (4), 16 Tai Woffinden (1).

The SGP Series - Explained

The SGP series is a number of speedway events over the course of a season used to determine the Speedway World Champion. In total there will be 11 Grand Prix's over Europe in 2010 to determine the World Champion.

The format is 16 riders take part in each Grand Prix and over the course of twenty heats each rider will race against every other rider once. The top eight scorers advance to a semi-final and from each semi-final the 1st and 2nd placed riders will advance to the GP final.
All rides count towards Grand Prix points totals, including the semi-final and final, which counts double (6-4-2-0) and therefore the maximum points for a single GP is 24 (5x heat wins, semi final win and final win). This format means that the winner of each Grand Prix may not be the rider who scores most GP points from each race.

The same 15 riders form the basis of the Grand Prix line up throughout the course of the season, barring injuries. The 16th rider, known as the "wild card", will normally be a leading non-GP rider from the country in which the Grand Prix is being held. The Wild Card can win the Grand Prix like any other rider, and their World Championship points count the same as the 15 permanent riders. Once again the series will be the hardest speedway on the planet and will be brutal on occasions with no holds barred speedway at times.

Jason Crumps will kick off his defence in Leszno but there are concerns about the World Champion's fitness following a serious crash last season. Crump suffered a nasty crash at Belle Vue on September 14 that left him needing a skin graft to a huge friction burn on his upper left arm and losing a 1/3 of his bicep. The concern is that there was far more damage done than we first knew about. It is taking him longer to heal than he thought but he is slowly getting there and anticipates being fully fit in June.

It is questionable whether he will be fully 100% fit for Poland on Saturday but this is a speedway rider !!! And the World Champion Jason Crump we are talking about so you can never really say that. He has certainly not had the ideal preparation for this year's series.
Nicki Pedersen is desperate to win his title back. The Dane did not enjoy himself last season when he had one or two exclusions which did not help his cause. The three time World Champion seemed to have a continual running battle with Emil Sayfutdinov which on more than one occasion left one of the riders deep into the airfence. He seemed very frustrated and has certainly made some changes for this year. He wants that GP title back and has got a new team around him. He has started the season quite well and still seems to have the hunger and the determination to win the championship.

Teenage sensation Emil Sayfutdinov was superb in 2009 and took the SGP Series by storm with SGP wins. I expect him to be at that level again however riders will now be conscious of him and his tactics of riding close to the edge, so expect some excitement involving the Russian. Jaroslaw Hampel is another one to look out for. The Pole has had some previous SGP experience and has now matured and he is ready for Grand Prix success this time around.
Chris Holder qualified through the GP Qualifiers and he is in awesome form for Poole and he will play a big part in this year's championship but for the Young Australian it is very much on a learning curve throughout 2010 but expect the Wizard of Oz to make a number of semi-finals. Throw into the mix the likes of Tomasz Gollob, Greg Hancock, Andreas Jonsson and Hans Andersen who are all potential SGP winners.

This is a big year for Brit, Chris Harris. He may not be in the best of form at the moment but he does have that pace and speed which will hold him in good stead. He needs to get of to a good start because he has received a Wild Card entry for the last to years on the back of his British GP win in 2007 but should he fail to make the top 8 it is unlikely he will be offered another.

Tai Woffinden makes his debut on the GP circuit this season and it will be interesting to see how the 19 year old goes. He has had a quiet start to the season for Wolverhampton but he rode well in the World Cup last year and there is no doubt that he has plenty of ability. It is a learning year for him though and this experience will hold him in good stead for the future. He will have his ups and downs this season but I think people will understand that.

I don't think there will be a runaway winner like there was last year. If Tony Olsson new track director can get the tracks right then rest assured you we will see some spectacular speedway. But expect the experience of Jason Crump + Tomasz Gollob to be battling out for the World Crown come October with Hampel, Bjerre + Sayfutdinov competing for the Bronze medal.

Keep Turning Left !!