Pub-based punditry on the beautiful game.
The Football Pubcast is a podcast featuring four (or more) blokes, in a pub, talking football.
Shows are recorded every week from our local pub in Canary Wharf, London.
Its a sad thing…an international tournament involving Ireland but not featuring Kevin “Zinedine” Kilbane.
At least, it didn’t feature him until last night!
Kilbane was in the same bar as some Irish fans. The same “karaoke” bar. The following happened…
Now, can you imagine one of England’s most capped players ever doing the same? Beckham? Charlton? Maybe Steven Gerrard if it was Phil Collins but surely not with the same gusto.
Kevin Kilbane…you are a legend.
So, two major tournament draws a the weekend and two corkers!
Let’s start with Euro 2012. I can’t think of a better line-up for the tournament. England have got the nice balance of a massive game against France, a match with the stronger of the two host nations and a tie with our bogey team. Fabio Capello will walk away fairly happy from Friday’s draw knowing that, on paper, England should be favourites to win the group. However it will need to be a different England to the one who lost against France at Wembley last year because Laurent Blanc’s side look incredibly far removed from the cough and splutter of South Africa 2010.
Should England make it through to the knock-out stages then they can look forward to a tie against regular foes from recent years Croatia, Fabio Capello’s home nation Italy, neighbours Ireland or recently vanquished minnows Spain…If England are going to progress beyond the quarter finals then it will be a huge but not necessarily impossible ask. Ireland on the other hand will need three huge performances to escape the group. Still, Croatia are beatable and expect to see Ray Houghton’s goal from USA 94 a thousand times between now and June. Oh, and Spain? Well just remember the opening game in South Africa and an excellent performance from the Swiss.
The other groups look tasty for different reasons. The prospect of a Germany/Holland game always whets the appetite but throw in Portugal and the team that finished above them in qualifying (and neighbours of Germany) Denmark and it will probably prove the strongest of the four groups. On the other hand, Poland must fancy their chances of success on home soil lining up with Russia, Greece and Czech Republic, arguably the weakest team in each of their respective pots.
Predictions: Germany, Holland, Spain and, very, very optimistically, England in the semis…Holland to win it
And then we had the FA Cup draw, which through up a few ties between top clubs and minnows…Everton & Tamworth, Stoke & Gillingham (good luck lads!), Arsenal & Leeds…Manchester United and Manchester City…
A few years ago that would have been a hearty joke at our smaller neighbours, now we’re looking at a revenge mission in early January. The 6-1 defeat hurt everyone connected to United so expect strong line-ups and a fiery game. Fergie loves the FA Cup and he won’t want to go out at the hands of City for two successive seasons.
The talk will be all about the big Manchester derby but the rest of the draw looks good to. Teams like Cheltenham, Southend, Oldham and Bristol Rovers can all savour the prospect of facing Premier League elite and there’s a couple of cracking derbies thrown in to. I quite fancy Charlton to pull off an upset against an inevitably under-strength Fulham and Paolo Di Canio will be looking forward to hosting Wigan.
My girlfriend asked me yesterday why I was sat watching two men speaking bad English and fiddling around with balls…and then why I watched the FA Cup draw (boom boom!). But it’s these little events and little details that make the season that bit more exciting. Whether you support Manchester United or Macclesfield Town, England or Ireland, what awaits over the coming weeks and months is excitement, anticipation and hope that when all the waiting is over you’ll emerge victorious.
New Football Association sponsors Vauxhall have suggested re-introducing the Home Internationals in to the football calendar. This has been met with a predictably cool reaction, but with a few tweaks, the idea could well work. Here’s James Welham…
Invite the Republic of Ireland
True, they’re not a ‘home’ nation, but they’re part of the British Isles and one would hope that we’re no longer in danger of witnessing the horrible scenes that resulted in their friendly with England back in 1995 to be abandoned.
Set it for the “gap” years
An annual tournament is too much; after all there is a European Championship and World Cup every other year. However, we all know how depressing those alternate years without big tournaments are, so let’s line it up for the ‘odd’ years.
Host it during a fortnight
The tournament could easily be held over a two week period; three Saturdays and two Wednesdays. Every team gets to take one matchday off and the hosts get to choose which one they would like to take off. What? The hosts? What are you talking about? Ah, I see….
Have a “host nation”
Rather than a series of home and away games like the Six Nations, each team should take turns to host the tournament, giving a fantastic boost to smaller nations that are unlikely to ever host a major championship (like, you know, England). The host nation would play all their games at the same ground, whilst the other games could be spread around the country.
Head-to-head tiebreaks
If teams are tied on points, head-to-head is the first tie-breaker. It’s foolish to have a team finish above another in such a small league if they have lost to them.
Proper competition rules
Only three substitutes per team being a particularly important one in order to maintain the integrity of the event.
A sample schedule for a tournament held in Scotland could be:
Saturday: Scotland vs Northern Ireland (Hampden), Wales vs England (Tynecastle)
Wednesday: Scotland vs England (Hampden), Wales vs Republic of Ireland (Easter Road)
Saturday: England vs Republic of Ireland (Hampden), Wales vs Northern Ireland (Rugby Park)
Wednesday: Scotland vs Wales (Hampden), Northern Ireland vs Republic of Ireland (Pittodrie)
Saturday: Scotland vs Republic of Ireland (Hampden), England vs Northern Ireland (Tannadice)
This competition is unlikely to be met with great enthusiasm from the clubs, but they could be mollified by the international sides agreeing to take a limit of two or three players per team. Also, by being involved in this tournament, the respective football associations could agree to have fewer friendly matches during the season, which would be well received by the clubs.
Furthermore, this competition would give teams the ideal opportunity to blood younger players in a competitive environment – rightly or wrongly, a young Scottish player is going to be more ‘up’ for a game against England than a friendly against Slovenia.
So, England vs Wales in Cork? Alex Ferguson won’t like it, but I’ll be watching.
Follow James on Twitter @jameswelham
Jim Staples is discussing.
Jim Staples 4:28 pm on December 5, 2011 Permalink
Bring on the freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/oct/26/newsstory.gillingham?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038