Ghana late show caps carnival friendly

England 1 Ghana 1: Jonny Gould reports from Wembley.

Isn't it great to see a Wembley friendly played with vigour, commitment and passion for a change? With the amount of players from the Premier League on both sides, I suppose we shouldn't have expected anything less.

The sheer size and carnival of Ghana's support ensured it was never going to be just a kickabout. The match sold out a fortnight ago and the visiting contingent were given a bigger share of the stadium.

Asamoah Gyan's deserved late strike

Despite being a second string, Fabio's alternatives played like they believed they could make the starting XI. The England boss had earlier released Chelsea's trio of Terry, Lampard and Cole along with Rooney and Dawson.

But Aston Villa pair Stewart Downing and Ashley Young looked lively and Andy Carroll, back after injury led an adventurous 4-3-3 formation.

And though Carroll's left-foot strike at the end of the first-half looked set to give England victory, not even the most ardent home fan would begrudge Ghana's equaliser struck by Asamoah Gyan.

So what can Capello have learned from a friendly without the backbone of his senior players? Well, no one seemed overawed - and the only way to deepen a squad is through match experience.

Jack Wilshere gives us a glimpse of the next generation, Leighton Baines is a lively back-up for Ashley Cole and Andy Carroll gives us tactical options upfront, so different as he is from Wayne Rooney.

But it was more of an exhibition than a proper game; at times our defending, ball control and understanding were suspect. We're quite some way from winning a tournament.

But as a big England fan, I'd love to be proved wrong.

The skipper circus goes on!

Barry is a yawn, so is the saga over the captaincy

After the farcical second coronation of John Terry as England captain, we're now presented with the seventh recipient of the Fabio Capello armband - the utterly uninspirational, Gareth Barry.

The rotund elder statesman will lead out a team expected to show eight changes from the Euro 2012 qualifier in Wales, for the Wembley friendly with Ghana.

The Manchester City millionaire has the most caps of the player's left, ergo he's the skipper despite not being considered good enough for the eighteen-man squad for Cardiff just two days before.

All this announced amid the organised media glare of an England news conference as Fabio admitted he hadn't yet had that private discussion with Rio Ferdinand as to why he wasn't going to lead the team out for Ghana.

He won't need to now. The message has reached Alderley Edge loud and clear!

The hullabaloo over who's England skipper is unnecessary theatre and a total distraction from the real affairs of the team. It also makes Fabio look like a dithering lame duck, just lucky to be presiding over a bunch of meaningless friendlies and a schedule of complete mismatches to qualify for Euro 2012.



Still, it's reported that 20,000 fans at Wembley will be from Ghana, so at least there'll be carnival and colour brought to a game which Gareth Barry's leadership rather confirms as stale.

But perhaps the booing won't just be consigned to our eleven players. To add insult to lethargy, the FA have invited Sepp Blatter as their special guest, just months after he snubbed England's bid to host the World Cup.

Terry rewarded for treachery and disloyalty

Capello: pointless England manager

So John Terry's in from the cold and being made England skipper again. The zeitgeist proclaims he's been punished enough for sleeping with a teammate's ex and Fabio Capello, who once proclaimed Terry would never be his captain again - has performed a volte face.



All this because snubbed Terry had to stand and watch as the Captain's Armband was tossed between a clutch of other senior players during the 2-1 win in Denmark. Boo-hoo Terry, boo-hoo.

Now we have an unnecessary media cufuffle ahead of a key Euro 2012 game with Wales when the team was progressing well on the field.

 

John Terry: a total and utter guttersnipe

I suppose once it was decided that he would continue to figure in Capello's England set-up at all, you could hardly have him moping around like a disaffected Muttley. Terry's (bad) influence is too big for that. Lest we forget the treachery of the half-baked mutiny he tried to pull before the World Cup win over Slovenia, it seems his perceived on-field performance counts for more.



But if he was eventually going to return to the captaincy, why did Capello make such a song and dance about sacking him in the first place?

Capello's sponsorship credentials

The Captain's Armband is a bit of theatre anyway. The coronation of an alpha male among the pack, it's hardly key to the team's mechanic. It's taken on disproportionate importance for England since David Beckham became 'it', then talked and talked and talked about it in news conferences throughout his tenure.

It's an unnecessary distraction to England's preparations and Terry's the beneficiary of a weak England boss, who should've gone with him after the debacle in the summer.

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More games, more goals

Recent competitiveness in the Premier League has been a breath of fresh air - and the main reason is belief.

Rory Delap's long throw. No one can stop it!

While money still talks and Manchester City's elevation to the big-time shows it, clubs with less resource go into 90 minutes against bigger opposition with larger stature; both mentally and physically.

Birmingham's Carling Cup victory over Arsenal and Bolton and Stoke's FA Cup semi-final berths show more than ever that graft and experience can undo clever gameplans and squad depth. I thought Koscielny and Szczesny's mistake gifting Martins his Wembley winner was made of Blues second half pressure.

Fergie's "Men Win Matches" approach is even more applicable in 2011. Tactics and beautiful play just don't count as much as they did three seasons ago. Arsenal are the main fall guys of this. Yes, they're in the title race but they'll have to play with more force and individual leadership if they're to topple United to vindicate Arsene Wenger's ideals.

And more goals are being scored because manager's are more open to winning matches than sitting on leads. There are definitely less clean sheets around. Isn't it Bloomfield Road where every match has resulted in at least one goal for both teams?

Martins winner was a deserved one

Money is still the decisive factor and the longer the Champions League pays such huge bounty (together with being top of the Premier League of course), the cartel will be tough to break. It's where the cream of star players want to play. But the clutch of Europa League wannabe clubs believe the gates aren't shut to them. 

And with UEFA Financial Fair Play coming into force in two years, expect an even bigger impact on competition in the coming seasons.


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