I used to love international games, but now they just seem to be something of an interruption to the flow of the domestic season. I find myself more concerned over whether anyone will get injured, rather than England’s results, so I was gutted to heat that Sebastien Bassong had to be substituted with a hamstring injury when playing for Cameroon and is now a doubt for the Manchester United game on Saturday.
Luckily, Vedran Corluka got himself sent off while playing for Croatia. He will now serve a suspension and will not face England, so we should have at least one centre back fit for the weekend. Corluka has been shaky in that position this season, but it looks like King will be fit and anyone who plays alongside Ledders automatically plays 25% better than they would alongside anyone else.
Elsewhere our forward players were whacking in the goals left, right and centre. This is a very good thing, because if we can’t field a proper defence through injuries, we’re going to have to rely on beating teams 5-4 every week.
Defoe was on target again for England, Keane scored the winner for the Irish, Pavlyuchenko converted two penalties, Dos Santos netted a beauty for Mexico and Taarabt was on target with a magnificent solo effort for Morocco. All the action can be seen below via the power of YouTube.
