※ 引述《u1302094 (Got Urself a Gun)》之銘言： : http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=327464&cc=5739 : http://www.thefa.com : The FA宣佈英格蘭國家隊將於5/24起起程前往美國（！） : 並將在當地進行兩場友誼賽： : 5/28在芝加哥的Soldier Field Stadium對戰美國國家隊、 : 5/31在紐約的Giants Stadium對戰哥倫比亞國家隊（！） : 但由於歐冠聯決賽是5/25 : 如果Chelsea或Liverpool其中一隊進軍到歐冠聯決賽的話 : 將有可能影響到此項美國之行所能徵召的球員數量 : （這兩隊的英格蘭國腳還不少@@） : 不過即使這兩隊其中一隊真的打進了歐冠決賽 : 預料也不會有正式協議規定哪些球員一定得被徵召入國家隊 Gordon的意見 http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,4284,1445380,00.html Sven's trip to America will benefit no one Friday March 25, 2005 The Guardian It says something about the games England are playing over the next week that people have been getting more worked up about the summer tour to the United States. There's been a lot of criticism of the trip and I can't see that taking the players there will be to anyone's benefit. The World Cup preparations certainly won't be helped by it. In the summer before the World Cup a proper break would be much better for the players and the England team. A physical breather is important after a long season but a mental break is possibly even more vital. The England squad will travel to the US knowing that the following season will be one of the biggest of their lives, probably the biggest in some cases, because there is a World Cup coming up. You have to prepare right for that. They will be under huge pressure from the first game of the season to play well to be picked for the final squad. They will realise that Sven-Goran Eriksson will be watching things closely and that the media will be judging them every week and saying they should or shouldn't go to the tournament. It's not as if the players will be interested in the friendlies against the US and Colombia in May anyway. Top players only want to play in games that matter because they're competitive animals and they'll want this even less at the end of the season. I went on a similar tour once with Scotland to Canada to play three games and it was torture. I was at Aberdeen and had played 67 times that season so I didn't want to be there, and it will be the same for these guys. I think Eriksson has said the tour gives England a good chance to play opposition from outside Europe. But I don't imagine the players will learn anything. How interested are Colombia going to be? And anyway, there are no surprises these days. England's top players are facing South Americans in the Champions League all the time because the best Brazilians, Argentinians and so on are in Europe. They know each other so well now that they're the best of mates. You can see that from the way they shake hands after matches. That the World Cup is in Germany means there will be European surfaces, familiar weather and more of a European mentality, so there's no reason in going to America. If Sven wants to make a few points to his players next summer get them together and talk about it. The only people who will want the tour will be a few press men and FA officials who fancy a couple of weeks away from the missus, and the finance people. The only reason to go is finance. National associations need to play friendlies to make money and Sven is a ￡ 4m-a-year manager. Maybe the games could be called the Sven-Goran Eriksson testimonials. That's nothing against Sven because I like him a lot, and he has to be paid somehow. At least the England players' competitive juices will be going for the games against Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan, although I'm not sure qualifiers like that should happen at all. To reduce the number of matches and make things more competitive, there should be two parallel qualifying tournaments in Europe, one for the top teams and another for a second tier of maybe 16 or 20 selected by Uefa. At the end of it the best second-ranked team would either qualify for the World Cup or have a play-off against someone from, say, South America. It might make things more exciting for the smaller teams because they will have something to go for. They have no chance of getting anywhere now. That's not to say England will hammer Northern Ireland or Azerbaijan because that doesn't happen often now. There are a few decent players in the Northern Ireland team like Steve Davis of Aston Villa, Aaron Hughes and the goalkeeper, whether it's Maik Taylor or Roy Carroll. But it's like a Premiership top-four side against a middle-of-the-table Championship side. That was Arsenal against Sheffield United in the FA Cup fourth round recently and the game ended 1-1 at Highbury, so it can happen. But I don't see an upset now. I will watch England's game tomorrow, but more to see how some of the Northern Ireland players get on. I'm interested to see how people like Davis, David Healy and Jeff Whitley have progressed and how they are at the top level. As for the Azerbaijan match, I doubt I'll bother to tune in. I think I have a Marks & Spencer steak pie that needs eating on Wednesday evening, and it might be a similar story for those summer friendlies. ======== 對喔，不去美洲撈金，哪裡來的錢付Sven每年四百萬鎊的薪水... --

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