England beat Mexico 3-1 but really missed Gareth Barry.
His form for Man City has been dodgy but the midfielder is a key man for England.
He hasn’t played more games for Capello than Rooney because he’s a great footballer.
Barry has played 20 of the 23 games because he’s a great component.
He balances the machine, keeps it ticking over. A football team is a piece of machinery. A good team needs to put the ball on a conveyor belt and move it from one end of the factory to the other. If the team can’t motor, can’t roll along, if it coughs and stutters, forget it. That kind of a team has no chance.
Barry’s fitness was not confirmed the other day. The London surgeon said he could train two weeks from last Monday, May 24 . When I read that I thought Capello should take Barry to South Africa. Against all logic, against all past experience, I thought it was the right call to take him, even if he took him to the World Cup and he didn’t play one game.
Today we have better news. Barry has been having round-the-clock treatment on his ankle and sleeping in an oxygen tent and Capello now insists: “He’s fine. We analysed Barry’s ankle two days ago. The recovery time is shorter than we thought. We are going to decide next week but we are very confident.”
Rooney had dismissed suggestions that he’s still feeling the ankle injury which hampered his recent games for Manchester United. He said those reports were “rubbish.”
England have been training at altitude in Austria and will play Japan there on Sunday.
Kick-off 1.15 pm on ITV
Capello said: “Rooney is fine. He’s not been scoring recently. But I’m pleased with what he’s doing in training because he’s back at 100 per cent.”
In other news, Cheryl Cole says, “I’m keeping the dogs.”
New Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho wants Ashley more than she does.
P.S. I’ve looked around today for some Arsenal news worth commenting on. There isn’t any.
On his two goals against Mexico, Van Persie said, “The assists of Van der Vaart and Affelay were both amazing. It wasn’t too much of a problem to find the net after their great passes.”
Which is what I wrote yesterday.
Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk said, “Van Persie was outstanding. In the second half he just felt his hamstring, so I took him off.”