The Warm-Up: Injuries, indifference and the international break
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Updated 27/03/2017 at 07:03 GMT
Jermain Defoe, at least, inspired something different from an all-too-familiar state of affairs on the international stage
England's Jamie Vardy celebrates scoring their second goal with Kyle Walker and Adam Lallana
Image credit: Reuters
MONDAY’S BIG STORIES
England plod untested along well-worn qualifying path
England are the perfect case study for overhauling international football, if only for the way they negotiate qualifying groups with such tedious ease just so they can fall flat on their biennial major-tournament faces.
The 2-0 win over Lithuania at Wembley felt like something we’d sat through a thousand times before – from the packed visiting defence to the meaningless last 20 minutes, via the atmosphere that felt more like a late-afternoon high street than an international football match.
Just as you start to question the wisdom of analysing the individual and collective contributions, though, you realise that Southgate has only these formalities against 107th-ranked inconveniences to mould his team into a battle-ready machine. These might not seem like the rigorous conditions to discover if Michael Keane is made of the right stuff for international football but, until someone finds a better way of structuring it all, this is international football.
Coleman sets off on Long road to recovery
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Republic of Ireland's defender Seamus Coleman is taken from the pitch on a stretcher after being injured during the World Cup 2018 qualification football match between Republic of Ireland and Wales
Image credit: AFP
“It’s a double break but it has been pinned up and screwed in.” Martin O’Neill’s update sounded almost breezy, but Seamus Coleman’s recovery from serious injury will be far from straightforward.
In the aftermath of Coleman’s injury, some details emerged of how team-mate Shane Long came to his immediate aid on the Aviva Stadium pitch.
Kayleagh Long, Long’s wife, revealed that her husband kept Coleman calm by calling upon some unorthodox skills. “I had a hypnotherapy birth and they taught Shane to help me to breathe through it,” she told the Sunday Independent. “He told me: ‘It all came back to me. I was just talking to Seamus, teaching him how to breathe through it.’ He remembered it all.”
Now that’s team spirit.
Chelsea given Costa injury fright
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Spain's forward Diego Costa looks at his coach Julen Lopetegui
Image credit: AFP
On the subject of powerless clubs watching the international break through terrified fingers, Chelsea were given something of a scare this weekend.
Top-scorer Diego Costa limped out of Spain training with a heavy ankle knock, so serious that he was immediately sent for X-rays. While the scans revealed no damage, Antonio Conte will now watch with interest (to put it mildly) to see if Costa plays any part against France on Tuesday night before he is released back to his club. With Eden Hazard carrying a calf injury and doubtful for the resumption of Premier League business this coming weekend, Conte may well have enjoyed this international interlude even less than most.
IN OTHER NEWS
Being a back-up goalkeeper must be a tricky existence. You do all the drills, all the warm-ups, and then sit there for 90 minutes each week on the off-chance that you might be called upon in an emergency.
That leaves a lot of time to think about extra-curricular activities (not a euphemism, for once) and Chelsea’s no.2 number one Asmir Begovic has taken one look at Juan Mata’s notoriously charming blog…and taken things to a new level.
Why is it weird that a Premier League footballer has his own podcast? Not sure, but let’s all have a listen and find out if our Monday morning commute needs Asmir Begovic talking about sport.
HEROES AND ZEROS
Hero: Jermain Defoe
Yes, it was just Lithuania. No, this isn’t necessarily the build-up to a World Cup story of goalscoring redemption for a striker who thought his chance had passed. Whatever the circumstances, Jermain Defoe had – on at least two counts – earned this moment of personal satisfaction at Wembley.
Defoe’s well-documented Indian summer at an otherwise wretched Sunderland meant his call-up to Gareth Southgate’s squad – regardless of injuries and irrespective of age – made perfect sense.
Not every England fixture should be treated like the springboard for whatever long-term project the latest manager has been lumbered with: sometimes, it’s just about winning one game and moving on. With that in mind, Defoe’s contribution – the opening goal after just three touches of the ball by the 34-year-old in 21 generally awkward minutes – was all that was required of him.
Where Defoe has been going above and beyond in recent months, though, is with his very public bond with five-year-old Sunderland fan Bradley Lowery. Lowery – who is battling a rare form of cancer – led the England team out at Wembley and, once again, Defoe did him proud on the pitch.
Zeros: Holland and Danny Blind
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Dutch national soccer team head coach Danny Blind arrives at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on March 26, 2017 a day after the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifying group A football match between Bulgaria and the Netherlands in Sofia.
Image credit: AFP
If England have a European rival in the perennial disappointment stakes, it must surely be Holland. But, while the Three Lions tend to march quite comfortably through qualifying before getting all shy on the big stage, the Dutch are in the habit of getting straight to it – they’re now in real danger of missing out on a second major tournament in succession. And now Danny Blind has paid the price.
Holland, on a night when even their own federation’s report said “literally nothing went right”, went down 2-0 away to Bulgaria. Blind’s decision to plug a defensive gap with 17-year-old novice Matthijs De Ligt backfired spectacularly and, within 24 hours, the head coach was summoned to a meeting where he was relieved of his duties after just 18 games in charge.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though: newspaper sub-editors will be relieved to see that the headline-friendly Blind has been replaced – temporarily at least – with under-21 coach Fred Grim.
HAT TIP
O’Hara began this season in League One at Gillingham but could not get fit…his career took an unusual turn when he appeared on series 19 of Celebrity Big Brother, alongside Calum Best, Bianca Gascoigne and Jedward
The Independent’s Jack Pitt-Brooke catches up with former Tottenham and Fulham midfielder Jamie O’Hara, now with Billericay Town in the Ryman Premier Division…among other things.
RETRO CORNER
On this very day in 1999 – towards the tail end of an era in which England were required by international law to play Poland in qualifying groups – Paul Scholes tucked away the tidiest, Scholesiest of hat-tricks at Wembley.
Three other things to look out for here, too: 1) David Beckham’s perfectly ripe peach of a cross for the second goal, 2) Chris Armstrong on the bench, which this Warm-Upper absolutely does not remember, and 3) Martin Keown being all cutting-edge with his red boots.
COMING UP
England Under-21s face their Danish counterparts in the delightfully-named city of Randers this evening. Like the seniors, Aidy Boothroyd’s side were sunk by Germany in the first of their international break fixtures, so this is their chance to – as we say in the business – bounce back.
Tomorrow’s edition will be brought to you by Nick Miller, who has come through his international duties unscathed
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