How To Get Into Your World Cup Squad

Are you a professional footballer? On the fringes of the international squad? Or an old pro who feels he can still 'do a job' for the team?

Well, if you are, you might like to take a leaf out of South African defender Nasief Morris' book. Morris fell out with former South Africa coach Joel Santana and has tried to get back into the South Africa squad by begging current manager Carlos Parreira via text message.

No word on whether this strategy has been successful, but if it is, one Michael Owen should at least give it a try.

On the subject of Owen, England Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce has bizarrely suggested that the "door is still open" for Michael to make the World Cup Squad. Er, you do know that Owen is out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury, don't you Stuart?

This Is A Local Team...For Local People

South Africa's Brazilian coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira has come out and said that the South Africa World Cup squad will be largely made up of locally based players.

He is quoted as saying:

“The team that will play in the World Cup will be made up by 65-70 per cent of locally-based players. This is largely because the overseas-based players are not regulars in their teams. But the door will always be open until the final camp,”

So, it's not because there really aren't very many South African players playing outside of the country, then, Carlos?

And that number of 30-35% of overseas based players? This couldn't possibly be approximately the percentage of players that are actually playing abroad, could it?

A quick check of Wikipedia reveals that 9 of the current 24 man South African squad play outside the country. A percentage of 37.5%.

So I guess what Parreira is actually saying is this:

"we'll play all the players we can from outside of the country. Unfortunately, because this is only 35% of the total number required for the squad, we'll be forced to use local players. Sorry about that."

Score More, Concede Less...It's Easy This Management Stuff

Let's be honest, we're all armchair managers. It all seems so clear when you're sitting in the stands or watching on TV just exactly what the manager needs to do to win a game. Why the managers themselves can't see what you can see is, of course, one of the enduring mysteries of football.

That's why I particularly enjoyed this piece in the South Africa Times giving the South Africa national coach some expert advice on how to get Bafana Bafana winning football matches.

Former South Africa manager Carlos Alberto Parreira has suggested that they might like to try scoring more goals, while adding "The focus should be on not allowing avoidable goals".

So, score more goals and concede less goals. Brilliant. Quite why current Bafana boss Joel Santana hasn't hit on this revolutionary new tactic for himself is unclear.