Friendly Results...Everyone Is Rubbish

Manchester United's second top scorer - 'own goal' - made a timely appearance in England's clash with Japan, scoring 2 goals. This saved everyone's blushes in a very unconvincing 2-1 victory for England.

So, it is with relief that I note that every other World Cup bound side who played a friendly today was also rubbish. Well, except Mexico who gave Gambia a 5-1 thrashing.

You can see the full results for the latest round of international friendlies at the BBC website here.

Feel free to marvel at scores like Belarus: 1, South Korea: 0 and Spain: 3, Saudi Arabia: 2.

Let's hope it all improves dramatically next month.

How To Do Well At A World Cup

Remember South Korea at the 2002 World Cup Finals? Did well, didn't they? Home advantage; some lucky decisions: yup, these things played their part. But, to my mind, the reason for South Korea's success was clever management on the part of then boss Guus Hiddink.

Realising that the South Koreans were a) awful and b) not going to play a competitive match ahead of the 2002 World Cup, Hiddink organised friendlies against the world's best, including both France and England. Thus, he managed to hone a competitive spirit and turn them into a half decent team.

The reason I bring this up now is because it looks like Mexico boss Javier Aguirre is trying to do the same thing. Mexico have already played 5 friendlies this month and they have a further three still to play ahead of the 2010 World Cup Finals.

They have already played England and have Holland, Gambia and Italy still to play. Indeed, the only reason they are playing Gambia is that their original opponents, Portugal, pulled out.

It seems to me that Aguirre is taking the World Cup very, very seriously and is attempting to turn Mexico into a team that is very comfortable playing together, as opposed to a collection of internationals with no more than a week or two training together before the tournament.

It's going to be interesting to see if he can pull it off, but I for one think Mexico might just be a surprise package at the 2010 World Cup Finals.

Welcome Back, Svennis

As you all probably know by now, ex-England and Mexico boss Sven Goran Eriksson will be the Ivory Coast manager at World Cup 2010.

I, for one, welcome him back with open arms. I always enjoyed his implacable calm, his over use of 'first half good...second half not so good' and his ability to seduce ladies of all nationalities.

And, seriously, I think he is a good manager. His reputation has been tarnished in England, where some consider him a bit of a joke and blame him for England's failure to get further than the quarter finals of major competitions.

I think this is more than a little unfair on the man.

The main charge against Eriksson is that, in 2002, when England played Brazil, he was too slow in changing tactics once Ronaldinho had been sent off.

And it is true that it took him until the 79th minute to bring on Teddy Sheringham and move to a far more attacking 3 upfront formation.

However, all the match reports clearly indicate that when Ronaldinho was sent off, England did go far more on the offensive. The thing was: most of these attacks broke down and England started to get nervous.

Bringing on Sheringham was, I think, a good attempt both to win the match and to introduce a cool head to bring calm to England. Remember the match lasted a mammoth 96 minutes and Sheringham did nearly pull England level with a drive that hit the crossbar.

To blame Eriksson for England failing to beat the eventual world Champions seems unduly harsh to me.

But, with the Ivory Coast, he really does have a job on his hands. The Ivorians Group contains both Brazil and Portugal as well as North Korea and Eriksson will do well to qualify from that lot.

He only has two friendlies before the World Cup proper and that's not nearly enough time to make a proper impression on the squad.

Seen Avatar? Keep Those Stupid Glasses

If you're going to see James Cameron's clunky, moralising, overblown sci-fi epic 'Avatar', may I be so bold as to suggest you keep hold of those stupid 3D glasses you need to watch the film.

Because those (cough) innovators in sports television, ESPN, are going to be showing 3D matches, starting with what is sure to be a riveting tie between South Africa and Mexico at the 2010 World Cup Finals. I can hardly wait.

You Just Can't Make It Up

England, and more recently Mexico, fans will both remember the reign of Sven Goran Eriksson as manager of their national sides with something less than fondness. To be fair to the guy, he did pretty well with England before it all imploded.

However, to see him back in English football with...wait for it...Notts County, just makes me want to laugh out loud.

Those of you from outside of England who are reading this will be thinking 'who the hell are Notts County?'. In fact, many of you in England will be thinking 'who the hell are Notts County?'.

Well, Notts County are the second biggest team in Nottingham and play in League Two of the Football League. That's division four, in old money.

And Sven, calm as ever, is busy telling the media that he didn't come for the money, despite County now being owned by some very rich arabs. Pull the other one Sven!