Fog on the Rhine

Switzerland 1 - 3 England

After Friday’s 4-0 demolition of Bulgaria, England travelled to Switzerland for what was on paper their toughest fixture in their European Championship Qualification campaign. The build-up to the game was dominated by tabloid allegations about Wayne Rooney’s private life and whether he was in the right state of mind to start the game in Basel. Capello selected Rooney, who scored and built on his good performance against Bulgaria, removing any doubts that some sections of the media held over his selection.

England’s 3-1 won was one of their most impressive away performances under Capello as they took command of Group G with two consecutive wins. There were a number of positives to take from the match, most notably the continuing upward trajectory of Adam Johnson’s fledgling England career. Johnson, who narrowly missed out on selection for South Africa, scored his second goal in as many games as he took the ball around Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio and coolly finished from a tight angle. The Manchester City winger threatened from the right-hand side, cutting inside on numerous occasions. Capello has obviously been watching Manchester City a lot over the last few months, with the Italian manager adopting Roberto Mancini’s system of deploying left footed Johnson the right to allow such runs. Unfortunately for Theo Walcott, Johnson’s success was at the Arsenal winger’s expense after he was injured in the build-up to England’s first goal. Walcott has struggled to combine form with fitness since he moved to Arsenal four years ago and this latest injury setback, combined with Johnson’s rise, may hinder his efforts to making the right-midfield position his own.

The England goal which led to Walcott’s injury was scored by Wayne Rooney, the man at the centre of all the pre-match build up. Rooney scored from close range in the first half to set England on their way and in doing so scored his first competitive goal for England for twelve months. Rooney, who was out of sorts at the World Cup, has produced two performances that will give Fabio Capello great confidence for the rest of this qualification campaign. Whatever his problems may be off the pitch, Rooney left England in no doubt of his importance to the team.

                

Rio Ferdinand and John Terry’s absence from the squad created the chance for one of England’s central defenders to stake a claim for a starting place in the team. Phil Jagielka did his chances no harm with two competent performances which betrayed his inexperience at this level. Michael Dawson’s injury sustained in the match against Bulgaria and the poor recent form of Matthew Upson mean that Jagielka may well have established himself as England’s main understudy at central defence.

                

After all the uncertainty over the position in the lead up to the World Cup, the goalkeeping position is no longer a dilemma for Capello as Joe Hart is surely the undisputed number one for England. After a good season for Birmingham City last year, he has now displaced Shay Given as first choice at Manchester City. Hart has been in sensational form for club and country so far this season and although there were a few nervy moments against Switzerland, England could finally have some stability between the posts.

                

Switzerland were not at the top of their game and rarely posed a threat. While their defence has been their strength in recent years, most notably at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, their inability to score goals let them down in both tournaments. Veteran Alex Frei of FC Basel and Leverkusen striker Eren Derdiyok led the line, but never looked to threaten the resolute England defence. Stephane Lichtsteiner showed his indiscipline as he was sent off for two yellow cards. The first was avoidable, a yellow card for dissent while the second one was the result of a poor tackle. One positive for “Die Nati” was Xherdan Shaqiri, the 18 year old wonderkid from FC Basel. His goal from outside the area was spectacular and demonstrated why the Swiss are so excited about him.

                

England’s next game is a friendly against France which will be used as preparation for the game against second placed Montenegro, who have also won their first two games despite being deemed the weakest team in the group. England may not have banished the memories of South Africa, but there is reason for optimism after two impressive wins that leaves them in command of the group.

Friday Night Lights

Friday heralded the beginning of a brand new European Championship Qualifying campaign and England did their best to silence the critics who have been calling for the players’, and indeed the manager’s, heads since the disastrous campaign in South Africa. Jermain Defoe scored England’s only winner at the World Cup and he was in equally predatory form again at Wembley, scoring a hat-trick while Adam Johnson, who was left out of the final squad in June, scored his first goal for the Three Lions. The qualifiers for this tournament will take place on Fridays and Tuesdays, a break from the normal scheduling of Saturdays and Wednesdays, in the hope that it will give club managers more time to prepare for domestic fixtures when the players are released by their international sides. Inevitably, this has been criticised by fans who have complained that the timing of these matches means that their attendance is dependent on the ability to get time off work if they live outside of London. While this is a considerable oversight by those at UEFA, there has been one advantage of this decision in that for the first time in a long time there has been virtually no football over a weekend during the season.

International breaks have been seen by some fans, especially those who don’t see the value in international football, as a distraction from league football. Although there is far less football than usual it was still possible to make a weekend of it as fixtures for the Home Nations were staggered and if there was South American qualifying, there were games on in the small hours too. This was not possible with the new scheduling as most games kicked off around eight o’clock unless they were in Eastern Europe like the Republic of Ireland were. What resulted was a weekend void of Premier League, Championship or international football and while the media gave much time and space to analysis of the qualifiers, it was refreshing to see other sports and other levels of football in the spotlight.

The Aviva Premiership Rugby season kicked off on Saturday with the London double-header at Twickenham. ESPN are beginning their coverage of the competition and broadcast both games, devoting most of their Saturday afternoon to the clash between last years runner-up Saracens and London Irish and Wasps v Harlequins. Today, BBC Radio 5 live will broadcast commentary of Northampton v Leicester, something that would not happen during a weekend heaving with Premier League football.

Much attention was also paid to the conclusion of the county cricket season as both the Clydesdale Bank 40 and County Championship competitions enter their final stages. Sunday’s Twenty20 international between England and Pakistan would have been in the headlines regardless, owing to the current match-fixing scandal, but with no other sporting event aside from the aforementioned Premiership clash being able to rival it, the Cardiff contest becomes the main sporting event this afternoon.

Lower-league football and non-league football also received a boost from the Euro 2012 qualifiers. League One fixtures were live on Sky Sports and on BBC Radio 5 live, while the 3pm kick-offs did not have to contend with an England game which would have affected attendances at the grounds. Much attention was paid to the East London derby between Dagenham and Redbridge and Leyton Orient as well as Southampton v Rochdale. Saturday was declared ‘Non-League Day’ as fans were encouraged to use this day off to attend a non-league match. BBC Radio Kent received calls from many fans who had been attending non-league games for many years and from those who were attending their first match.

While American sports leagues have often been criticised on this side of the pond for their capitalist nature, their submission to television networks and their propensity to move cities, American sports culture allows for the domination of more than one sport, something that ours does not. While American football is perhaps the most dominant of the ‘big three’ sports which also includes baseball and basketball, they share air-time and column space. This is in stark contrast to the British sports media which predominantly consists of wall-to-wall football. While this results from many factors which cannot be explained here, it is refreshing to see.

Football is undisputedly the most popular sport in this country and there is no danger of that changing in the near future. The Premier League dominates every other league in this country in terms of revenue, attendance and influence meaning that other sports and other leagues barely get a look in. With the international games moving to Friday however, a window has opened for these sports as well as the lower leagues of the football pyramid to get some of the limelight.