Confident England get U21 Championships Boost

England U21’s hopes of winning the 2013 European Championships this summer will be sky high after Stuart Pearce’s side demolished Sweden 4-0 in Walsall during a friendly on Tuesday.

Although the Euros are still four months away, this squad will take great confidence from their performance that saw them dominate a Sweden side who comfortably won qualifying group B before losing to Italy in a two-legged playoff last October.

The man of the moment – as he has been all season – was Tom Ince, Blackpool’s spirited winger-come-striker who terrorised Sweden’s defence with two clinical finishes. Jonjo Shelvey also got on the scoresheet, while Connor Wickham is making a name for himself at U21 level with a header late on.

It was a performance that will greatly impress not only boss, Pearce, but also England manager, Roy Hodgson, who is still developing the first team into a unit capable of qualifying and possibly winning the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Fans betting on football should expect Ince to be in the first-team squad by next summer, and success at this year’s European Championships can only help the 21-year-old’s aspirations.

England are in a tough group with Italy, Norway, and Israel yet have now won their last seven matches and lost just once since June 2011. Over this two-year period Pearce has developed a strong side genuinely capable of winning silverware and their dominance over Sweden proved this team is the real deal.

The players have just one more fixture – against Wales in March – to prove themselves before Pearce picks his 2013 Euro squad. With competition rife throughout the squad, each player will put his all into every opportunity handed to them – a spirit that could make the difference at this summer’s Euros.

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First Stadium Opens in Brazil

Brazil have taken an enormous step to realising their 2014 World Cup ambitions after the first of 12 new stadiums was announced open this week.

The Castelao Arena, in the city of Fortaleza, was inaugurated in an opening ceremony attended by President Dilma Rousseff. The project comes in on schedule and cost an approximate £153.5m to fully renovate a 40-year-old stadium, which has hosted international matches since the 1980s.

It was all smiles and laughter at the opening ceremony and the President used the opportunity to congratulate Brazil’s capability of achieving success both on the football field and in building stadiums, yet there are still major concerns some projects will not be finished.

The Maracana Stadium – Brazil’s historic arena that will host the World Cup final in 2014 – is slightly behind schedule, while the Arena da Amazonia in Manaus is still very much a construction site.

Meanwhile FIFA general secretary, Jerome Valcke, recently claimed one of Brazil’s host cities has just 17,000 hotel rooms for a 45,000-seater stadium, while a report by the Brazil Audits Office claimed a multi-million-pound rail infrastructure project in another city would not be complete until after the World Cup.

However, many Brazilians will claim this is just scaremongering from the media and tactics by FIFA to get the government into more decisive action. The Castelao Arena’s completion proves Brazil is on track and just about on budget to host football’s largest tournament in 18 months’ time.

Granted, there is still work to do and the Castelao itself looks bare without the billboards, flags and vibrant supporters that will eventually fill its terraces. But faith should be put in Brazil to host a successful World Cup. South Africa did it in 2010 despite greater pressures from the international community, so there is no reason to believe Brazil cannot better that success.

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Fan ‘hubs’ a great idea for Euro 2020

The growing positivity behind a continent-wide Euro 2020 must please UEFA president Michel Platini, who received much criticism for the idea just a year ago.

Platini was branded a moron by many experts and pundits for his apparent ‘out of touch’ comments about a Europe-wide tournament. Yet after the infrastructure and financial problems that surrounded Euro 2012 last summer, in which hotel rooms were being sold at almost £500 a night in the major cities, his novel Euro 2020 idea has drawn wider acceptance.

On Thursday UEFA confirmed it would stage a continental European Championships and invites national football associations to bid for host city status. The English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish FAs are all interested, and if they join together could all stage games should a ‘hub’ idea prove desirable.

For these four FAs could act as a northern ‘hub’ for Euro 2020, with four-stadium hubs in the west and the east making the tournament accessible for all fans. The distance between Wembley, Hampden Park, the Millennium Stadium and Dublin’s Aviva Stadium is far shorter than, say, Paris, London, Copenhagen and Stockholm.

A northern hub on the British Isles and Ireland would work wonders for Euro 2020, giving fans the safety and accessibility of movement while also offering four countries the chance to stage games.
In the west we could see Barcelona, Marseilles, Rome and Milan form a hub, while the east could boast Berlin, Warsaw, Prague and Vienna.

Granted, these names are pulled out of thin air and UEFA’s decision on host cities will be far more detailed and considered, yet the idea of hub areas should not be dismissed. The point of Euro 2020 is to improve the fan experience and bring Europe together; many punters in the betting world would rather they join a hub, rather than single host city miles from anywhere, to mingle with the multitude of crowds.

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Home Nations need Reality Check

Two years ago, during European Championships qualification, Scotland scored two late goals to overcome Liechtenstein 2-1 at Hampden Park, a result that kept their flickering qualification hopes alive  - barely.

This week, a fellow British team pulled respect from the jaws of defeat as Northern Ireland scored late on to draw 1-1 with the Azerbaijan, with old boy, David Healy, coming up trumps.

In both games the home crowds went wild – more out of relief than delight of beating a major rival. The apparent embarrassment of losing to such lowly footballing nations would have left Northern Ireland the laughing stock of Group F had they fallen to Azerbaijan at home.

Yet should we still expect our home nations to ‘perform’ on the international stage? When Scotland beat Liechtenstein, back in September 2010, there was a feeling around Hampden that they deserved victory before kick off, such is the history of football in Scotland and their domestic league strength compared to Liechtenstein.

It is a feeling many England fans and Betfair football pundits voiced when playing Macedonia and, recently, Moldova: ‘Why should we play these small teams in qualifying, let them play each other so we can get on with it.’

This unfortunate attitude is very dangerous for the greater good of football that does not focus solely on the home nations. For none of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales have any divine right to overturn international opponents, despite the history and development apparently in our domestic leagues.

International football has grown since these four were even remotely powerhouses in the game and we can now expect ‘smaller’ nations, such as Azerbaijan, Macedonia, and Moldova, to put up a fight against our national teams.

It may be embarrassing to draw or lose to such lowly opposition, but they nevertheless have as much right to play international football as we do and fans must realise this before they criticise their teams for apparent underachievement.

Forster eyes World Cup place

Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster says he’s now aiming to seal his place in the England squad for the 2014 World Cup following his recent heroics against Barcelona.

The 24-year-old has been earning rave reviews since moving to the Bhoys on loan in 2010 and his performances in last season’s title winning campaign persuaded the Glasgow giants to pay Newcastle £2.5million for his permanent signature in the summer.

He has once again impressed so far this term, helping Celtic to some impressive live scores         

, and after years of taking the plaudits in Scotland, he finally earned some recognition south of the border, as he was called up to the England squad for the recent World Cup qualifiers.

Following his match winning performance in Celtic’s Champions League win over Barcelona, as result that stunned punters gambling online,  he was once again included in the party for Wednesday’s friendly with Sweden.

Despite being yet to make his debut, Forster is being tipped to earn his first cap in Stockholm and is seen by many as current incumbent Joe Hart’s biggest long-term competition for the Three Lions number one jersey.

The ambitious stopper is understandably pleased with his form and is now eyeing a place in the 23-man squad for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

"I was in the England squad for the last World Cup qualifiers and I'm in again this time which is great," Forster said. "England is something I've been aiming for and I enjoyed getting to work with Joe Hart when we met up with the last squad. He's a great guy as is the goalkeeping coach Dave Watson.

"That fortnight was an important experience for me and, having watched the last World Cup on TV, I've got to be aiming to get to Brazil with England for the next one."

Hodgson Aiming to Put the Pride Back into the Three Lions

Roy Hodgson may not have stepped into the England manager’s role with quite the same reputation as some of his recent predecessors, but what he lacks in top level success he is certainly making up for in enthusiasm.
Over recent years players seem to have grown to consider playing for England as a burden, an inconvenience that they could do without. After watching squad after squad filled with players who could win the Champions league at club level but fail to make any impression in major international tournaments, it seems that Roy Hodgson has had enough apart from just improving England’s results and scores he also wants to restore pride in the shirt.
 "When people are called up I expect them to come running, get on a bicycle and cycle to the training session if they have to, then they shake hands with everyone and tell everyone how happy they are to be there” he told news sport reporters.
Since becoming England manager it seems that Hodgson has had to endure more than his fair share of disruption caused by withdrawals from his squad. His message to those players who regularly pull out of squads for no good reason seems be simple- if you aren’t interested in playing for England then we aren’t interested in you.
"It is very simple for me: to be asked to play for England is a major honour and a major feather in people's caps," said Hodgson. "I am not interested in people who are deciding whether England is where they want to be or whether they want to be somewhere else.”
After the apathy of the Eriksson, McClaren and Capello eras, Roy Hodgson’s pride and belief in the England squad and what it means to play for England is a real breath of fresh air. If Roy can pass his enthusiasm on to his young charges then all might not be lost for England just yet.

Bolton right to pursue highly-regarded Freedman

Bolton's search for a new manager to succeed the sacked Owen Coyle has so far proved fruitless but they appear to be barking up the right tree going after Crystal Palace's Dougie Freedman.

The Trotters look to have made the highly-rated Eagles boss their number one target after several other, more high-profile, names were initially linked with the post in the wake of the popular Coyle's departure.

Mick McCarthy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and even Sven Goran Eriksson were mentioned in latest odds as possible contenders for the Bolton job.

Clearly, the under-performing Lancashire club are keen to go down the route so many other teams seem to want to go down now, and make an up-and-coming young British coach their new manager.

And, in this case, their judgement seems spot on, but whether they will be able to lure him to The Reebok or not remains very much up in the air.

Palace initially refused to allow Bolton to speak to their former striker and are, understandably, desperate to keep hold of Freedman, who has managed to guide them up to fourth in an ultra-competitive and extremely tight Championship so far this season.

This comes after the firm fans' favourite, who is only 38, lead Palace to the last four of the League Cup last season, which included a famous win at Manchester United, something that further marked him out as one of the brightest young managers around.

Palace insiders say Freedman, a favourite of the odds betting community, is a methodical, open and intelligent modern coach, who does his best to utilise all the tools available to him to make a success of the job at Selhurst Park. Judging by what he has done already, he seems to be learning quickly and his methods are undoubtedly getting positive results.

He may decide to stay where he is for now, viewing the Bolton job as only an equal position to the one he already has and don't bet against him leading Palace into contention for a promotion spot later in the season if he opts to continue the job he has started so well.

On the other hand, Bolton may get their man after they were eventually granted permission to speak to him.

But one thing's for sure, it looks like the talented Freedman's career will continue on a swift upward curve, whoever he is in charge of.