Key events
An actual email!
“I’m not sure I’d say it was my ‘favourite’ friendly, but I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Wales vs Argentina in 2002,” writes Matt Dony. “A 1-1 draw that felt seismic. Us Wales fans have been spoiled somewhat over the last decade or so, but before that, it was slim pickings. For a brief period around 2002, though, things suddenly clicked. There were also victories over Italy (competitive) and Germany (friendly) in that same year. But the Argentina game stands out.
“Veron was magnificent, (‘He’s a flipping great player’, and all that), and yet Robbie Savage was MOTM. Hartson was almost unplayable. Bellamy never stopped, and throughly deserved his goal. Simon Davies was his elegant self. In hindsight, it was a false dawn, and no one wants to go back to the Millennium Stadium. But at the time, even though we had to enjoy the 2002 World Cup with a purely Watching Brief, it felt like a special time.”
This is the quietest Friday blog I can remember. To pass the time, why not read our liveblog of Australia’s famous win over England in 2003? It’s a Scott Murray special.
My riff on favourite friendlies has gone down well, with precisely no emails so far. But John Brewin has thrown me a bone by emailing the below.
My entry on the best ever friendly – I went to this game as I had been working for Channel 5’s website and they had a deal with France, then the World and Euro champions, to show their games. Zinedine Zidane – still the best player I have seen in the flesh, and I have seen Messi play 8-10 times – played the first half, and gave an almost erotic display of ripping into a Luis Figo-led Portugal.
“At half-time, we went into the posh lounge at the Stade de France and watched TF1 play back a series of Zizou’s first-half roulettes and shimmies. What a player. This was before Zizou and Figo joined up in Madrid, too. A night capped off by a posh Parisian supper with Jonathan Pearce and Terry Butcher. It’s never got much better or luxurious since that. The exact opposite, in fact…I was at Luton just last Saturday.
On this day in 1999, Raul ssshhhhed (how do you spell that) the Camp Nou, and Luis Figo bit the hand that wished to feed him.
As well as England v Australia, there are the usual European Championship qualifiers tonight. The full list of games is below; they’re all 7.45pm BST kick-offs unless stated.
The Republic of Ireland have the chance to make amends for their most disappointing performance under Stephen Kenny, but realistically pride is all they have to play for. It’s an important night for the Netherlands and Greece, who are in a good battle for the second automatic qualification place.
It’s also a big night for the new, improved Luxembourg, who have realistic hopes of qualifying automatically. They’ve never been to a major tournament.
Group B
Group F
Group J
Right, as the square root of naff all is happening, here’s a question for you, written in bold for a bit of chin-stroking emphasis. What’s your favourite international friendly and why? Mine would have to be 25 April 1990, when I met my brother after the usual day at Borden Grammar School, got the train to London and joined 21,340 other lucky buggers who watched Paul Gascoigne play himself into England’s Italia 90 team.
It’s 30 years ago today that Klaus Assenmacher bottled sending off Ronald Koeman, ultimately costing Graham Taylor his job as England manager. What’s sometimes forgotten, because of the controversy, is that it was a cracking game for 70 minutes.
Brazil 1-1 Venezuela
If you haven’t seen it, Eduard Bello’s late equaliser for Venezuela overnight was a cracker.
🇻🇪⚽️ Así fue el ¡PEDAZO DE GOL! de Eduard Bello que llevó a La Vinotinto al empate frente a Brasil (1-1) en el estadio Arena Pantanal en Cuiabá, por la tercera fecha de las eliminatorias sudamericanas al Mundial de 2026. pic.twitter.com/WtuGzOinA9
— ABC Noticias (@abcesnoticias) October 13, 2023
It’s just not football, but if you’d like to follow some actual live sport, Taha Hashim is your friend.
Thanks John, morning everyone. The yellow ticker of misery is nowhere to be seen on Sky Sports News, which means it’s a quiet morning in the world of football. While we wait for some news, you can do me a favour: go here and vote for someone, anyone. It doesn’t have to be me, just whichever team you think is the best based solely on performances for the England national team in the 1980s. Mine, then.
You can listen to the podcast as well if you like, it’s free and everything.
These are our XIs. The only selection criteria is performance for England in that decade, hence no Gazza, David Platt, Ray Kennedy, Trevor Cherry etc. pic.twitter.com/iYoIcoeHzP
— Nessun Dorma Podcast (@nessundormapod) October 10, 2023
And with that, I hand you over to Rob Smyth.
Jack Grealish has been something of a fringe figure for Manchester City. Can he lift his season by playing well for England? He spoke at the England camp this week.
I have never been off the back of a season like the one I had last time. I felt I was really on top of my game in the second half of it, I was playing in every big game and we had the perfect end to it. You come back in pre-season and it’s a bit like … not ‘What now?’ actually. But do you know what I mean? So, in that sense, yeah, it was a bit difficult.
John McGinn’s post-match reaction to that Scott McTominay disallowed goal in Scotland’s loss in Spain was angry, to say the least.
The big moments went against us. It’s a tough one to take but we certainly competed for long spells. It is very difficult to win here but in the circumstances it was near enough impossible.
I need to be very careful what I say. I think everyone from a Scotland point of view, whether you were on the pitch, in the stand or in the dugout, it just felt like we weren’t getting a decision. Fifty-fifty balls, going in for fair challenges and not getting them. It made it extremely difficult against a word-class team to try and get anything from the game. On the disallowed goal, McGinn added: ‘He changed it (the decision) in the game, which is the frustrating thing.
It shows that it was not clear and obvious. I am not sure if clear and obvious is a European VAR thing but at that moment Jack made a decision to step to the other side and maybe he could have stayed. Is he [Simon] going to save it? Absolutely no chance, no keeper in the world is going to save that.
‘He is saying at one point it is a foul and then he changes it when he realises it is not a foul to offside. It is a big, big moment. It does change it because that goal qualifies us because they need two goals. It is a bit of a hammer blow. I feel for big Scott. Sometimes they go for you but tonight it was never going to go for us.
Remember the name: Jaden Philogene. He’s at Hull, something of a talent factory in recent years, having been allowed to leave by Aston Villa.
Team USA had a poor Women’s World Cup and still don’t have a coach. Jeff Kassouf investigates.
Who will that coach be? It’s anyone’s guess. When will the hire be made? Not soon enough. And who will make the decision that will shape the program? One man, for all intents and purposes, who recently took over as US Soccer’s sporting director.
Matt Crocker joined US Soccer earlier this year, arriving from Southampton. Crocker previously served as head of development teams at the English FA and helped establish the “England DNA”, a concept by which all teams wearing the badge play a similar style. He hopes to bring the same approach to US Soccer.
Here’s your quiz of the week. I got 11/15, and I am rather proud of that. Still a couple that got away.
More to come on this story, possibly big implications for Newcastle and Aston Villa, and a reminder of the uncomfortable relationship between betting and football.
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) did not specify what the investigation was about but said the two midfielders were allowed to go home on the basis they are not in the right state to face upcoming matches. A statement on Thursday read: “The federation announces that this afternoon the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office has conducted investigations into players, Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo, who are currently training with the national team at the Coverciano Federal Training Centre.
Argentina maintain perfect record in World Cup qualifying
Associated Press – Lionel Messi hit a post twice after he came off the bench but struggled to deliver a strong performance following his return from injury.
Argentina still managed to beat Paraguay 1-0 in a South American World Cup qualifying match. Meanwhile Brazil and Venezuela drew 1-1, a result that left the Brazilians being booed off the pitch. That result put pressure on new Brazil coach Fernando Diniz and kept Argentina as the sole leaders of the round-robin competition with its third victory in three matches.
Argentina leads South American World Cup qualifying with 9 points, followed by Brazil (7), Colombia (5), Uruguay (4), Chile (4), Venezuela (4), Ecuador (3), Paraguay (1), Peru (1), and Bolivia (0). All 10 teams will play the fourth round on Tuesday.
The only goal of the match at the Monumental de Nunez Stadium came in the third minute after a corner kick that found Nicolás Otamendi free from marking in the penalty box. The defender smashed the ball into the net with a left-foot volley.
For the first time, Brazil failed to beat Venezuela at home. Neymar, Vinicius Júnior and Richarlison struggled the entire first half to get a clear shot on goal.
Seconds after Neymar got his first big opportunity after the break, with a shot from the edge of the box, Brazil scored its goal with an assist from the Al-Hilal player.
Neymar took a corner kick that ended in a close range header by Gabriel Magalhães in the 52nd minute at the Arena Pantanal in the city of Cuiabá, one of Brazil’s warmest at this time of the year. Venezuela kept some pressure and scored in the 85th minute with a half-bicycle by Eduardo Bello, in one of the most impressive goals of South American World Cup qualifying so far.
Earlier on Thursday, Colombia and Uruguay drew 2-2. Veteran James Rodríguez opened the scoring for the hosts in the 37th minute, and Matias Oliveira levelled shortly before the break.
Mateus Uribe put the Colombians back in front in the 52nd minute. Uruguay equalized from the spot with Darwin Núñez moments before the final whistle after being fouled by goalkeeper Camilo Vargas, who was sent off.
Ecuador beat Bolivia in La Paz 2-1 with a goal in the final moments of the match. Kendry Paéz scored for the visitors shortly before the break, and Rodrigo Ramallo equalized in the 83rd minute. Kevin Rodriguez gave Ecuador its first three points in qualifying.
Chile beat Peru 2-0. Diego Valdéz scored the first in the 74th minute and an own goal by Marcos López finished the scoring in injury time.
The big news this week – in the alternative reality of football at least – is Wayne Rooney’s return to English football and Birmingham City. Though he could have chosen a very different place to move from Washington.
“I felt for my development that my pathway was a different way,” Rooney said of Saudi interest. “That is no disrespect to any manager that has gone out there, by the way.”
Reaction to Spain 2-0 Scotland
Scotland’s manager, Steve Clarke, was remarkably phlegmatic considering the VAR decision that ruled out Scott McTominay’s goal. Still, Spain get a result against Norway and the Scots are through.
The team played well and the players are disappointed We came here determined to qualify. It hasn’t happened tonight but I think there was a lot to be pleased about in the performance. The big moment in the game is probably the close decision on the Scott McTominay goal. At the time we think it is a goal.
You know when the referee gets told to look at it he is probably going to chalk it off. They have made the call, there is no point me going on about it. I think there was a little bit confusion at the time, whether it was offside or for a foul on the keeper.
If you take those two together, Jack Hendry was marginally offside and when he steps towards the goalkeeper they have interpreted that as Jack being involved in the play but I will tell you now there is now way in the world the keeper was saving that no matter where Jack Hendry was. You just move on, it is a VAR decision that goes against you.
When we conceded it makes it more difficult and the second goal puts gloss on for Spain I don’t think they deserve.
Tonight was a first chance to qualify. It has gone beyond us. Maybe the result on Sunday night goes in our favour and we qualify from that. But we won’t qualify from that, we will qualify for the work we have done, we have 15 points from six games.
If the result doesn’t go our way and Norway then we have a very realistic chance in the two games in November to win the section.
Andy Robertson will go back to Liverpool for treatment with a shoulder injury which saw him replaced by Nathan Patterson just before the break.
Right. UEFA has changed its mind again and now McTominay’s goal WAS disallowed for offside.
Makes more sense as Hendry was in contact with the keeper on a shot on goal when offside.
Doesn’t have to be a foul, only impede. Still very harsh. pic.twitter.com/hNpXVbl6mK
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) October 12, 2023
Preamble
Morning morning from London. Here’s our regular Friday blog, with the focus this time on the international matches taking place. There’s reaction to last night’s Euro and World Cup qualifying and the round of matches following tonight. Also, there’s England v Australia buildup. Plus a full rundown of WSL matches, including a Merseyside derby and Arsenal v Aston Villa.
Join us.
