I remembered reading Austria team manager Andreas Herzog saying that they are determined to "be in the race for second place until the very end" in terms of their 2010 World Cup qualifying group campaign. The first-placed team in each group (there are nine in all) in the European zone automatically earn a ticket to South Africa and the second-placed team in each team will go to the play-offs.
The former Austrian international actually said that (what was in the first paragraph) ahead of their match against France. The end result did created shockwaves throughout the continent. 3-1 to them. Definitely the start new coach Karel Brueckner wanted. But it was a disasterous start to the qualifiers for France coach Raymond Domenech. Austria's next match is at Lithuania and their next opponents had already beaten Romania at home on last Saturday. While Brueckner was modest after his side beat the French as he merely said that he just continued (his predecessor Josef) Hickersberger's work, he knew it's only just the beginning. Lithuania is next, and they had already beaten Romania at their own backyard.
The reason I brought that up is because, I still carry a small spot for Austria after Euro 2008. And maybe given of their land size (Singapore is small too), is something this born and bred Singaporean can relate to. Austria don't deserve all the talk that they are easily beatable and even as a Germany supporter myself, I want them to try to get back to where they used to belong long before their bigger neighbours Germany took the spotlight in international football (I don't care if I have a few more enemies after I throw down the gauntlet). And I hope, maybe England can take heart ahead of the Croatia match that so what it was Croatia who was in Euro 2008 and they were not? Yes, it will be a case of seeking a fresh campaign. Seeking the maximum points even though it will be played in Zagreb. I raised that because I was reading in the today's edition of the TODAY paper about the state of Croatian football via the UK's The Observer, Croatia have never lost a game when they play in Zagreb.
Hang on. Italy managed to beat Germany at their favourite hunting ground at Dortmund during the 2006 World Cup semi-final. But anyway, more 2010 World Cup qualifiers on Wednesday and the most intriuging match in the European zone, it has to be the Croatia-England match. After all, it's qualifying points at stake. Also, Holland officially begin their campaign with a tricky trip to Macedonia in Bert van Marwijk's first competitive match in charge. A trip to Finland awaits Germany after the 6-0 win over Liechtenstein. And Finland are no easy meat actually.
This is a piece of good news ahead of the trip to Zagreb for the England squad - Rio Ferdinand resumed training with his England team-mates today, and he will be travelling with the squad for the next match. Joe Cole had twice got his name on the scoresheet in the friendly against the Czechs and the two goals against Andorra was also scored by the Chelsea winger. He is being tipped to finally win over new England manager Fabio Capello and force his way into the starting line-up for Wednesday's crunch World Cup qualifier against Croatia in Zagreb. For the man who is pretty much at the main centre of attention these days, he told his England team-mates not to underestimate Croatia for the second tournament in a row. Cole did admitted the last time they met Croatia during the Euro 2008 qualifiers, they underestimated their opponents and were a bit naive. Now it does make me wonder as a Germany supporter during Euro 2008...did Germany underestimated them ahead of their group encounter at Euro 2008? The 2-1 win to Slaven Bilic's side was seen as something major to Croatia and it shook the Germans up from their 'sleep' that they are actually not really invincible.
So, it will be more of the same from Lukas Podolski when the Germas take on Finland in Helsinki. The Germans know all about Finland from their past encounters (during the 2002 World Cup group qualifiers, it was a 2-2 draw at Helsinki and a 0-0 draw back home which eventually saw Germany through after winning in the play-offs over Ukraine given England topped the group and automatically qualify). The Finns are all abuzz with striker Daniel Sjolund saying - "A full stadium and Germany as opponent, what else could one ask for? I hope we get a great result to boot." Finland beat Israel in a friendly last month which English coach Stuart Baxter said had showcased Finnish technical skills and team spirit.
I remembered I heaved a sigh of relief when Miroslav Klose finally ended his goal-scoring drought at the club level where he scored through a penalty in Bayern Munich's 4-1 win over Hertha Berlin coming into the international break. Even the commentator noted how many minutes since the last time the Germany striker scored for his club (forgot now). Anyhow, the situation is very much different for the top goalscorer for the 2006 World Cup at the moment and with Klose's goal-scoring instincts for the national team coming under scrutiny by the German media, he has been backed by his fellow team-mates on the national side to recover from his goalscoring drought. England's Wayne Rooney is not the only one having a problem to score of late when it comes to international football.
Before the trip to Helsinki, Philipp Lahm and Piotr Trochowski spoke to the media. For Lahm, he believes Germany's 6-0 win over Liechtenstein sent out a clear message to Europe's elite. Okaay...the win might had more or less signalled that the Euro 2008 losing finalists has gotten over the disappointment in Vienna but in all respect, and as much I don't like to sound like a grandmother, Finland is then the real test for Germany. It's hard to imagine Trochowski was actually only a fringe player during Euro 2008 but he has been doing well post-Euro 2008 for the national side. It might had helped that Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings are absent at the moment but he sees no reason to believe he will lose his place when they return.
It actually took me almost a month after Euro 2008 to realise what actually happened between Ballack and Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff after the final whistle in Vienna given it was reported all over the place in the German press that both men were involved in some conflict or something. And after I made my personal 'investigation', it made me shook my head. Lifting it from the Sporting Life website (given now there's new developments between the two men over the conflict) - The pair clashed at the end of the Euro 2008 final defeat to Spain when Ballack refused to follow Bierhoff's orders and hold up a banner to thank the fans. The Chelsea midfielder instead made a personal gesture to the Germany fans by applauding them and exchanging consoling words in front of the stands at the Ernst-Happel Stadion. And since then, it looked like there's a cold war between Bierhoff and Ballack. It's back on, even after the German FA (DFB) had asked them to resolve their differences last Tuesday when the national team met in Munich.
You know it's serious when even the DFB did stepped in to try to defuse the conflict (today, even the DFB president Theo Zwangier reminded everyone that we still have a qualifier at hand). It was being reignited in Oliver Bierhoff's post-match reaction after the 6-0 win in Liechtenstein on Saturday ("The national team has played well without Michael Ballack and is not dependent on him."). Ballack was absent because of injury and the Chelsea midfielder hit back in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Sunday - "The national team has won games before Oliver Bierhoff was manager and it will not be decisive for our future success whether Bierhoff is manager or not." As much as I hate to say but still - Boys! When will they ever learn? I think even my own younger brother (who has not hit adult age yet), is better behaved than the two grown-ups at the centre of the storm.
Speaking to the kicker magazine today, VfB Stuttgart coach Armin Veh hopes goalkeeper Jens Lehmann will not retire when his contract expires next summer. The 38-year-old signed a one-year contract when he made a free transfer from Arsenal in June, but Veh hopes he will extend that deal. Former Stuttgart keeper Timo Hilderbrand was also rumoured to make a return to Germany given reports pointing the current Valencia goalkeeper appears to have fallen out of favour in Spain and was reportedly close to signing for Hoffenheim on transfer deadline day. But, Veh cannot imagine him returning to the club.
So while Schalke's Jefferson Farfan and Orlando Engelaar have returned to training ahead of the Rhur derby against Borussia Dortmund, the goalkeeping problems have grown. Now Mathias Schober, who has been a stand-in for Manuel Neuer (he got injured in pre-season), got injured during training. The team doctor has said that Schober will be out for a few weeks. And this means...Ralf Fährmann to step in. And, former German international Mario Basler on Monday took over as coach of fourth division Trier. The 39-year-old ex-Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen and Kaiserlautern star has his work cut out at a club who have taken just one point in three games and are second from bottom of their league. Actually, Basler had been coaching second division Koblenz since the summer of 2007.
Football thought of the day: Bummer. I was thinking even though at the moment former Chelsea fan favourite Gianfranco Zola is currently in the lead to take the West Ham job to succeed Alan Curbishley (because Croatia coach and former West Ham player Slaven Bilic says he is not going there), former Danish international Michael Laudrup (whose one-season stint with La Liga side Getafe helped raised his profile especially given they unfortunately lost to Bayern Munich in the second-leg of the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup last year with the Spanish press all in unison that it was quite heartbreaking in how Getafe was being knocked out of the tournament) will take the job although he has been seen as the outside bet. Not as of today. Don't ask me why I want to see Laudrup to be the West Ham manager but, he will be actually heading to Spartak Moscow. Definitely a coup for the Russian side after Stanislav Cherchesov was dismissed after Spartak lost to former Soviet rivals Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League qualifiers. Bummer indeed but still, Russian football has been on the rise lately.
'No Easy Games' Finally True In Europe? (Looking back over yesterday's World Cup qualifying results in Europe, Goal.com's Ewan Macdonald feels that the cliché of "no easy games anymore" may finally be coming true...)
Allofs: Bronze will boost Diego (While visiting Home of FIFA as part of a delegation from leading German club Werder Bremen, former Germany international Klaus Allofs, now general manager at the north German club, stopped for a chat with FIFA.com. Allofs was a member of the German team that won the 1980 UEFA European Championship and finished runners-up at the 1986 FIFA World Cup Mexico.)
