England continued their perfect run in Euro 2012 qualification on Tuesday night with an impressive 3-1 win away to Switzerland. Before the match, a clash of world class club managers was touted as the main story line as Fabio Capello faced off against Ottmar Hitzfeld. Between the two, three Champions League trophies are shared, while a myriad of various domestic trophies, too many to count, are split between the two veteran managers. While England dominated the majority of the match with a few decent spells thrown in by Switzerland for good measure, here are a few observations that stuck out to me.

England are simply better than Switzerland. Not breaking much ground, but remember, it was Switzerland who were the only team to defeat eventual champions Spain during the World Cup this past summer. One couldn’t have blamed a weary England fan for being a tad bit nervous heading to Basel for what could have been a potential banana peel for the Three Lions.

When the match got down to brass tacks, it was Capello who simply boasted the better starting eleven and squad for that matter. Both teams set up in a similar formation, 4-4-2, with one forward dropping off in a more central advanced midfield role. England didn’t take long to exploit a weakness in the Swiss defense which was David Degen on the left side of midfield and Reto Zeigler at left back. Before Theo Walcott left the game on a stretcher, he was able to get at left back Zeigler on more than one occasion while it was Glenn Johnson from right back who also aided in England’s early attacks down the flank. In the 10th minute, Johnson found Rooney with a well timed cross for England’s opener.

England’s central defensive pairing of Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott were rarely bothered in the first half and held together tight when the Swiss were at their best. Maybe not tested to any extremes, but the former Everton partnership reunited on the international stage passed with flying colors.

Joe Hart is human after all. The wonder goal from Switzerland’s Xherdan Shaqiri was never going to be saved by any keeper in the world. It was a well timed brilliant strike from the 18 year old who was able to show his quality when England’s back line fell asleep for just a second. Excused for Shaqiri’s strike which he saw very late, Hart wasn’t quite his normal brilliant self yet didn’t commit anything close to a Robert Green type blunder England fans won’t soon forget from the World Cup.

On just a few occasions, Hart’s normally assured self seemed to lack confidence and was at times almost caught out because of his decision making. At only 23, no one can blame Hart thus far in his young international career. He’s only appeared a handful of times for the senior team and he’s yet to cost England a goal or points. Although Hart is easily the #1 in everyone’s book, he’s sure to make a mistake sooner or later. The real quality of Hart will be on display when England fans are able to see how he performs after a forgettable performance for England.

Wayne Rooney is best playing just behind a central striker, but can still score goals. Of course we knew this didn’t we? 34 goals in all competitions for Manchester United last season playing further up the pitch than ever before may have clouded thoughts on where Rooney is best played. Depends on what you want out of him really, goals or creating them? Is Rooney as complete an England player as there currently is? On Tuesday night, all of his footballing abilities were on display. He scored England’s first when Glen Johnson found him after a well timed run into the box, a natural striker’s ability. Yet he continually dropped back into midfield to pick up the ball in order to spread play further forward to Jermaine Defoe or to the wings through James Milner or Adam Johnson.

Maybe Rooney had something to prove with all the off-the-field hype concerning his private life, or maybe his recent dip in form has sparked him to prove his critics wrong on the pitch. Whatever the reason, or whether he’s creating goals or scoring them, Rooney is most effective when he’s involved in build up play. Whether he picks out a killer ball or scores from a movement he’s had a large hand in, Rooney is best just behind a central striker but always a dangerous goal scoring threat.

Adam Johnson and not Theo Walcott is the answer to England’s right side of midfield. He doesn’t quite have the explosive pace that Walcott does, but he’s more effective than the Arsenal winger and a better decision maker. Still young in his England career, Johnson is the type of player who embodies someone who’s about to make something happen. Upon his entry into the match after Walcott’s injury, Johnson showed his class by touching the ball out to himself and spinning around the aforementioned Ziegler who surely must now be happy he’s done facing England’s right side. Johnson crossed into Defoe who should have done better, but it took just a few seconds for Johnson to leave his stamp on a game he just entered into. Johnson’s also a quality finisher as he showed with his second half 69th minute goal. He narrowly avoided being caught offside and was found by Steven Gerrard when he cut into the middle from the right and side stepped the keeper to slot home.

England can pass the ball after all. Was it just me, or did England seem to almost ping the ball around the pitch with a bit of swagger? After all the hoopla concerning their tired performance in South Africa, this new look England seems to have rediscovered their mojo as the squad settle into a new season of club football. England played with confidence, little to no fear and dominated possession against the Swiss while they fairly easily broke down a Swiss defense once said to be difficult to penetrate.

Frank Lampard’s services were definitely not missed as a quiet and confident Steven Gerrard and Gareth Barry had their way in the center of the pitch while midfield foes Pirmin Schwegler and Gokhan Inler chased aimlessly.

The unconvinced will point to England’s ability to usually coast through qualification while they fail on the big stage at major tournaments. Yet this is an England squad only a few years removed from the dreadful qualification of Euro 2008, a tournament they failed to participate in. England fans must take the wins on Friday and Tuesday in stride and place them into the overall grand scheme of the England team within the past year. It’s been a great start to a new chapter in the England book, yet still a flawed script that hopefully ends rewarding.

In a quite odd turn of events, former Italy captain and World Cup 2006 winner Fabio Cannavaro believes John Terry is soon likely to face the ax when next Fabio Capello calls upon players for Euro 2012 qualifiers. In a recent interview with the Daily Star Sunday, Cannavaro spoke openly about John Terry and how not to ‘cross’ Capello, or stand in line to suffer the consequences.

“You don’t cross Fabio and he won’t want anybody disrupting his tournament again“, was just one of a few loaded quotes the former Juventus man gave members of the press. Cannavaro also stated he believed Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole to likely be the only two remaining starters left from a vanquished England squad that fell so dramatically at the hands of the Germans come the opening match of the Euro 2012.

All of this rings slightly odd to me because Cannavaro, now at Al-Ahli Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, really isn’t the person to be coming out speaking about the England national team. Now in the twilight of his career, Cannavaro has of course had a fantastic run, but most recently in the 2010 World Cup, he looked one or two steps off the pace. His Italian side were a shell of their former selves from the team that won the tournament four years earlier failing to even progress out of a relatively easy group stage. So why has Cannavaro chosen to target Terry?

England fans will have expected change from Capello before the next round of meaningful qualification matches begin. But to see Terry axed so quickly especially while central defensive partner Rio Ferdinand’s fitness is still a major concern would definitely come as a surprise to many an England fan.

The rest of Cannavaro’s interview played out as a suck up to his former boss while at Real Madrid. I for one don’t blame him as Capello is such an imposing figure, but the question here is does Cannavaro have a point?

John Terry did take a pretty hefty risk when he called out Capello in South Africa in hopes the boss would take Terry & co’s suggestions to heart and start Joe Cole in the crucial game v Slovenia. Brushed under the rug as if a minor distraction at the time, did Capello have the dropping of Terry in his plans all along as soon as the World Cup was over?

I personally think it’s too early to drop Terry as tested and viable replacements at the center of defense aren’t currently a dime a dozen in England. When Matthew Upson saw action against Germany, he looked unstable at times and was caught out when Germany scored their opener through Miroslav Klose. Ledley King is far too injury prone to be counted on, Michael Dawson had a great year with Spurs but didn’t seem to be in Capello’s plans during the summer and Rio Ferdinand is slowly recovering from the injury that saw him miss the tournament all together. Before we start mentioning the up and coming talent at the back, let’s wait and see who Capello picks for England’s next match, a friendly v Hungary on the 11th of August.

As much as Capello would have hated Terry’s ill-timed outburst in South Africa, he’ll need his experience at the back to build around regardless of what Fabio Cannavaro thinks. On Terry’s end, he’ll want to remember he’s no longer captain of the national team and although he thinks he has England’s best intentions at heart, Capello is the boss and Terry should stick to what he knows best, which is defending.

In the crucial last 16 clash v Germany, England boss Fabio Capello elected to stick with his winning eleven that saw off Slovenia in the last group stage match. Unchanged and with growing confidence, England took the field against one of, if not their most hated international rival. The footballing history between the 2 countries span multiple decades, but it was all meaningless on the day when the whistle blew for kickoff. A place in the quarter finals beckoned and with all the pre game hype over, it was now time for football to do the talking.

Germany came closest to scoring early through Mesut Ozil but was easily denied by David James at the near post. The opening 15 minutes saw England’s determination in full view, but the match remained very tight and very tense. In the 20th, England thought it appropriate to take a nap during a World Cup round of 16 clash with their most hated international rival, something the England back line would perfect throughout the evening. Manuel Neuer played a long ball straight into the path of Miroslav Klose who held off Matthew Upson to slot past James. Shocking stuff as England were beaten at their own game.

For the duration of the first half, England continued to play very narrow and looked slightly confused at times as to where to play the ball. It didn’t matter, as Germany seemingly had their way with England’s back line throughout the first half. Matthew Upson and John Terry were inept for a decent stretch that resulted in Germany scoring twice and taking a commanding 2 goal lead. It looked all but over for England who hadn’t capitulated just yet.

England fought back through Matthew Upson who redeemed himself with a header to pull England back within a goal in the 37th minute. England’s attack quickly sprung into motion as seconds later, in a moment that will go down in World Cup history, Frank Lampard brilliantly chipped Manuel Neuer for England’s equalizer, only it wasn’t given.

In one of the all time World Cup refereeing blunders, Lampard’s clear goal to level the score wasn’t awarded, and a nation, hell, a world continued to wonder when, if ever, FIFA will implement some form of goal line technology. As the halftime whistle blew, players and fans across the world were able to catch their respective breaths as FIFA head Sepp Blatter contemplated the eventual backlash. An incredibly exciting game for the neutral, but England fans left robbed.

England pushed and pushed during the second half with mixed results. Capello elected to replace James Milner with Joe Cole to add some attacking flair to the front line, but England were too easily caught on the break in the 67th and 70th by Thomas Muller all but ending the game in the Germans favor. Credit England for going for it, but the three lions left themselves too thin at the back and Germany took advantage.

The eventual scoreline doesn’t lie. Germany were quick on the break and linked up well with each other over the course of the 90 minutes. They proved their quality and were simply better than England even if the three lions did have a perfectly legitimate goal disallowed.

Still, England fans will forever question the disallowed goal and how England would have approached the game entirely different at the start of the second half had the score been even at 2. Regardless, England go home and Germany move on as the world footballing community are left to ponder if we’ll ever see goal line technology or instant replay introduced into the game by FIFA.

Contact Jesse on Twitter: @JesseChula

Every country has its historic matches that will never be forgotten and England’s rich World Cup history provides many celebrated games. Say phrases like “1966 World Cup”, “hand of God”, “David Beckham free kick”, “Gazza”, or “losing to penalties” to an England fan and watch his eyes light up with pleasure or grief thinking about the matches that define the England National Team.

Sometimes these great, historic games are not the matches that you remember (for no other reason than maybe not being alive at the time). You may take these famous matches into historical perspective but you actually remember the games that, for some reason, speak to you in some way or other. It could be as simple as a goal that you find stunning, the debut of a player you particularly like, or your club players carrying the side. It could just be that the game represents to you a particular time in history for the team.

Here are five England matches (and an honorable mention) I find particularly memorable.  While not necessarily a list of the best England matches I’ve seen, these are the ones I will never forget.

• Against Scotland in 1996

What I most remember about this match is Gazza’s flick over the Scottish defense that was followed by the famous celebration in this two goal win.

• Against Argentina in 1998

I fondly remember this match for a very young Michael Owen dribbling past the Argentine defense to score an inspired goal. Not so fondly remembered is the David Beckham red card and loss to penalties.

• Against Germany in 2001

If beating Germany wasn’t enough, this game featured three of my club’s players score five goals against the opposition.

• Against Greece in 2001

The amazing David Beckham spot kick merits this match an inclusion on my list of memorable matches.

• Against Argentina in 2005

I’ll never forget this back-and-forth match that resulted in a win over Argentina. By now, you can probably guess who my favorite England player was in the past.

• Honorable Mention – Against Croatia in 2010.

To relate this back to the approaching World Cup we’re all anticipating, I find this recent match memorable because it displays the goal scoring ability of the current crop of players.

It seems my fear, dread and worry over the past few months has somehow manifested itself into an Atlantic Ocean-traveling orb of negativity. It’s left my old injured knee in Southeastern America, and traveled the 4,000 some miles to Manchester, England and snuck into the knee of the man I place my footballing hopes and dreams upon, Mr. Wayne Rooney.

My reverse self-fulfilling prophecy that Rooney would somehow pick up a niggle, knack or knock has consumed my days, nights and worst nightmares for the better part of 2010. My negative thoughts were justified last Sunday when I read a tweet that sees ”squeaky bum time” approaching from The Times Oliver Kay that went something like this:

“Something to clutch at for #arsenal and #chelsea fans: Rooney limping as he left Old Trafford with Mrs R. Six days to recover for Bolton tho”

I immediately got that sinking feeling. You know, the one you get when you find out your girl is getting off with your best mate behind your back, or the one you get when you’ve been asked to speak in front of a room of total strangers. I knew this was going to happen and in some minor way I feel like I’ve contributed to this injury. For that, I apologize.

I suppose the sky may not be totally falling and my hopes are that I’ve reached the extent of my over exaggeration. Initial reports suggest Rooney may be rested for this weekend’s trip to Bolton and that the injury, for the most part, hasn’t kept Rooney from playing for United, but largely just caused him discomfort and swelling after matches. As bad an omen as a swollen knee sounds, shouldn’t a bit of rest and rehab see the knock cured?

I do realize though that I don’t need to go into detail just how valuable Rooney is for club and country in the upcoming months. I realize there’s no reason for me to mention the Champions League quarter-final v Bayern Munich (hopefully followed by a semi and a final), or the all important business end of the Premier League season as United hold in their hands their fourth title in a row, or that small little event this summer where 32 countries will all be involved, so I won’t mention any of those massive events.

So here we stand Manchester United and England supporters, a handful of matches left to win an unprecedented fourth title in a row, and a slightly bigger handful of days until England kick a ball in anger against the United States. Our hero, our little buddy, our friend, is facing the most important run of fixtures he’ll likely see in his young career.

Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? Or, is this knee knock really something to be concerned about? The last thing I want to experience again is a World Cup Finals with an unfit Rooney. Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.

Whatever your opinion, there’s a lot riding on that English knee, and I for one hope it sorts itself out sooner rather than later.

Until Fabio Capello took the wheel at England FC, I had this vision of an England World Cup qualifier 40 years from now:

England are facing Croatia (who else) in a must-win fixture. The Three Lions are playing with ten men, though nobody’s been ejected. On 25 minutes, Luca Modric III goes in for an ugly slide tackle. The whistle blows. Play stops. England win the kick.

That’s when the medical staff roll him out. The crowd erupts in a fevered cheer. As Croatia compose their wall, the attendants park him three feet from the ball. The crowd becomes silent. The legend rises from his wheelchair, the wind rustling his gray mohawk. Standing, he seems to regain the stature and strength of his youth. He looks at his target, strides to the ball, then scoops it powerfully into the crisp London air. It arcs over the jumping Croatians and sails toward the target. At first it seems like the ball will go over, but at the last minute it dips into the top corner as the keeper flails in vain.

1-0 to England.

An attendant rushes to grab Sir David Beckham’s arm as the 74-year-old winger loses his balance. The attendant helps him back to his chair and they wheel him back to the sidelines to wait for the next set play.

I really thought they’d never stop playing Beckham. Even as his endurance faded and younger, faster players grew restless on the bench, no one would push this great talent from the team. For England’s Operation Get To The Next World Cup to succeed I thought they’d need to drop David Beckham. Especially after they failed to qualify for the Euro. Yes, he still had gas in his tanks, but it was more important, I thought, to season the next generation than to cling to the old stalwart. Don’t play him just to get him to the 100 match landmark, I thought.

England needs its young wingers to have considerable international experience to really make an impact on 2010. But it’s been so hard to ween England off Beckham and give the younger men their pitch hours.

I can see why.

Beckham can still airmail that ball right where he wants it, whenever he wants to. A million yards out and he’ll tuck his foot into just the right spot and the thing swerves across the pitch and ends up a foot in front of Rooney’s head or it bounces off Gerrard’s chest or it bounces off the goal post and in. We’ve seen it for so many years you’d think we wouldn’t be impressed any more. But it’s a thrilling thing of beauty every time. It’s the skill that makes him a legend. Nobody does it better. At least not for England. After seeing it millions of times, it is still amazing to behold. Like the first two Godfather films.

I really didn’t think he’d last this long. Whenever he got called up, I’d think: Why are they still playing him so much? He’s not going to be going strong at the next World Cup! Get the next generation ready! He wasn’t going to have the pace to keep up with the young internationals coming up through the other countries’ teams.

But what he misses out on in pace at 34, he makes up for with the fact he doesn’t need to get deep down the wing to launch the ball into the danger zone. He can lose his defender in shallower regions of the pitch and curl the service into the attackers with deadly precision.

He’s not going to fit into the playbill in every situation. But in Capello, England finally have a manager who sees that and who will give the likes of Walcott, Lennon and Wright-Phillips their chances each to make Beckham’s place their own. This is the time to ease him out without discarding him totally. Beckham still has something invaluable to give, but the others have a mark to make and need the time to do so. Capello seems to get this and strives to keep the balance. He won’t play Beckham for the sake of playing Beckham as McClaren so often did. He’ll follow the needs of the situation.

Still…

Bend it like Walcott? Bend it like Lennon? Bend it like SWP?

These boys have pace and skills and one of them can blossom into England’s next legendary wide right man. But the Three Lions will miss that one particular artistry that only David Beckham brings. Bending it like himself.

We’ll see a few more of them arc home yet, though. Before his curtain falls.

The Guardian is reporting that Setanta Sports in the United Kingdom has reached a series of deals with several television providers to go unencrypted and offer its own highlight program for tonight’s match between Croatia and England.  The program starts at 10:45 PM British time, and will feature highlights of both the England match and Scotland’s World Cup qualifier with Iceland.

This comes after Setanta rejected several last-hour deals for the highlights, including a 500,000 pound offer from FA broadcast contract partner ITV.  Setanta said that none of the offers made by free-to-air broadcasters reflected the value of the network’s investment to obtain the rights.  Free-to-air broadcasters had previously accused Setanta of putting an overly high price tag (1 million pounds) on the highlights.  The impasse resulted in no highlights being made available free-to-air in the UK for this past Satuday’s match against Andorra.

We are barely a month into the new four year contract that saw England national team matches move from the BBC and Sky to ITV and Setanta, but already Setanta, despite its smaller reach and operation, is playing tough.  The Times Online is reporting that Setanta has yet to reach a deal with any broadcaster for match highlights of England’s away World Cup qualifiers with Andorra and Croatia, which take place in less than two weeks.  The impasse, if not settled quickly, will leave England fans unable to see the matches in any form without a Setanta subscription.

According to the FA’s television contract, ITV automatically gets to air a highlights package for any home England match shown on Setanta.  However, television rights for England’s away matches are owned by the host country, who are free to sell to whomever they want.  In November 2007, Setanta won the rights to all but one of England’s away qualifiers through deals with media distribution companies Sportfive and Kentaro.  As such, Setanta is free to do whatever with these match highlights, and the FA is powerless to stop them.

The situation is not that simple though.  Let’s consider where Setanta stands right now.  Yes, the company is still not profitable at this point, and it needs more subscriptions.  But Setanta is dealing with an image problem right now in Great Britain.  Its broadcast of England’s friendly with the Czech Republic last week was met with mostly mixed reviews, and an audience half the size of the highlights program on ITV later that night.  Setanta just can’t seem to shake the image of being a poor value version of Sky.  And while that’s ok (for now) with the Premier League, who are required by the European Commission to offer some matches to a second TV service, the FA has no such issue.  They have to honor the current contract, but there is no reason for them to stay after that if they don’t feel Setanta is a good partner.  The FA wants as much coverage of its team as they can get, and they’ll turn up the heat on Setanta to give these rights to someone.

If a deal is not reached, the FA and Setanta will hear about it from a lot of quarters.  They’ll hear about how, in just one month, Setanta will have done something that Sky never did in many years when it had the rights.  Never mind that, with the total control of the market they have long had, Sky could afford to be a little generous.  Suddenly, Setanta’s image among fans goes from being a poor man’s Sky to being greedy broadcasters who kept a nation of fans in the dark.  Not a step in the right direction for any company, profitable or not.

Setanta is under no obligation to sell the highlights of these matches, but my guess is they will.  A public relations fight is not a way to get new subscribers watching Setanta, and its also a bad way to start a new broadcast partnership.  There’s no good ending here.  The company will have to take their lumps and move on.  After all, with profitability still eluding them, Setanta has much bigger fights to be concerned about.

You have to hand it to the Premier League at times; when it decides they really want to shoot a hole in their foot, they know how to do it with little effort.

The Guardian broke an exclusive story today on comments made by Sir David Richards, chairman of the Premier League for the last nine years, to a conference in Dubai late last month.  In the comments, Richards basically dismisses the League’s insistance it has nothing to do with the downfall of the England National Team, telling the group that the member clubs don’t develop young players because of how easy it is to go out and buy stars.  He goes even farther after that, telling the crowd that, for all intents and purposes, the league led to the firing of Steve McClaren as England manager due to an inability to get the best players.

Richards told the Guardian that he did make the comments (hard to deny given the audio available on the newspaper’s website), but that they weren’t quite what he had meant.  The league, for its part, later released a statement saying “These comments do not represent the collective view of the Premier League.”  While that maybe true, and while the real power of the league is in the hands of the club owners, it doesn’t change the fact that one of the most senior members of Premier League management has told the world the league is holding England back.  And now it will have to figure out a way to extract itself from this mess without looking like it is just punishing a man for thinking differently.

This sort of problem is hardly a new development for the league; just look back at game 39.  If you look at the league’s initial announcement, the plans given were loose at best and showed very little work had been done both inside and outside the league in tying it down.  The PL basically went in believing that the its stature would give them what they wanted in time.  Instead, the league found itself hammered by all fronts, varying from FIFA and the FA to other national football federation and its own supporters.  Facing this tidal wave, the league’s response was scattershot, letting itself and the plan get destroyed until they finally surrendered.  The league ended up with weeks of bad headlines and didn’t even get what it wanted in the end, a clear public relations loss.

And then there is the constant accusations of the league being top-heavy, repeated again recently by Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan, a debate the league never truly gets away from.

These situations show one difficult truth: for all the enemies it has, the Premier League’s greatest enemy is themselves.  Because of its different member clubs, it has a hard time keeping a straight story.  But this is true for every soccer league, and yet the PL seem to be the most unable to put its house in order, or at least hide the rough spots.  For better or for worse, these teams need to accept that it has to work together to face its critics, or it will keep losing its public relations battles.  Unity is not in the individual teams best interests, but it should be the league’s highest interest.  This has already cost them in the past, and without a change, it’s guaranteed to do so again.