Fabio Capello will give some squad members their last chance to impress in
friendly against Japan on Sunday.

No related posts.

A sign viewed at the USA – Czech Republic friendly earlier in the week.

They get marks for effort, particularly with the clever implication Landon Donovan was planted on loan in England as some sort of spy (English flag on the chest and all), but the consensus is cutting off Wayne Rooney’s head would merely piss him off, thus scoring eight goals rather than two.

The smart move would be cutting off Don Fabio’s noggin’ – he’s the brains of the operation.

[Spotted on The Spoiler.]

Is there really anything left to learn or should Fabio Capello give team to
face USA 90 minutes together in final warm up?

No related posts.

Before you look at the list of coaches and the numbers, do yourself a favour and have a guess at how those numbers pan out. What do you think the average age of the World Cup coaches will be? How many coaches are in their forties? What percentage of World Cup teams have a foreign coach? Which country has the most coaches at World Cup 2010? Ignore the image of three German passports above, take a best guess at those numbers and then read on for the answers…

Team – Coach (coach nationality) coach age
Algeria – Rabah Saâdane (Algeria) 64
Argentina – Diego Maradona (Argentina) 49
Australia – Pim Verbeek (Netherlands) 54
Brazil – Dunga (Brazil) 46
Cameroon – Paul Le Guen (France) 46
Chile – Marcelo Bielsa (Argentina) 54
Cote d’Ivoire – Sven-Göran Eriksson (Sweden) 62
Denmark – Morten Olsen (Denmark) 60
England – Fabio Capello (Italy) 63
France – Raymond Domenech (France) 58
Germany – Joachim Löw (Germany) 50
Ghana – Milovan Rajevac (Serbia) 56
Greece – Otto Rehhagel (Germany) 71
Honduras – Reinaldo Rueda (Colombia) 53
Italy – Marcello Lippi (Italy) 62
Japan – Takeshi Okada (Japan) 53
Mexico – Javier Aguirre (Mexico) 51
Netherlands – Bert van Marwijk (Netherlands) 58
Nigeria – Lars Lagerbäck (Sweden) 61
North Korea – Kim Jong-Hun (North Korea) 53
New Zealand – Ricki Herbert (New Zealand) 49
Paraguay – Gerardo Martino (Argentina) 47
Portugal – Carlos Queiroz (Portugal) 57
Serbia – Radomir Antić (Serbia) 61
Slovakia – Vladimír Weiss (Slovakia) 45
Slovenia – Matjaž Kek (Slovenia) 48
South Africa – Carlos Alberto Parreira (Brazil) 67
South Korea – Huh Jung-Moo (South Korea) 55
Spain – Vicente del Bosque (Spain) 59
Switzerland – Ottmar Hitzfeld (Germany) 61
USA – Bob Bradley (USA) 52
Uruguay – Oscar Tabárez (Uruguay) 63

So let’s break this down. First by how many years these coaches have seen.

Seven World Cup coaches are in their forties. Fourteen World Cup coaches are in their fifties. Ten World Cup coaches are in their 60s. Just one World Cup coach is in his seventies.

Otto Rehhagel is that old man of the group at 71 years old. Even though he only looks about 50. Vladimír Weiss is the baby at 45 years old. The total ages of all coaches combined is 1,788 years. Which is a lot of experience. Average age is 55.875 years old.

Second, nationality. A total of 20 teams have native coaches. Those 20 teams are:
Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, North Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, USA, Uruguay. Well done you guys.

A total of 12 teams have gone foreign, hiring non-native coaches. Those 12 teams are:
Australia, Cameroon, Chile, Cote d’Ivoire, England, Ghana, Greece, Honduras, Nigeria, Paraguay, South Africa, Switzerland. Please try harder next time (though Switzerland gets a semi-pass since Ottmar Hitzfeld is considered almost Swiss by some).

So that means 62.5% of teams have native coaches, while 37.5% don’t. Native coaches are in the majority, but that 37.5% seems like a whole lot of foreigners.

Here are the nationalities with more than one coach at the World Cup:

3 – Argentina, Germany
2 – Brazil, France, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Sweden

It’s incredible to me that Argentinean coaches are well respected enough to be in demand by other nations, and yet Diego Maradona is in charge of the albiceleste. But perhaps the strangest fact is that there are three coaches at the World Cup who come countries whose team didn’t qualify. They are Sven-Göran Eriksson and Lars Lagerbäck of Sweden, and Reinaldo Rueda of Colombia. And here’s what you’ll want to say if you’re outraged by a foreigner managing your national team. Derka derb.

David Beckham has been proving his worth to England squad by helping winger
Theo Walcott deliver crosses into the right places.

No related posts.

England manager admits he is “very hopeful” of Gareth Barry being fit for the
World Cup despite ankle injury.

No related posts.

England winger Theo Walcott believes he has proved that he deserves to go to
the World Cup on merit this time.

No related posts.