England

The pride of England, Ghana and Sunderland – and a dodgy French strip

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Asamoah by addick-tedKevin

… in which we praise the Sunderland men who graced the Wembley turf last night and introduce you to a new team strip to end arguments over our own …

Before anything else, Salut! Sunderland salutes all the SAFC players who represented their countries in the England v Ghana friendly last night. In particular, bravo Asamoah Gyan for an equaliser to cap what was, by all accounts, an excellent game and Danny Welbeck for making his first England appearance.

At this distance – M Salut is in France – you have to rely on the reports of others.

One Sunderland supporter with Wembley tickets wondered what the England fans in the family enclosure made of his celebration of Gyan’s goal. Another sent a celebratory e-mail: “Gerrin … more of that on Saturday please.”

A third, thinking also of a certain Mr Carroll, added: “Can’t say I’ve enjoyed an England goal less and cheered the opposition scoring more than tonight. Can we have that every week please Gyan!”

While all this was going on, our own Pete Sixsmith sent a text telling me Fraizer Campbell had also scored – on his return from injury in a 1-1 draw for the Reserves v WBA. There’ll be more on that, I imagine, from Pete himself a little later, but Campbell’s recovery and confidence-boosting goal can only be good for the club.

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Danny Welbeck’s England chance is Sunderland’s glory, not Manchester United’s

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Image: addick-tedKevin


A Sunderland supporter has commented elsewhere today on his unease at having three first-team players in action for Ghana tonight, with an important Premier game coming up, against a seriously below strength England.

“Is it just me, or should we be worried that we have three of our lads playing against a bunch of England B players hoping to make a name for
themselves and actually trying?” was his question, and I knew exactly what he meant.

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Soapbox on captains courageous: so who leads England out against Wales?

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The question is posed by Pete Sixsmith. who detects a subtle difference between your John Terrys and your Kevin Balls …

The big talking point on Sport on 5 last night was the England captaincy.

Mark Pougatch, David Pleat and Mike Ingham had a sustained and intense discussion about who should wear the captains armband against Wales and Ghana next week, what with Rio being injured, Stevie G being out and would JT get it back. Interesting? Not really

One startling revelation that came out was that Terry was “upset” when the armband was passed around during the multi-substitutions against Denmark and it never reached him, poor diddums.

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England, our England – provided you play for Aston Villa not Sunderland

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Elliott Brown

Andy Humble, SAFC-supporting Aussie exile and stalwart of the Blackcats list,, took the words clean out of our mouths after reading Darren Bent’s staggering comment that Fabio Capello had told him his chances of playing for England had improved because of his move from top-seven Sunderland to struggling Villa …

Having heard about this the other day, and just read more about it, I was surprised to see no further comments.

I was at least expecting Jeremy Robson to have passed comment. As no one has mentioned it, I thought I needed to vent my spleen …

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England 2 Russia 13: maybe we’re not the greatest after all

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As attentive readers will know, Monsieur Salut is in Zurich, reporting on the outcome of the Fifa vote – not for the British media but for a newspaper that is delighted with one of the decisions taken. The National, Abu Dhabi is enjoying a spot of reflected pride at Qatar’s choice for the 2022 World Cup. Meanwhile at home …

When Niall Quinn has a go, the world listens. Sunderland fans have no monopoly on admiration for their club’s chairman; he commands respect and attention throughout the game.

And Niall is deeply unhappy about Fifa’s humiliating rejection of a bid its president called outstanding and remarkable but then joined almost every other member of the committee in ignoring. Two votes, one of them the English one anyway, and summary elimination after Round One: sounds reminiscent of Sunderland’s performances in the last two relegation seasons.

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Jordan Henderson: after Chelsea glory, the Wembley grounding

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We cannot really be sure what to think about those five out of 10s in this morning’s England match reports, or the barbed “not quite ready” remarks on one debutant’s individual performance in a poor team performance. Maybe we should just be quietly content; we know how good Jordan Henderson is and it’ll do Sunderland no harm if the rest of the world, and notably the predatory “big clubs”, reach a kneejerk conclusion that he’s not – yet – such a star after all. Luke’s World oozes the common sense thoughts of Luke Harvey …

The child in me is still delirious after the weekend’s triumph but seeing our very own Jordan Henderson struggle against a disciplined French side was a slightly bitter pill to swallow.

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Doing it for England: a good day for our Lads

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Darren Bent, Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson are basking in international glory tonight after playing crucial parts in England victories …

Darren Bent off the mark for England and would have scored twice had Shaun Wright-Phillips not made a mess of an easy pass in front of goal. Not bad for a substitute, securing the 3-1 win in Switzerland after the home country had halved the lead established by Rooney and Johnson.

But it doesn’t end there.

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