11.10 England - Kazakhstan

[dzonnovak]

11.10 18.15

England - Kazakhstan 1.07 8 19.41

[Lederator84]

England will win this game, but maybe they warm up in first half as they did against underdogs sometimes in the past, means HT 0/FT 1 looks not bad , but it's maybe two or three says too early to decide here.

[dzonnovak]

England

James (Portsmouth), Green (West Ham), Carson (West Brom); Brown (Manchester United), Johnson (Portsmouth), Terry (Chelsea), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Lescott (Everton), Upson (West Ham), A Cole (Chelsea), Bridge (Chelsea); Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Walcott (Arsenal), Barry (Aston Villa), Jenas (Tottenham), Lampard (Chelsea), Gerrard (Liverpool), Downing (Middlesbrough), Wright-Phillips (Manchester City); Heskey (Wigan), Crouch (Portsmouth), Rooney (Manchester United), Defoe (Portsmouth).

[dzonnovak]

Captain John Terry was one of four absentees from England training on Tuesday ahead of Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan. He was joined by club team-mate Ashley Cole, Manchester United's Wes Brown and Stewart Downing of Middlesbrough.

Info: BBC

[Lederator84]

Originally Posted by dzonnovak

Captain John Terry was one of four absentees from England training on Tuesday ahead of Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan. He was joined by club team-mate Ashley Cole, Manchester United's Wes Brown and Stewart Downing of Middlesbrough.

Info: BBC

it's even more important that Joe Cole plays on Saturday

[szorstak]

Capello told that it will be last time for Gerrad and lampard to convice him that they can play together in central MF.
nice call with ht/ft Lederator84

[The Strongest Weed]

Kazakh sports news website, sports.kz, has posted a report on the upcoming game that lists the infamous defeats suffered by England, including the defeats by Croatia in 2007 and Australia in 2003 on home soil. The report also says that when they hear Kazakhstan Britons think of Borat. This movie has by the way been banned in Kazakhstan.

I wonder why the list only includes defeats, not the draw with Macedonia, for example. They really expect to win?

[The Strongest Weed]

On the other hand, Berndt Schtork, who coaches the national team, has called many new players in an attempt to rejuvenate the team. Kazakhstan wants to build a new team from young players that recently beat Poland's U-21 team.

[dzonnovak]

Terry is out due to injury

[Rossoneri]

First of all I would like to say: forget about the 4-1 win against Croatia, when your deciding bets on this match. That game really has minimal relevance to this one. No way England will get as much space against a Kazakhstan side that should most likely play with a lot of men behind the ball. Terry is out for England but in a game like this, does it really matter? For me the key will be in the middle and on the flanks.

Reading the news it looks like Stevie G will very likely start alongside Lampard after missing the last 2 games through injury. The two English stars, despite their talents, rarely played well together for England. The critics think in most of the games they play together Gerrard had to sacrifice his attacking game to compensate for Lampard's surging-forward. Gerrard said himself that he has only been used in his favourite role on 5 occasions. However, with Barry coming into the picture, Capello could really try something like this:

----------------------------James------------------------

--Johnson/Brown--Ferdinand (c)---Lescott/Upson----A.Cole

----------------------------Barry-------------------------

----------------Lampard---------------Gerrard-------------

------Walcott------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------Heskey

---------------------------Rooney----------------------------

England will need width to break a congested Kazakh defence and Walcott's pace could cause a lot of trouble on the right flank. Heskey used to play on the left wing under Sven so he should feel comfortable drifting out wide. SWP's inclusion by Capello will also provide an alternative should Walcott have an off-day. Joe Cole's abscence is a blow in this kind of games as he's a player who can take on players and create chances as well as taking them.

Kazakhstan's care-take manager Bernd Storck will make some wholesale changes as he try to build a team for the future. Storck had been working as assistant managers during his time in Germany and only this year he became the manager of Kazakh side FC Almaty and Kazakhstan U21. Today Storck will likely give chances to some youngsters from the U21 squad, as he dropped regular keeper Loria (34 caps) and skipper Zhumaskaliyev (midfielder, 47 caps 5 goals) as well as Dinamo Moscow's Karpovitch (midfielder, 38 caps 2 goals), the only Kazakh player that plays outside the domestic league. Well, the youngsters are certainly hungry for success and they showed they are capable by beating Poland U21 3-0 and only narrowly lost to Spain U21 1-2. However, as usual the majority of their positive results come at home. We will see after the match whether these radical changes made by Storck is a masterstroke but I give it more chances to backfire than succeed. After all both the coach and the new bloods lack experience at this level and playing at a sell-out New Wembley in front of 90000 spectators is hardly a good occasion for such experiment.

It has become a habbit that England struggle to win convincingly against the lesser sides. Yet if Capello indeed will let both Gerrard and Lampard play their offensive roles in this game than I see a solid chance for a thrashing. Paddy Power's 2.50 for -3.5 is a very decent offer as I will go for that line at up to 2.30.

[Lederator84]

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