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When Scotland take on Lithuania on Saturday they could be forgiven for treating it as a match against one of their own clubs, Hearts of Midlothian. Eight of the 28 players in the Hearts squad are Lithuanian, all but one has played for the national team, and at least four of them are expected to play on Saturday. A couple others in the current Lithuanian squad have played for Hearts in the last few years. It would come as no surprise that the club is owned by Lithuanians and even their previous manager was a Lithuanian.
Meanwhile, England's injury troubles have gotten worse as Owen Hargreaves has pulled out of both qualifying games against Israel and Russia. He follows in the footsteps of Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Fat Lampard, Kieron Dyer, Aaron Lennon, Gary Neville, Sol Campbell, Ledley King and Wayne Bridge. To make matters worse up-front, Michael Owen has just recovered from yet another injury and Robo Crouch is suspended. But it's not all bad news. Steven Gerrard is expected to play even though he has a fractured toe. We need to win both games to remain in serious contention for qualification. We are currently in 4th position (out of 7). Only the top two teams in the table qualify for the European Championships, to be held in Austria and Switzerland next year. (Link)
And finally, while listening to the radio a couple days ago, there was a phone-in discussion about opening up referee positions in the English league to foreigners. After all, one could argue that the English league is already the world's most international with respect to owners, managers and players, so why not just complete the set? What do you think?
[Poll #1051178]
Meanwhile, England's injury troubles have gotten worse as Owen Hargreaves has pulled out of both qualifying games against Israel and Russia. He follows in the footsteps of Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Fat Lampard, Kieron Dyer, Aaron Lennon, Gary Neville, Sol Campbell, Ledley King and Wayne Bridge. To make matters worse up-front, Michael Owen has just recovered from yet another injury and Robo Crouch is suspended. But it's not all bad news. Steven Gerrard is expected to play even though he has a fractured toe. We need to win both games to remain in serious contention for qualification. We are currently in 4th position (out of 7). Only the top two teams in the table qualify for the European Championships, to be held in Austria and Switzerland next year. (Link)
And finally, while listening to the radio a couple days ago, there was a phone-in discussion about opening up referee positions in the English league to foreigners. After all, one could argue that the English league is already the world's most international with respect to owners, managers and players, so why not just complete the set? What do you think?
[Poll #1051178]
