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And why McClaren was wrong to drop him after the World Cup. Fabio Capello, the new coach of the English national team, has not selected David Beckham for the upcoming friendly against Switzerland. Golden Balls therefore misses the chance to gain his hundredth cap for England, missing out on joining a select band of players to have done so. They said Capello was tough and this decision shows just how strong-minded he is. It is absolutely the right thing to do. Beckham has not played a competitive game since November. He is, no doubt, retaining his extraordinary fitness by working out with Arsenal but he cannot be match fit. Capello has promised Beckham he will continue to fit into his plans once he gets some games under his belt in the MLS season. What a contrast with McClaren, the previous coach. McClaren, in a pattern he would go on to consistently display, dropped Becks after the World Cup because the media needed a scapegoat for England's poor performance. Beckham was actually one of the better England players in that tournament and did not deserve such treatment. It's great to have Capello at the helm even if it's a couple of years too late.
I also really like his appointment of Stuart Pearce as assistant. Pearce will continue to concentrate on the U-21 team but will also be involved in the senior games. That should shut the Little Englanders up for a while. Pearce has the talent and the desire to be a national team coach and his involvement should be warmly welcomed.

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He did it. Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul has been named in the final 23-man squad for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana.

Off to The African Nations Cup

This news more than makes up for the fact there are no current Rapids players in the recently announced US national squad. And, unlike EPL teams, Bouna will go with the full support of the Rapids given that the tournament is not happening in the middle of the MLS season. They may start to worry, though, if the Senegal keeper puts in some good performances and gets noticed by European clubs willing to spend a bit of cash. To be honest, the Rapids star is not likely to get much playing time given that veteran Tony Sylva will continue to be the number one. But who knows with injuries or loss of form?

Congratulations to the fan favorite. I look forward to expansive coverage of this momentous event on the local news tonight. Here's a link to the BBC story.

WeWantRapidman

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The US national team roster was announced yesterday for upcoming friendlies and there are no Rapids players on it. OK, it's a bit like saying "Huge Aircrash, no Americans on board" in that the fact there are no Colorado-based players is not the main point but it does raise a question mark over Pablo Mastroeni's future with the national team. Maybe he is injured, I don't know, but, coupled with the persistent rumor that the Rapids may sell him, this makes for unsettling times for the club captain. With Herculez Gomez presumably not considered because of his serious knee injury last season, it leaves Kyle Beckerman as the only Colorado link with the national team. His call-up makes the mid-season sale to Real Salt Lake even more sad to the hundreds of fans who still wear his shirt at DSG. Want to follow a national team with a Rapids player in it? Follow Bouna Coundoul with the Senegal team in Ghana later this month in the Africa Cup of Nations. Let's really hope he makes the final squad which will be announced January 10. The US national team will play a friendly against Sweden January 19 in California.

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There's a lot of stuff written about Toronto and how they have real fans, not ones who complain about buying tickets for superstars who then don't show up to play. Well, there may be substantial truth in that if a recent snippet or two of information is anything to go by.

For a start, all season tickets have been sold for 2008. And, the club had to limit such tickets to 16,000, up from 14,000 in the inaugural season this year. Just goes to show you don't necessarily need a team to be playing well to create demand. You just need fans who will support the team through thick and thin. As I never tire of saying, well maybe after having to explain to Americans where it is, I am a fan of Gillingham FC and I will be till the day I die. And we never win anything. You also need, of course, a club who recognizes the importance of such fans.

Mo Johnston and Jim Brennan at the Pub Crawl

The other brilliant piece of information about Toronto FC is that the club recently organized a major pub crawl in the city for fans to mingle with players. Fantastic. Talk about team and fan bonding. This is surely a lesson for all clubs. Hats off to Toronto FC. I hope they have a better season next year on the pitch because their fans, the players and the club certainly deserve it. I, for one, would love to make it to Toronto next year for an away game. Any Rapids fans agree?

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The world's worst kept secret is now totally out in the open. Fabio Capello will be the next England manager with a four and a half year contract and an option to quit after 2010. So, he can take the team to World Cup victory in South Africa and then say arriverderci.

A great choice. Not Jose Mourinho but a manager with a more than impressive CV. We can easily discuss the league titles at Juventus, Real Madrid etc. but let's not forget he took Roma to its first scudetto in 18 years in 2001. His leadership of AC Milan when they absolutely thrashed Barcelona in the 1994 European Cup should also be highlighted. Remember the European Cup? The pinnacle of achievement for any European club prior to some of the nonsense that is today's Champions' League tournament.

The predictable moans about him not being English have emerged. Tony Adams, Gareth Southgate, Paul Ince and others. I understand the frustration but Paul Ince really takes the biscuit. He actually says there are plenty of English managers with similar records to Capello. Really? Exactly where? He also lambasted the fact that the FA had to go to "Europe" to find the new coach. Where does he think England and the UK are? Asia? Great player, up and coming manager but a little short on the open-mindedness.

The backroom staff will be interesting. Capello looks to be bringing a number of Italian support that he trusts. I would love to see Stuart Pearce in there for the English contingent. A hero for England, a progressive coach and a possible future England manager. David Platt, managerial experience aside, would also be a key asset given his experience of playing in Italy for three years. Former Chelsea superstar Gianfranco Zola would also be a great appointment. Nobody seems to mention Zola's former teammate Gianluca Vialli but his extensive knowledge of both the Italian and English games would be more than useful.

But we have a manager installed who gives us hope. Maybe not the messianic hope of Mourinho but a superb manager who will take no BS from the players and whose record is so impressive. It's time to get behind him 100 per cent.

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We rhapsodize about the romance of the FA Cup and, if Horsham versus Swansea today is anything to go by, we do so with some justification. Just for a minute, the almost unthinkable was being thought when Horsham went ahead twice in the space of three crazy first half minutes. Born deaf and mute, striker Lee Farrell scored two goals with brilliant finishing either side of a Swansea goal. There are four divisions between Swansea, top of League 1, and non-league Horsham but Horsham came to play football and they were not only in it for the first half an hour or so, they had the edge. They could even have had a penalty in the opening ten seconds but I think the referee, who was probably still checking his boots were laced up properly, was right in not calling it contrary to the opinion of the over zealous commentators. The Welsh Swans predictably came back and scored three goals in about five minutes at the end of the first half and eventually ran out winners 6-2. Do I hear the boring old lament that soccer does not attract many Americans because they don't score enough?
The Swansea manager is a Spaniard and he admitted that there is no such competition in his native country where the minnows can play against the big boys. There can't be because the gap in quality is too wide. That may be the case if Liverpool were to play Horsham, admittedly, but this kind of second round tie gives a tanatalizing glimpse of what can be possible. The first weekend in January is the time for the third round when the Premier League teams come in. Most results will no doubt follow a predictable course but there is always the chance of an upset in the FA Cup and Horsham nearly showed us how today. That is what makes the FA Cup the best competition of its kind in Europe. The Spaniards don't have anything quite like it and the Coppa Italia games are scheduled all over December rather than at the set times the FA Cup has. I only remember something similar in the French Cup some years ago when a lower league side, Calais, almost won it. Natural bias aside though, the romance of the FA Cup is alive and well. The country looks forward now to that first week of the New Year and the hope of a healthy dose of schadenfreude as a bigger club comes undone.

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So the Special One said no to the FA. After frenzied speculation in the English press, some of it undoubtedly self-generated since the apppointment of the Portuguese maestro would have made their jobs infinitely more interesting, Jose Mourinho has ruled himself out of the running for the England post. His statement in full is below.
At least, the FA tried to get the right man. Maybe the real reasons why he said no will come out in the end. Yes, he may have got bored with the reality of being England manager and not having daily contact with his charges but maybe it was more to do with the suits at the FA not being up to his standards. Or maybe it was money. Who knows? The truth is that he would have been brilliant for England. Just two years or so to take them to the World Cup, win it and be an honorary Englishman for life. Who am I kidding? We still wouldn't have won the World Cup even with him in charge but at least he would have made us and the players feel it was a possibility. And that's the point, isn't it? To have a manager who can make you all believe something quite so improbable. There is really nobody else out there with such charisma and self-belief and the CV to back it all up. Good luck at Barca, Real Madrid or AC Milan (Liverpool?), Jose.

http://www.gestifute.com/gestifute/noticia.php?noticia_id=644

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Why should we take notice of the FIFA Club World Cup currently taking place in Tokyo? Because it's an honest attempt to encourage clubs from the not so well known footballing nations to play against some of the big boys. That is fundamentally a good thing.

Like many others, I personally will forget very quickly who actually wins this tournament (probably AC Milan if they can be bothered) but that does not mean we shouldn't at least take note. After all, it's hardly an easy money spinner for FIFA when the likes of Iranian club Sepahan take on the mighty Waitakere United of New Zealand but no matter. You can bet these players will be fighting to play the likes of Kaka et al. We can always fall back on our ethnocentric view of things. My first reaction today was to check out the mighty Gills against Port Vale (they miserably lost 2-1 at home) but I at least like the idea behind this tournament. This is the only global game after all. As Beckham and his entourage so recently found out when they packed them to the rafters in rugby mad nations New Zealand and Australia.

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I may be missing something here but I don't think Rapids' Captain Marvel Pablo Mastroeni will be too happy at being nominated for a "dubious" award. The Denver Sports Fans Choice Awards sees players from a range of sports in the city competing for various accolades including MVP, which Mastroeni is rightly up for.

However, amongst all the blurb on the awards website is the following phrase: "Athletes nominated by fans and local sports media for Most Valuable Player will go head to head with their peers for this dubious honor." Did someone try and use a fancy word and just get it wrong? Prestigious maybe but dubious? Less hype, more substance please. As well as Mastroeni, midfielder Omar Cummings is up for a rising star award and crowd favorite Bouna is nominated for a special humanitarian award. Nothing dubious about these guys.

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Fellow Blogger, Nick Thomas who writes for "We Want Rapid Man", reviews this past weeks "From The Pitch, Radio Show". Click here to read the positive review.

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