friendlies

he doesn't like them. john motson, in a characteristically befuddling piece of punditry, managed recently to emphasise the importance and demean the use of friendlies in a single sentence. you might legitimately ask why i'm giving credence to one of football's less, shall we say, erudite minds? because sometimes when i listen to five live, i find myself thinking like a tory and questioning the licence fee. this, of course, is A Bad Thing. so, i vent. you, dear reader, are my therapy. that's right, we're connected.

so i'm not going to bash motty (well, not much), because pundit-bashing is amongst the lowest forms of online journalism,and besides, there's people who do it far, far better than i do. i'm not even going to spend time on his co-pundit steve claridge, who said, and i quote, that "managers learn nothing from friendlies." right. i'm just going to let that one hang, and proceed to a cobbled together preview (i've taken inspiration from john and steve) of a few of tonight's games.

definitely the pick of the bunch is germany v argentina (7.45). old diego is another one who dislikes the idea of friendlies, but, as you'll recall with my reference to platini a few posts back, i'm more inclined to forgive footballing stupidity from people who were capable of things like this. besides, diego refused to play a meaningless friendly right before the world cup. that, i can get on board with. anyhoo, i've been developing a sneaking feeling that argentina, and to a lesser extent germany, have been slipping under people's radar when it comes to the world cup. both have had coach-related turmoil in recent times, but they both still posess the players. we'll see, but this should be a decent game either way.

the same can be said for england v egypt. the best african side playing the...well never mind. as jonathan wilson points out, this could be an interesting tactical confrontation, if egypt are brave enough to play 3-5-2. for the less geekish among you, that translates as a swamped midfield, but also as a pitch in which wayne rooney can wreak havoc, as he has been doing across europe recently. and let's face it, we english need to cram in as much enjoyment from football as possible. i can almost hear the sun polishing their world cup glory headline writing pens...

in terms of world cup glory headlines, few nations are as advanced in their construction as spain. in what must have been the easiest job decision of his life, vicente del bosque has done little but tinker with the squad that waltzed to euro 2008 victory. indeed, the additions of jesus navas and juan mata, as well as the continued evolution of gerard pique (a defender who is beginning to replicate the godlike genius of franco baresi) has arguably made his side stronger than 2 years ago.
as for france, it's a case of same as it ever was. somehow, somehow raymond domenech is in charge. somehow, somehow jean-alain boumsong is included over phillippe mexes. these inexplicable decisions aside, france have probably improved (you might say that they couldn't have got any worse, and you'd probably be right), largely thanks to the progress of yoann gourcuff. his tussles with the stellar spanish midfield will decide the winner of this one...

enjoy the games and remember, it's ok to boo john terry, even if you're at home.