Day of Destiny No.1

This evening represents what all England fans hope will be the first of five days of destiny for Roy Hodgson and his team. Win against Slovakia and our next opponents could be Albania who may well qualify as one of the four, third placed teams after their win last night. I watched the highlights of their game and they battled away. Their fans made a fearsome racket as well. But compared to a lot of the teams in France, they look like a very fit pub team. Passionate but limited. I’d love England to play them in the next round.
On the other hand, if we blow it, we could be playing Portugal (with a wounded Cristiano Ronaldo looking to make his mark on the competition) and then if we somehow get past them, France in the quarter finals. This has been our problem at a number of tournaments recently. Finishing second in the group has meant that our first knock out game has been much harder than we would’ve liked (think Argentina in 1998 or Portugal in 2004). There’s a lot riding on this game.
Which is why the news that Roy is thinking of making six changes has worried me. It’s like he’s read the criticism about him being a conservative manager and thought “I’ll show them how not conservative I am”. The word is that Wayne Rooney is going to be left on the bench for tonights game. For two years, a strident minority of England fans have been asking for Wayne Rooney not to be in the England team. And now, having given his best performances in an England shirt for the last twenty years, Roy’s resting him. Does he need a rest? It’s not like he’s been tearing around the pitch like an eighteen year old.
Also tonight, Wales take on Russia and for all sorts of reasons (Wales being one of the home nations, abhorrence of Russian hooligans, widespread doping in Russian sport, prevailing homophobic attitudes, Vladimir Putin and Russia’s political belligerence), I really hope Wales stuff them.
I started off watching the France v Switzerland game last night but they made five changes and they looked disjointed (take note Roy). There was a definite moment when both teams realised that a point would do and after that, I turned over. The most interesting things about the game were the burst ball and the four Swiss players shirts disintegrating after being pulled by their French opponents. Xerdan Shaqiri said that he hoped that Puma (the shirt manufacturer) did not make condoms. Who knew the Swiss were funny?