The first game of the World Cup 2010 Qualifiers saw England travel to Barcelona to play Andorra. There were a few inclusions that Fabio Cappello made that were not widely expected with Theo Walcott starting on the right hand side in favour of David Beckham being the most notable.
In the first half I feel that England were far from their best and wasted the chances that were presented to them. The introduction of Joe Cole at half time had a near enough instant impact. It was as if the goal lifted the nerves and England began to press on and a second goal from the lively Cole was met with a huge sigh of relief. I feel that Wayne Rooney will be disappointed with his overall performance and will be looking to prove just what he can do against Croatia on Wednesday.
It wasn't just the action on the pitch that the talking points were over. This was the first qualifier that was shown exclusively on Setanta Sports. In my opinion this is plain wrong that in order to watch your national team play that you have to have Setanta. Setanta is quite new to the television industry and for them to get the away qualifiers was a good bit of business but it is taking it away from the millions of England supporters who support the team.
Watching your national team shouldn't be about if you can afford it not, it should be available for all to watch for free especially the qualifiers. I feel that money is taking the beautiful game away from some of those who need it the most. There are children in areas that are gang ruled and where murder is a monthly occurence. Some of these children are most probably interested in football and can't afford Setanta. It might only keep them off the street for 90 minutes but surely if we can get these people involved in other things that they have in interest it could deflect them away from causing fear and devastating families, some innocently.
In other qualifying action a late goal by Sam Vokes gave Wales a 1-0 victory against Azerbaijan. It wasn't such good news for Northern Ireland however as they fell to a 2-1 defeat at Slovakia. Scotland will also be disappointed after losing 1-0 against Macedonia. It was a good first game for the Republic Of Ireland, who beat Georgia 2-1 away with Kevin Doyle and Glenn Whelan on the scoresheet.
Wednesday sees games involving all 5 of the Home Nations mostly away. England travel to Croatia looking to keep a perfect start to their campaign in Group 6. Wales will be in Moscow to take on Russia in what will be a tough game for the Welsh in Group 4. Scotland will look to bounce back after the weekend when they play Iceland in a Group 9 clash. The Republic of Ireland are playing at Montenegro in Group 8 with a weekend win against Georgia under their belts. Northern Ireland are the only Home Nation to be at home as the Czech Republic will be the visitors for a game I feel they will have a struggle in, with the Czechs one of the favourites in Group 3.
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