Seeing as our football viewing schedule was changed with due to the international break, we here at WFD took it upon ourselves to alter our own schedule. So here, a little later then normal, is the mid-week ramble.

International weeks. The American Dream or Depressingly English?

So with the international break over are many of us surprised about what’s happened over the last 12 days. It looked as though the US Men’s National Team was going to be swimming in a sea of adversity when the stories of disharmony and disruption between the ranks started to leak out of camp before their fixture against Costa Rica.

The stories, though, made little difference to the fortunes of the side as Jurgen Klinsmann and his men came away with four points from their two games, including a monumental point against Mexico in the Azteca. While gaining four points form the two fixtures may not seem like a massive achievement to some, the context of the results shows just how far the USMNT has come.

An injury plagued US side 10 years ago would surely have been torn apart by Mexico in the Azteca, but lead by the determination of Michael Bradley, Omar Gonzalez and Geoff Cameron the USA rallied - in what many would call ‘true American style – dispel the naysayers and come relieve the mounting pressure on their under fire manager.

The fact that nine of the 23 man squad selected by Jurgen are MLS based players shows the leap the league has made at bringing through international talent, and along with the quality provided by Graham Zusi, Eddie Johnson and Brad Davis, America soccer fans can be safe in the knowledge that US soccer is still moving onwards and upwards in it’s development.

On the other side of the spectrum, England and they’re miserable second half performance against Montenegro once again sees a good manager under fire while sat in the international hot seat.  With the group still in their hands, Hodgson and his men can still finfish top and automatically qualify without going through the perilous process of the playoffs and all in the England camp were keen to highlight this as they spoke to the media on Tuesday night.  Few, though, highlighted the fact that England have a major problem at getting the best out of it’s supposed talent pool. So is it a case of poor motivation, or is the talent pool not as deep as England fans like to think.  Steven Gerrard has been off form for his country since last summer, while Wayne Rooney still struggles dominate games in his countries shirt.  Tom Cleverly has energy but lacked international quality this week and James Milner, although versatile, is sluggish and ineffective on the flanks.

England fans need to look at this squad and accept that, whatever Hodgson does, these players are not good enough at international level. Seemingly easy road to Brazil 2014 has turned into a perilous one indeed for England………..again………..it’s typical really.

Home Sweet Home

We’ve said it quite a few times since January, but how good has Mario Balotelli become since he returned home to Italy? Unstoppable? Unplayable? Both?

Confidence is always a key - as we always stress with our philosophy of look good, feel good, play good – and it seems the former City man is full of it in his home country.  His 10 goals in eight games for both club and country are testament to the skills that Manchester City paid for in 2010 and indicate a important lesson many players can learn from. Being comfortable is more important then money.

Many who have walked through Manchester City’s doors have learnt this lesson the hard way. Scott Sinclair still can’t buy an appearance for his new Manchester based club, nor can former Everton star Jack Rodwell, while Javi Garcia (brought in from Benfica this season for £17million) has made sporadic performances for his new club. 

Rodwell and Sinclair’s stock was on the rise before their summer moves to the Etihad, with the former knocking on the door of the England squad and the latter being involved in the Olympics for team GB last summer.  Now neither player seemingly has a hope of making the jump to the international level in time for the 2014 World Cup.

Any young player thinking about joining a Manchester City or Chelsea type side need only look to Balotelli to see why the decision to move could be the wrong one. There’s no place like home to bring the best football out of the game’s youngsters.

Are We Agreeing With Platini?  Almost!

UEFA this week announced that the implementation of goal line technology to the Champions League and Europa League would be too expensive to make feasibly possible. 

Michel Platini revealed it would cost almost $70million to bring the system to Europe’s elite club competitions saying that the system is, “quite expensive for the sort of mistake which happens once every 40 years.”

“Honestly, I prefer to put more money into youth football and infrastructure than spend it on technology when there’s a goal in a blue moon that hasn’t been seen by a referee.”

We’re amazed here at World Football Daily that we find ourselves actually agreeing with the UEFA president on this. Not only does the price tag to implement the system totally out weigh the results of its use, but investing $70million seems like a fantastic idea to us.

But the former France playmaker couldn’t last a whole press conference without mentioning something we cant abide and it wasn’t long before Platini was praising the additional goal line officials UEFA provide for their club competition fixtures.

“In the Champions League, I’m very happy with the results [of the fifth official]. Practically no mistakes have been made and the referees see practically everything that happens on the pitch.”

Did they see the last minute foul on Balotelli when City met Ajax earlier this year, or the pushing and shoving in the Celtic box at every set piece defended by Juventus last month?

Platini almost had us singing his praises but instead, once again, we’ve been left sat open mouthed as the UEFA boss once again tries to justify a system that isn’t helping to clear controversy. In fact it causes it.