With Wayne Rooney out injured, England are expected to play Gabriel Agbonlahor and Peter Crouch up front in their final World Cup qualifier against Belarus at Wembley.
Rooney, who has enjoyed fantastic success for the national team in the Nike Total 90 Laser II, has a calf injury which means the Aston Villa and Spurs strikers have a chance to shine, as do Nike and PUMA.
Agbonlahor has made only two starts for England so will be eager to grab his chance wearing the highly visible Vapor Superfly. Crouch meanwhile has a decent scoring record while representing the 3 Lions in the PUMA v1.08.
Speaking ahead of the match, England coach Fabio Capello said:
We need to play other styles, style A, B, C. I want to see some players in different positions.
Sometimes, during the friendly games, we’ve changed it. But we need to practise other styles. I want to see some players in different positions.
When I decide the squad, I decide always different styles that I can play with it with the players who will be with me. Why wouldn’t they have that capacity?
Meanwhile, in the pick of today’s other games, it’s crunch time in South America with Argentina desperately looking to qualify automatically for South Africa next year.
The Argentine’s have endured a poor run under Diego Maradona but got back on track with a last gasp win over Peru last time out.
But it won’t get any easier for them tonight with an away game to Uruguay. The home team has lost just once in front of their own fans recently and will be confident of recording a win which will take them through.
In what is the oldest South American derby, the first game between the two sides took place in 1901 (and many believe that it was the first international to take place outside of the British Isles), it could come down to one piece of magic.
For Argentina, this could just be the stage for Lionel Messi in his personalised F50i’s. The Barcelona player, like many of his international team mates, just hasn’t been able to deliver consistently for the national team under Maradona but, as the old saying goes, form is temporary, class is permanent.
As for Uruguay, nothing would please them more than getting one over on their age-old rivals. And in Diego Forlan, they have a proven goalscorer who has already netted 7 times in qualification thus far. Interestingly, it’s a win-win situation for adidas as Forlan also wears the F50i, though he prefers the White / Black / Red colourway.
It’s going to be some game in Montevideo and Forlan knows it saying:
those f50 sickness
seriuosly but puma better than adidas
Just can’t wait for tonight’s game between Uruguay and Argentina. Fascinating to see how that one goes.
err… what do “girlfriend” have to do with all this? LOL