John Terry's England Captaincy on Borrowed Time; Who Cares?

Captain, my captain.

Perhaps I'm jaded living here in the States, but what's the big deal about who wears the captain's armband? Yes, I get it, you're the de facto team leader on and off the pitch. You're the symbol of professionalism for your squad, and you're often the team spokesperson when things go South.

But honestly, once the game starts, does it really matter? Does it make John Terry play better that he's England's or Chelsea's skipper? The guy is (was) world class before and he will be after.

Terry's England captaincy is under fire because he was playing kissy-face with teammate Wayne Bridge's girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel, above, -- sorry, turns out she was his ex-girlfriend at the time of the affair. Terry is married, has twins and apparently likes the flaunt them about and portray himself as a family guy (think Peter Griffith?).

Patrick Barclay of the Times of London rails on Terry today in his column. He pleads with the FA to pass the armband from Terry to Wayne Rooney. Rooney is the captain in waiting and Barclay figures that now that Terry's adulterous doings are public, Fabio Capello should make the inevitable, well, evitable.

Rooney, he says, is a latter day Bobby Moore, who at 22 captained England during the 1966 World Cup. Ron Greenwood, Moore's West Ham manager, was quoted in the piece:

“We’re going to win and that man’s the reason why. He can already see in his mind’s eye a picture of himself holding up the World Cup and he’s calculated what that will mean to him.”

Maybe that was the case in '66, but I think that's an exaggeration in 2010. I mean, do these guys give a damn the way they used to back in the day? Maybe I'm jaded, but today's pro athlete--and pick your sport here, they're all the same--is a selfish prick. A rich-boy of dispicable depths who would rather hold out for a fatter contract, and stay out later for his better pick of a drunken WAG. Captain's armband. OK, it's cute and you get to argue with the referee just a little louder than the rest of the squad and get away with it.

But is Wayne Rooney going to get in Frank Lampard's face is Lampard dogs it in the first half against the USA? Is Rooney going to kick Terry in the ass if he starts looking sideways at the closest WAG? Um, the answer is no. And why? Well, the captains of the world's football squads have to look in the mirror. They understand that the guy staring back is just like the guy you're supposed to get in line.

Captain, my captain. Does it matter? I don't think so. I just don't.

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Injuries Plague European GiantsAhead of World Cup Qualifiers

World Cup qualifiers aren't extraordinarily exciting, but since the domestic leagues are taking an international break for matches tomorrow and Wednesday, we might as well look at them too.

In Europe, the big deal centers around who isn't playing, rather than who is. John Terry is out for England against Kazakhstan at Wembley tomorrow and Belarus in Minsk on Wednesday, while Henrik Larsson will miss Sweden's match with Portugal and Gianluigi Buffon and Mauro Camoranesi are on the bench for Italy against Bulgaria and Montenegro.

Big names, but is it a big deal?

Terry has a bad back and this forces Fabio Capello to insert a newbie alongside Rio Ferdinand in the middle of the England defense. Matthew Upson, Joleon Lescott and Wes Brown are the trio from which Capello will choose. Terry has been ailing for a while; he played limited minutes against Cluj in the Champions League for Chelsea, and played with a brace against Aston Villa.

Luckily for England, it should be able to handle Kazakhstan sans Mr. Terry; but haven't we heard that before? Emile Heskey is also shaky for England with, yes, a bad back, despite his promise to complement Wayne Rooney up front. You'll remember, Capello went for Heskey over Michael Owen, a standard among English strikers and a favorite of previous regimes.

As for Terry's spot, Lescott seems to have the nod, but his case isn't a superb one. He's in the middle of an Everton defense that has conceded 16 goals so far. One more note, England has lost just one competitive match with Terry in the Starting Eleven; four of nine without him.

Other games of note:

• Germany hosts Russia
• Poland hosts the Czech Republic
• Romania hosts France
• Estonia hosts Spain
  

In South America, where the top four automatically qualify for South Africa, the logjam tie for second between Brazil, Argentina and Chile figures to continue as all three play teams lower in the table. Argentina is the only team staying home, it hosts Uruguay, while Brazil travels to Venezuela and Chile to Ecuador. Leaders Paraguay are at Colombia; Paraguay leads with 17 points, four more than Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

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John Terry Red Card Rescinded;Chelsea Captain Available for Manchester United

Sunday's Premier League clash of the titans, the Champions League final rematch, the latest game of the century between Chelsea and Manchester United, was tossed a bit of drama today when John Terry's red card--issued last weekend against Manchester City--was overturned.

Sir Alex Ferguson is raging today, hours ahead of United's Champions League opener against Villareal. The target of his ire is Keith Hackett, general manager of the Professional Game Match officials board. Hackett overruled referee Mark Halsey's decision to toss Terry. Halsey, apparently has been demoted to the second division this weekend. Ferguson was quoted in several English papers today:

"If it had been Manchester United, Hackett would not have done this. In future, if referees are seen to make mistakes then this (demotion) is going to have to happen all the time."

This is dangerous precedent on the FA's part, but in this case, Hackett is correcting an injustice. Terry deserved a yellow at best, and not the red and corresponding three-game suspension that would have started this weekend against United.

Chelsea manager Luiz Filipe Scolari meanwhile says he's surprised--pleasantly for sure. He told the Guardian:

"That would only happen in England. Anywhere else the referee is a god and it's finished. It's a surprise, but a positive surprise. The Football Association have their men who understand that the referee is not god. They make mistakes sometimes, like I do and the players do."

The Offside has a poll up on the decision; and says he's on the fence on the decision.
BleacherReport is shocked, but thinks the right call was made.
Soccernews brings some perspective to the discussion.
World Soccer Guru says Terry is a cheater.

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Champions League Final: John Terry, Tragic Figure

Inconsolable John Terry may be the lasting image of the 2008 Champions League final won by Manchester United. Tears of pain and disappointment stained the Chelsea captain's face as the Blues walked off the pitch losers in penalty kicks to United. Never mind the injustice of settling the European championship in penalties, the injustice of Terry absorbing the weight of Chelsea's loss is the true crime here.

One only has to wonder whether Terry would have been put in that spot had irresponsible Didier Drogba not put his hands to the face of United defender Nemanja Vidic earning himself a red card with four minutes remaining in the second extra period. If this truly was Drogba's final game in Chelsea, it was a pitiful way to go; not only did his selfishness sour the final, but cost his team its best scorer and probably best penalty taker. Terry, the captain, the leader, stood in and had the championship at his feet only to ring the ball off the post to Edwin Van der Sar's right. What if Drogba had been available.

The drama of the penalty kicks was enormous, so many stories in such a short amount of time. What of Cristiano Ronaldo's inexcusable display on his try, United's third. Prancing and preening, Ronaldo stuttered his way to the ball, came to a complete stop and struck the ball firmly into the dive of Petr Cech. His was the first miss.

Then came a succession of near misses. Van der Sar could have atoned, getting a hand on Ashley Cole's try, but the ball found the netting. As did Nani's, but not after Cech got a fingertip to it.

Then came the unfortunate Terry, who had the Champions League title in his deserving grasp. Van der Sar guessed the wrong way, Terry hit it flush, the beleaguered turf betrayed him. His left foot, his plant foot slid as he landed at the ball, which soared too far right, too true to the post. Terry wept.

Anderson and Saloman Kalou traded relatively clean conversions, putting Ryan Giggs on the spot. Giggs' appearance put him past Sir Bobby Charlton on United's list of all-time appearances, and that guile served him well as he struck it true and into the corner. Nicolas Anelka had to score for Chelsea to continue on, but he could not as the ball and Van der Sar met to the right of middle.

And still John Terry wept.

Ronaldo too. How quickly the goat horns traded heads. Ronaldo knew he had been given a reprieve by the horrid Moscow pitch and Terry's ill-fated penalty. Ronaldo knew his charmed life had reared its head again. His dream season continues in a few weeks at the Euro, while Terry's nightmare begins again. He has no moment of redemption in Switzerland and Austria. Instead, he must live with this until August when the EPL reconvenes.

Manchester United may have won justly. Terry's pain is unjust.

More on Terry from The Scotsman, Times of London, The Independent and Setanta.

Avram Grant’s Chelsea Ship Taking on Water

Has Avram Grant lost the reins at Chelsea? Sunday’s Carling Cup loss to Tottenham is the 10 percent of iceberg showing above the surface of a simmering ocean of discontent (how’s that for prose?)

There’s plenty of evidence swirling that Grant is over his head, that he cannot lead the most expensive team on the globe, and more importantly, that he cannot manage these men.

Where was Michael Ballack during the Carling Cup final? The German has been a flop for the most part at The Bridge, but of late, he’s been in good form. Yet, he play fewer than 15 minutes in a cup final? Why was Anelka playing wide? Why was Lampard playing at all?

Then the John Terry row: It’s no secret the captain and first-team coach Henk ten Cate had a blowout apparently over Terry’s insistence to train harder the day before the Carling Cup final. The two were in each other’s face and had to be pulled apart.

Ten Cate is trying to turn down the heat in today’s Times of London:

"We are both emotional guys, but we do respect each other fully. On Saturday the distance between me and him was nowhere less than five metres. So that we were with our heads against each other, as they wrote, is total nonsense. The discussion was about the sharpness of the training, as we have more often. That is part of top football. At Chelsea we have a group of 27 players and three goalkeepers. Half of them were allowed to go to the final so you understand that things went sharp. John found that we should train even more fanatically, I didn't agree on that with my eyes on the final. We had an argument about that. That is all."

101 Great Goals also reports Roman Abromovich isn’t pleasant to be around following Tottenham taking its first silverware in nearly a decade at his team’s expense.

Luvfooty has more on Grant’s impending doom.