WHERE THEY REALLY CARE
Steve Sampson, be thankful today you are not Glenn Hoddle.
Hoddle’s England squad is in second place in Group G, set to qualify for the second round with at least a tie Friday against Colombia, but because of Monday’s last-minute loss to Romania, bookmakers in London are already listing odds on who will succeed Hoddle as national coach.
“Glenn Hoddle may have just four [matches] left in his current job,” says Graham Sharpe of William Hill bookmakers. “And punters [bettors] are already speculating about who should replace him.”
William Hill lists former England captain and current Middlesbrough Manager Bryan Robson as a 1-2 favorite for the job. Roy Hodgson, former Switzerland national coach now with Blackburn Rovers, is next at 4-1.
WE WERE KICKING BRICKS
Looking for happy news in all the wrong places, the U.S. Soccer Web site (https://www.us-soccer.com) came up with this nugget:
“In their loss to Iran, the Americans outshot their opponents, 27-15, but still showed up on the wrong end of a 2-1 score. Through the teams’ first two games in France, they have taken a whopping 37 shots. Comparatively, when the host Americans advanced to the second round in 1994, the U.S. took 33 shots in four games.”
The Web site fails to mention that through two games in France, the U.S. turned only one of those 37 shots into a goal--a shooting percentage of .027.
