I Think We’re Okay

By: Abby | March 26th, 2008

As far as I can tell, from scanning my various favorite news sources, we’ve got through the international break unscathed. No sign of new injuries, at least, which is always what I look for when an international break is done with.

Fortunes for the players- as one would expect in a team made up of so many different countries- were mixed. Jens Lehmann’s Germany pounded Philippe Senderos’ Switzerland 4-0- the German live-feed I was reading described Big Phil as “luckless”, but I think that was referring to the two headers Jens saved from him. Nicklas Bendtner scored in Denmark’s draw against the Czech Republic (normally captained by Tomas Rosicky). As far as I can tell Alex Hleb played in the 2-2 draw of Belarus and Turkey, but if you see a Hleb on the scoresheet it was actually his little brother Vyacheslav. Cesc came off after 70 minutes in Spain’s win over Italy. Cote d’Ivoire, normally featuring Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue, lost 2-0 to Tunisia, but I can’t tell who played. And of all the French players on Arsenal, only William Gallas actually played. So Clichy and Flamini are safe, thankfully. As is Theo, who after all of that didn’t play for England.

Which is what’s important at this time of the year. That’s what I was trying to say yesterday- these particular friendlies are ill-timed and frankly stupid. Not all international friendlies. I think people missed the “these” part of yesterday’s post. I don’t like these friendlies. Normally, though, I have nothing against them.

Also, important members of our team are part of national teams who have managers that I don’t like. The thought of Cesc getting injured for the sake of Luis Aragones fills me with rage. Domenench is absolutely crazy, doesn’t like Wenger, and Clichy getting hurt for one of his random vendettas is not something I like. However, if we had some, say, German internationals outside of Lehmann I would be far less bitter about it, due to a deep love of Joachim Löw. (Speaking of German internationals, I thought we should sign Klose last season when it was clear he was leaving Bremen- I still think he would have been helpful. Although if we really want a spectacular German international we should join the queue for Mario Gomez, who scored twice today.) We’re in the unfortunate situation of relying on irritating national managers. That bothers me.

But on the whole I still like international games, even friendlies. I’m still looking forwards to Euro 2008. And I still think this was bad timing.

Going to the Arsenal game? Find out how to get to North London and where to stay near Emirates Stadium.
Buy tickets to Arsenal games.