By TRAVIS CLARK
As the injury bug continues to hit the United States national team, first round opponents England aren't exactly emerging unscathed either.
Manchester United and England defender Wes Brown could be out for the rest of the Premier League season and also miss the World Cup after injuring his foot over the weekend against Wolverhampton. Results of a scan today will determine his fate, with a broken metatarsal suspected.
While Brown may not be a starting candidate on the England squad, his absence would deal a blow to England's defensive depth as they will likely be missing Ashley Cole this summer.
Here are a few more stories for Monday:
SLOVENIA ROW OVER WIVES AND GIRLFRIENDS
Turmoil has hit another U.S. first-round opponent as a row has recently emerged over Slovenia players' families traveling with them to South Africa. It's reached a point where Slovenian FA president Ivan Simic has threatened to resign over the issue.
Slovenia captain Robert Koren has reportedly demanded the costs of families and wives traveling to South Africa be covered by the FA — though Simic claims the players have been offered a bonus of £120,000 for making the finals.
REAL MADRID CATCHES BARCELONA
Carlos Puyol and Zlatan Ibrahimovic played a starring role in Barcelona's stumble over the weekend, as the Catalan club was finally caught by their rivals from the capital. During Barcelona's 2-2 draw against Almeria on Saturday, Ibrahimovic was shown a straight red for a foul off the ball.
Down a man, Puyol then conceded the lead to Almeria when he slid a cross into his own net. A Leo Messi equalizer salvaged a point for the visitors.
The draw opened up the door for Real Madrid, who were down 2-0 with just 30 minutes left to play against Sevilla, before scoring three times to come away 3-2 winners. The result drew Madrid level on points with Barcelona at the top of the table, and a two-goal differential giving Real Madrid the edge. Here are highlights from Madrid's win:
CESC OUT FOR PORTO
Arsenal's 3-1 win over Burnley on the weekend came at a price, as captain Cesc Fabregas hobbled off with a hamstring problem late in the first half.
The Spaniard will miss Tuesday's second leg clash against Porto at the Emirates as the North London club looks to turn around a 2-1 deficit.
MONTPELLIER MISSES CHANCE FOR FIRST PLACE
Newly-promoted side Montpellier has been the story of the season in France. The club got off to a fast start in 2009 and have maintained pace with defending champions Bordeaux — sitting equal on points going into a top of the table clash on Sunday.
Unfortunately, Montpellier missed two first half penalties and couldn't take advantage of playing with a man up after Bordeaux defender Mickael Ciani was sent off in the first half. A stoppage-time equalizer was all Montpellier could muster in a 1-1 draw that saw the two sides remain tied for first in Ligue 1.
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What do you think of England's latest injury news? What will happen to Slovenia? Who's going to win the Spanish league title? Can Arsenal overcome Porto without Fabregas? Will Montpellier shock France and win the title?
Share your thoughts below.
OK, so I just looked him up (it’s pretty busy at work today….), now I understand.
Still don’t think it’s that HUGE a deal, but I get it now.
Hey, take it easy, I know a lot about the USMNT, but not everything. What’s the subotic story?
What a horrible thing to say….but you are right. the way the work him an ManU is just a matter of time before he gets injured. With ManU so close to clinching the title I doubt SAF will give him a break.
I don’t know what that has to do with my post. What I said is that true footballing powerhouses can easily replace injured players without missing on quality. Something England just can not do. They have just one quality player per position. If that.
Not necessarily meaningful. RM only lost 2-0 at the Camp Nou last year. How did the match at the Bernabeu turn out?
It’s only a matter of time until rooney goes down…
Bring the Germans on and pray for karma to kick in…We owe them for the’02 handball..
ease up chief…. are you in with the Serbian coaching staff? If you’re referring to Dragutinovic, he’s on the decline. Not out of question to think that Subotic will be starting in SA…
hmmm… you say that but here is a list of players on the outer fringes of the England squad… you dont want them? Still a might bit better than some the US, Slovenia and Algerias starters…
Baines, Downing, Zamora, Warnock, Shorey, Bullard, Joe Cole, Wright-Phillips, Jagielka, Walcott, Milner
not sure if you’re serious…
in case you are, i don’t beleive Subotic is a STARTING center back for Serbia.
What does the U.S. do with players’ families at World Cups??? I would be interested in knowing this.
Funny how you don’t hear Brazil, Italy, Germany Argentina etc… complain about injuries. For a country that calls itself a footballing power, England sure struggles to find more than 11 decent players.
Seems like everyone is dealing with injuries.
Ps I would not want to face the Germans ever in the World Cup. They may not be in top form now but we all know they show up in the big tournaments. History doesn’t
lie.
fyi appears that the first 3 tiebreaks are h2h-related, w/ the 4th being goal difference
True, but the obvious point is that the end-of-season tiebreak is irrelevant right now. And on that note, RM clearly has the advantage since they have Barca at home and only lost 1-0 at Camp Nou.
after cole, terry, bridge, brown and rio fernand all miss out on the cup, england is going to wish they had a healthy bornstein on their team… eh not really
where, from a word pronounced “Ber-nah-BAY-oo” do these British announcers get “BURR-nah-bow”?
now that i’ve thought more about it, I hate that injuries may be issue an for eng-er-land. don’t want to listen to excuses for the rest of my life when we’ve beaten them!
Maybe you should let La Liga know. Their site actually has RM ranked 1st in the standings as well.
http://www.lfp.es/Default.aspx?tabid=113&Controltype=clas&idDivision=1
Maybe you should let La Liga know. Their site actually has RM ranked 1st in the standings as well.
http://www.lfp.es/Default.aspx?tabid=113&Controltype=clas&idDivision=1
The BBC has RM on top as well…
not sure if you’re serious….
in case you are, Subotic.
if you’re not- it’s Monday morning.
Vidic? What for? Did Landon make him look silly?
If Slovenia players think it’s too much to finance the expenses related to their families to SA, they don’t have to come.
Really….I really prefer that they would just stay home….
🙂
sure, only to draw the Serbiams, who, I believe, have a starting center back with a grudge against us. gimme the Germans any day.
this is correct. espn.com has rm at the top of the table too. worldwide leader in sports my…
I think the best thing that could happen for the US is for Wes Brown to stay healthy. He’s a disaster waiting to happen on defense.
Hey maybe the US can get first!!!!!!!! and we can avoid them FIFA protected Germans in the 2nd round.
The Group of Collapse
Actually the first tie breaker in Spain goes to head to head competition which at the moment Barcelona has because of their win against RM earlier in the year. That, of course, could change if RM beats them at home later next month.
Wes Brown is terrible anyway