Missing from our squad for the final game against Palace, Neil Etheridge kept a clean sheet as the Philippines drew 0-0 with Afghanistan in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup in the Maldives on Tuesday. After kick-off in the Group B encounter was delayed for 90 minutes because of a thunderstorm, Etheridge made a couple of good stops to keep the scores level when matters finally got under way. Afghanistan did beat Etheridge late on, only for a header to come back off the crossbar. The winners of the eight-team event will qualify for the Asian Cup. The Philippines also face Laos in Hithadhoo on Thursday, before traveling to the National Stadium in Male to play Turkmenistan on Saturday
Completely forgot the England v Wales U21 game on Monday. Cauley Woodrow wasn't selected in the England squad but both Josh pritchard and George Williams turned out for Wales. Josh went off injured just before half time and George - who had a stormer according to radio reports - came on. Here's the Club write up (which does little justice to G Williams' performance) : "Josh Pritchard and George Williams both featured as Wales Under-21s slipped to a 3-1 defeat against England on Monday night. The Three Lions took the lead with 18 minutes played when Norwich City winger Nathan Redmond – who scored the winner between the nations earlier in the campaign – won possession of the ball and lashed a shot beyond Wales goalkeeper Connor Roberts. The lead lasted just two minutes, though, when Gwion Edwards met a corner with a powerful header to draw his side level. Lloyd Isgrove had a chance to put the home nation in front at the Liberty Stadium after being sent through, but England captain Jack Butland was equal to his effort. The visitors then upped their game and the Dragons relied heavily on Roberts who made a number of impressive saves, but there was nothing he could do to keep out Redmond’s 38th minute strike as England restored their advantage. Wales were then forced into two changes before half-time, with Whites youngster Williams entering the action when Isgrove picked up a knock, before Pritchard – who had started the game – had to be withdrawn for Tom O’Sullivan. Williams presented a new threat to England with his direct running, as was emphasised when Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse was booked for pulling back the Fulham forward. Redmond then hit a post but he wasn’t to be denied a hat-trick, lashing home his third in stoppage time via a deflection off Saido Berahino."
Could be good news for Bryan's Costa Rica, and England of course: MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay striker Luis Suarez had keyhole surgery on his knee on Thursday and is expected to recover in time for the World Cup. The mother of the 27-year-old Liverpool striker told The Associated Press that Suarez had successful surgery to repair damage to his meniscus. "The surgery is over and thank God everything went well. What Luis had wasn't as serious as we thought," Suarez's mother, Sandra Diaz, told the AP. According to Suarez's sister, the striker is expected to be out for 2-3 weeks. Uruguay plays its first match at the World Cup against Costa Rica on June 14. The team will then face England on June 19 and Italy on June 24. Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/uruguay-striker-suarez-surgery-ahead-wcup-115457726.html#o5n4k9Q
Cauley Woodrow featured for England on Thursday night as an Under-20 side kicked off their Toulon Tournament with a comfortable 3-0 win over Qatar. Fellow debutant Jordan Obita opened the scoring for Gareth Southgate’s side in the first half, with Josh McEachran then seeing an effort cleared off the line as England dominated the play. And it took less than 15 minutes after the restart for the lead to be doubled, as Brighton & Hove Albion pair Solly March and Jake Forster-Caskey combined, with the latter finishing left-footed. Woodrow then replaced West Bromwich Albion striker Saido Berahino five minutes later. The Fulham man impressed up top, firstly when his knock-down found Obita who fired wide. The striker also drew two saves from the Qatar goalkeeper Yousef Hassan late on – first a strike from a tight angle and then a headed effort – before Jordan Cousin’s capitalised on a fluffed clearance in stoppage time to add a third.
Cauley Woodrow came on as a second half sub for England U20s v Brazil tonight. The team lost 2-1; James Ward-Prowse of Southamptom got the England goal with a nice free kick.
Great news for another of our youngsters. Gareth Bale is out of Wales friendly with Holland so his obvious replacement is of course George Williams. What fantastic news for the lad. I'd love to see him get game time. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12010/9327558/wales-winger-gareth-bale-out-of-netherlands-friendly-due-to-injury
Terrific news. He must be on cloud nine - literally - flying back from Potugal to meet up with main squad as we 'speak'.
please log in to view this image The FA have done a mini-profile on Cauley. Here is the link to the article: http://www.thefa.com/news/england/under-21/2014/may/cauley-woodrow-glad-to-be-back-270514
Round-up from the Club: Ashkan Dejagah and Elsad Zverotić went up against each other as Iran drew 0-0 with Montenegro in an international friendly in Hartberg, Austria, on Monday. Iran dominated proceedings, with Dejagah forcing Mladen Bozovic into a sprawling save shortly before the half-hour mark with a curling free-kick from 20 yards. Dejagah was substituted just after the hour mark but Carlos Queiroz's men couldn’t find a way through as the game ended goalless. Zverotić played the full 90 minutes in a defensive midfield role. Iran have forthcoming friendlies against Angola at the same venue on Friday and Trinidad and Tobago in Sao Paulo on 8th June before their World Cup campaign begins. Last week, Lasse Vigen Christensen started for Denmark Under-21s as they slipped to a 2-0 friendly defeat by Switzerland. A first-half brace from Darko Jevtic did the damage, with Christensen replaced on 68 minutes by Jens Jonsson. At Under-18 level, Moussa Dembélé scored France’s late winner in their 1-0 friendly victory over Croatia at Clairefontaine. After peppering the Croatia goal throughout the game only to find the visiting goalkeeper in fine form on each occasion, Les Bleus finally made the breakthrough in the first minute of stoppage time through Dembélé. The striker won a flick on before collecting the return pass and firing a clinical first time strike into the roof of the net from 10 yards out. Chris David has joined up with the Netherlands Under-21s for their European Championship Qualifiers against Scotland and Luxembourg. Muamer Tankovic started both of Sweden Under-19s' European Championship Elite Round games so far, scoring their consolation goal against Bulgaria. They face the Czech Republic on Thursday.
I wonder will Wales give George Williams some game time even just to ensure he's declared for Wales full time.
Brede Hangeland had a shocker tonight as France beat Norway 4-0. Link to mini match report: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/match/france-vs-norway/1632751/report
I hear tell that Cauley Woodrow scored after 3 minutes tonight against Korea. On my way home right now, but is anyone watching?
Not watching but yep, he scored very early and had one ruled out for offside in the second half. 1-1 at the moment.
In Englands draw with Korea Cauley Woodrow was our scorer early in the match, and late on had a header ruled offside, and another attempt thwarted by an excellent save. One report states that he was one of the bright lights in an otherwise poor side, but needed more quality games to access his full potential. Lets see if next year he is given his chance and can make that step up.
I watched the second half and Cauley looked very good. Not that you would know from the after match 'analysis'. Cauley absolutely has to be part of our corps of strikers next season.
in the Elite Round of UEFA Qualifiers, Wales Under-19s drew 1-1 with Belgium with Jordan Evans at left-back, while Noe Baba helped the Republic of Ireland U19s to a 2-1 win over Iceland.
Here's Cauley's goal: [video=youtube;xp80VrMkolU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xp80VrMkolU[/video]
Cauley Woodrow gets his second of the tournament: "England under-20s look set to face Portugal in the third-place play-off in the Toulon tournament despite a disappointing draw against Colombia. Cauley Woodrow's first-half strike put England ahead in the south of France but Jhoao Rodriguez equalised to earn his side a share of the spoils. A draw is still likely going to be enough for the Three Lions to reach the third-place play-off, with Qatar needing to thrash group winners Brazil to finish second. Colombia came into the group with just one point from their previous three matches but England made a sloppy start, struggling to retain possession. However, the Three Lions made the breakthrough after 15 minutes following some poor defending. Woodrow won the initial long ball forward and after Daniel Londono cleared the ball into fellow defender Aldayr Hernandez, the Fulham striker was on hand to coolly finish from the edge of the area." Match report: http://sport.bt.com/sportfootball/football/england-held-by-colombia-S11363906902538
Liam Donnelly was an unused sub as Uruguay beat Northern Ireland 1-0 in Montevideo yesterday. Stalwarts in the NI defence were Aaron Hughes and Chris Baird. Uruguay were of course without Suarez but fielded pretty much their first team. Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill said, "Having seen Uruguay, I would expect England to beat them in Brazil. If England play with pace in the forward areas they will cause them real problems. I'll be honest, I think you can get at them. "This is a good team, but it's heavily dependent on the front two, if you nullify them you can get opportunities against them. "I haven't spoken to Roy (Hodgson) in the build-up, but if he wanted to call me or my assistant Billy McKinley, who he worked with at Fulham, there'd be no problem there. But I'm sure he doesn't need to, they will have had someone here and there'll be a dossier 250 pages thick." Match report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27383322
According to reports Brede and co. were again a bit flaky with balls into the box. However having lost a very early goal Norway equalised 10 minutes from the end to draw 1-1 with Fabio Capello's Russia in Oslo yesterday. Match report: http://www.uefa.com/friendlies/seas...374/match=2014241/postmatch/report/index.html
