A toal of 8 first squad players and 6 youngsters are off on their International travels this week. Apart from the obvious disruption to preparation for the first game of the season there is the concern over possible injury (and general 'fatigue' from travelling, especially Ruiz). As I've said before these fixtures are madness - the FA even think they've done the decent thing by getting them brought forward by one week !!! http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/August/InternationalWhites.aspx
Yeah it's madness having them so close but I heard on SSN that they were getting rid of/moving these international friendlies after next year. Does this mean that these players are out of our first game or just have to play without any proper rest?
Schwarzer is in Scotland and Dembele in Belgium. I'd expect both to start on Saturday. I'd also expect Riise and Hangeland to play, as they are in Oslo. Ruiz is in San Jose... I'm less sure he'll start after that trip.
Congratulations to Alex Kacaniklic who came on as sub in the 63rd minute against Brazil for his international debut.
Our lads are performing well on International duty - * Brede and JAR both scored for Norway v Greece * Dembele came on at half time when Belgium were 2-1 down to Holland and helped them to a 4-2 victory Elsewhere not so good for Schwarzer with Australia losing 3-1 to Scotland [Rhodes got one of the Scottish goals so I guess that's another £1m on his head]
Here's a round-up from the Club on how all the lads got on - http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/August/InternationalRound-Up.aspx
