Its 9 months to the world cup and England are in the midst of a full-blown keeper crisis. OK, crisis may be rather strong, but there is a problem and the British red tops are going to have fun with this.
Capello has been totally clear, anyone who wants to play for England during the tournament needs to be playing regular top-flight football. Beckham is heading to Milan in a week or two to play for AC and hopefully a place on the flight to South Africa.
Ben Foster started in Doha against Brazil yesterday and was not at fault for the goal, the two central defenders were half asleep and beaten by a well-timed run and a very nicely taken goal.
A few minutes later Foster was put in a tough spot by Wes Brown and made contact with the Brazilian striker and conceded a penalty and a yellow card. The penalty was missed, but Foster had a fairly solid game behind a defense found wanting when faced with runners through the channels.
Fosters problem is that he is not even on been on the bench for Manchester United over the last few weeks. He seems to third choice behind Van der Sar and Kuszczak for his club. Despite that he is starting for England, rather a unique situation and an indication of the dearth of domestic talent at that position.
The previous first choice keeper James (and his interesting hairstyles) has a nagging knee injury that means it’s a couple of days after a game before he can rejoin training. With 4 games in 15 days during the group stages this is a problem. James was not with the team in Doha and has played in only one of the last 8 internationals.
Capello has also made it clear that players need to be fully fit to make the trip to South Africa.
The third keeper in the mix has been Robert Green. Green started six consecutive matches before his sending-off for a professional foul in the 1-0 defeat by Ukraine last month. In the past two matches Green has been in the squad, however Capello has chosen Foster for both games.
England has some problems between the posts and if James is fit he seems to be the first choice. If he’s not fit it becomes a big problem for Capello.