Beckham benched for Croatia showdown; If England loose, the blame falls on the NFL

David Beckham will not start for England in their fight against Croatia Wednesday night. Due to his rash of injuries over the last eight months and his lack of pace, Steve McCalren has decided to go with Shaun Wright-Phillips instead.

I guess Peter Crouch will have to find someone else to set him up and inspire the squad.

Here is England's starting XI:
Carson - Richards, Lescott, Campbell, A Cole - Wright-Phillips, Gerrard, Barry, Lampard, J Cole - Crouch

In other 'the sky is falling news' for England, the pitch at the £757million ($1.5 gazillion) Wembley stadium is in bad shape and might just cost England their match. If it does, look for the diehards to blame American football.

The turf had taken a severe battering during last month's controversial NFL American Football match. Despite the best efforts of Wembley groundstaff, the signs of wear and tear were clear for all to see.

Former West Ham and Everton defender Bilic believes the surface was likely to play a factor, even though his men faced much worse against Macedonia in Skopje on Saturday.

'The pitch here is not good, it is not the condition which Wembley used to have and is known for,' the Croatia manager declared.
'Three weeks ago there was an NFL game and the pitch it not good.

'It is not good for us, but it is definitely no good for England, because they like to pass the ball as well.

A little note to any NFL folks looking at this, if England loses this game because of some odd bump on a pass or strange bounce of the ball, you might as well write off the country as a possible hotbed of pointy ball fun for a generation.

Of coarse the thing that will not be pointed out if the ground plays a role in the match is that Croatia had to play on the same pitch.