John Terry named England's captain for US match

US vs. England
Wednesday, 3pm ET/12pm PT
TV: ESPN Classic, Galavision (delayed 7pm ET)

England's coach Fabio Capello has named John Terry as captain for tomorrow's match against the USA at Wembley. Terry becomes Capello's third English captain in as many games.

Capello said: "I told him he'll be the captain and he was very, very happy. It's very important to be a leader and John Terry is a leader."

It seems this game will take place a week after Terry missed some sort of penalty kick. Anyone know anything about this?

Snark aside, Capello hopes to have the full-time captain position decided before England's World Cup Qualifying matches begin in September.

On another note, I didn't realize this until just a few moments ago but every player on England's roster plays in the EPL, except one. The one is David Beckham. So does this mean English players can't make it outside of their own county? Okay, too much snark.

In US roster news, Maurice Edu has been called to London by Bob Bradley after Benny Feilhaber suffered a knee injury in last week's Toulon Tournament while Frankie Hejduk is making the trip to possibly cover for Jonathan Spector who has been experiencing hip joint irritation.

US vs. England - March 28 at Wembley

The source might not be the most impressive but there is a report out of England that the red, white and blues will meet the three lions at Wembley on March 28 (hat tip SBI). Before the Mexico match this past week, US soccer boss Sunil Gulati hinted at a top 20 opponent ahead of the June 4th meeting in Spain.

If this does come to be, it means the US men will play Spain, Argentina and England in a two-week period ahead of their first World Cup Qualifier. Add this to the matches against Mexico, Sweden and Poland and the team will have played 6 of the top 25 in FIFA's rankings this year (with three of them on the road). Not a bad total.

As far as England, this match seems tailor made for David Beckham to earn his 100th cap. The Galaxy play at home on May 24th and then in Toronto on May 31st, so he could fly out on Sunday and then have a much shorter trip to return to the club by the next match.

This would be another fantastic get if it comes to be and might even end up on network television.

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.