Keep them crossed, your fingers that is (only one more set of internationals to go)

Posted on by WalterBroeckx

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By Walter Broeckx

So far the first round of international games has left us with no real casualties. But still one game to play for most internationals so let us not sell the skin of the bear yet.

The most interesting game of the fixtures played  from my personal point of view was the game of the U21 between Belgium and England. After Oxlade Chamberlain once again shining for England I thought I would take a look at this game and go to the stadium.  But since then I found out that the game is played a more than 2 hours drive away from my home and in times with rising fuel prices and given the fact that I should go straight from work has made me realise that I will not be able to attend to the game. I would have loved to see Oxlade Chamberlain live. Oh well, there will be other opportunities in the coming years.

And to stay in Belgium : Vermaelen is still very well, (touch wood). He didn’t play in the first game from Belgium but will play against France. One of the Arsenal Benelux members had the luck to meet him this week in person. And of course the first and last question he asked was: “Are you still 100% fit?” and the answer we all love to hear from Thomas was: “Ja, topfit” which is translated in English: well, you can work it out.  Although I think the word very is an understatement. Anyway hoping they will both stay fit after playing against Koscielny in Paris when France and Belgium meet.

If Koscielny also is playing in this game after winning his first cap for France last weekend, that is. A big blow for some of the AAA because pointing at the fact that Koscielny was not an international was the last straw they hung on to “prove” that he was not fit to wear the shirt. I think anyone with a bit of football brain up till now was just wondering what kept the French manager from not playing him in the national team. Not that I wanted him to play for France as I rather had him fresh for Arsenal.

It will be interesting to see if Mertesacker plays for Germany against Holland. He will not have to kick Van Persie because Bert Van Marwijck the Dutch coach agreed with Wenger to send him back home to London to give him a rest. So that is very good news for Arsenal and I like to say from the bottom of my heart: “Bedankt Bert”. Which just means: “thank you, Bert”. Lets all enjoy the thought of not having to fear for Robin this week.

And more good news came from South Korea. Park picked up a booking. Not that I like Arsenal players pick up bookings for the sake of it but because it means he could not play in the game on Tuesday because of this booking is something that also makes me happy.

Other players have also played some games but have finished playing and will return to London and should be available and fit for our game next weekend. Song even won a little tournament in Morocco with Cameroon. And Ramsey won with a high score against Norway. And as Wales is in a group with Belgium for the qualifiers in the next world cup you can be assured that I will be going to the game between Belgium and Wales to support…oh damn… I just will support that both Thomas and Aaron will stay fit after those games.

Gervinho and Arshavin drew their games and both should be fit and ready to play.

We still have our two keepers in Poland but as only one can play we should have one keeper left by the weekend I guess.  Djourou will play for Switzerland I think and we can hope that he doesn’t pick anything up apart from some tax free shopping. Well tax free is hard to get these days, but just call it tax low shopping in Luxembourg.

Will Walcott play against Sweden? I don’t know but seeing him play so defensively against Spain might be a bonus for Arsenal when it could be needed in the next weeks/months. Another Arsenal young player Coquelin played and was substituted in the second half for the U21 France against Slovakia (France won 2-0). But with Song and Frimpong being fit he will not be missed that much. But he should be fit for the next Carling cup game I think.

Finally  Tomas Rosicky. As captain of the Czech national team they are 90 minutes away from the European championship. They won their first leg with 2-0 against Montenegro and I have heard that Tomas gave an assist in this game. I didn’t see it to be honest but if one can believe the reports Tomas had a good game. As he had most of the time when he has been playing for Arsenal I think. Some glimpses of the Tomas I used to know before he came to Arsenal and the Tomas we knew before his injury. The only thing I missed about the old Tomas was his rockets that he launched every now and then that ended up in the top corner. Maybe time to produce one of these in the next weeks for Arsenal? That would surely have the old Tomas back completely.

So far the international games has been rather kind to us (injury wise) so let us hope it continues today and tomorrow. And let us hope our players will be back in great form and keep it up like they were doing before this break. Thank God, only a few days before we can move back to normal Arsenal modus. But just to be sure: keep your fingers crossed the next 24 hours.

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Arsenal.com yesterday picked Walter’s “Jenkinson” article as the top item in their Media Watch section.    Congratulations all round to Walter from everyone at Untold Towers

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7 Replies to “Keep them crossed, your fingers that is (only one more set of internationals to go)”

  1. Aye ,Walter ,I’m keeping them crossed and hope all of them come fit and maybe even refreshed.Like most ,the last week was painful and boring ,but no injuries would cheer me up.

  2. Oh, Walter, now you’ve jinxed us. Now Szcez will get picked for Poland, get injured, be replaced by Fabi, who will also get injured. See what you’ve done? 😉

  3. The BBC is reporting that Cameroon is refusing to play the friendly (against Algeria?). The players are not getting paid bonuses promised them. Which means Alex Song got through the break okay (I assume).

  4. Hope they all come back fit, but one cloud on the horizon, we have Dowd for the Norwich game!

  5. Just have seen Germany – Holland 3-0!!
    RVP in London (great) and Per Mertesacker was impressive in defence for Germany (also great)

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