The Roy Hodgson era has begun for England with a slight stumble, and a delightfully promising one at that. He named his official 23 today, and two of the names garnering the most attention seem to be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Andy Carroll, two youngsters with lots of potential, but actual contributions to the Euros up for liberal speculation. The former is 18 and uncapped, thus making this a rather big deal for him. But Roy’s pretty comfortable with the selection for reasons which don’t actually exist, which has to be reaffirming for the fans.

This was Roy’s justification of the selection…

The Arsenal midfielder was one of the surprise inclusions to the 23, after starting just six Premier League matches this season.

“He is a very exciting player who has made an impression on me, not least in his performance against AC Milan at the Emirates,” Hodgson said.

“I was there live and saw how well he dealt with Pirlo and Ambrosini. He can play wide or central and for future and can continue as he started.”

Squad sheets on the day:

Nowhere will you find Massimo Ambrosini or Andrea Pirlo. In fact, Pirlo’s checks are now being cut by Juventus, which makes this whole scenario implausible, if not impossible. Perhaps he simply confused him with Zlatan? Long hair all looks the same from a distance. Which might explain the Carroll selection as well.

(The remainder of the squad can be found here.)

Guess which one she is.

World class keepers on the male side tend to be fairly tall, and even the bejeweled Iker Casillas is considered undersized at 182cm, or under six feet. The keepers of Europe’s better national teams typically range over 190cm – Neuer, Buffon, Cech, Hart, Stekelenburg, et cetera, et cetera.

Japan’s a different story, and especially on the female side of the game. Wikipedia can give a hint. Which is why finding a 187cm female keeper is like finding the Holy Grail, enough to dub her Supergirl.

One has to wonder if this project was official, maintaining tryouts and the like, or they just asked employees to be on the lookout for really tall gals during lunch hour.

Erina Yamane, who at 187 centimeters (6 feet, two inches) looks down on Japan’s senior men’s goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima, has made the cut for London, local media reported on Tuesday.

“I thought it was a joke,” Yamane, a product of the Japan Football Association’s ‘Supergirl Project’ designed to unearth a future goalkeeper, told the Nikkan Sports newspaper.

“I didn’t think I was ready to play at an Olympics,” added the 21-year-old, whose L-League team, Tepco Mareeze, run by Tokyo Electric Power Co., was shut down after last year’s nuclear crisis, forcing her to move to Chiba Ladies.

“The Olympics wasn’t even on my radar to be honest. I’ll just do whatever I can for the team.”

No pressure.

Most domestic seasons haven’t closed, yet the names of those heading off to the lands of continental glory in the Polkraine are already dropping, along with some of the squads to be whittled down in the coming weeks (the deadline being May 29th). Today Giovanni Trappatoni announced Ireland’s formal 23 and Germany a damn close 27.

Meanwhile, Bert van Marwijk & Co. decided to call up a decent portion of the country’s population for its preliminary squad – 36 in total.

Ireland:

Keepers: Shay Given, Keiren Westwood, David Forde

Defenders: Richard Dunne, John O’Shea, Sean St.Ledger, Darren O’Dea, Stephen Ward, Stephen Kelly, Kevin Foley,

Midfielders: Glenn Whelan, Darron Gibson, Keith Andrews, Keith Fahey, Damien Duff, Aiden McGeady, Stephen Hunt, James McClean,

Forwards: Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle, Simon Cox, Shane Long, Jonathan Walters.

Standby list: Darren Randolph, Paul McShane, Paul Green, Seamus Coleman, Andy Keogh

Germany:

Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Tim Wiese, Ron-Robert Zieler

Defense: Holger Badstuber, Jerome Boateng, Benedikt Höwedes, Mats Hummels, Philipp Lahm, Per Mertesacker, Marcel Schmelzer

Midfield: Lars Bender, Sven Bender, Julian Draxler, Mario Götze, Ilkay Gündogan, Sami Khedira, Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Mesut Özil, Lukas Podolski, Marco Reus, Andre Schürrle, Bastian Schweinsteiger

Striker: Cacau, Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose

Netherlands:

Goalkeepers: Jasper Cillessen (Ajax), Tim Krul (Newcastle United/ENG), Erwin Mulder (Feyenoord), Maarten Stekelenburg (Roma/ITA), Michel Vorm (Swansea City/WAL)

Defenders: Vurnon Anita (Ajax), Khalid Boulahrouz (Stuttgart/GER), Wilfred Bouma (PSV Eindhoven), Alexander Buttner (Vitesse Arnhem), John Heitinga (Everton/ENG), Hedwiges Maduro (Valencia/ESP), Joris Mathijsen (Malaga/ESP), Nick Viergever (AZ Alkmaar), Ron Vlaar, Stefan de Vrij (both Feyenoord), Gregory van der Wiel (Ajax), Jetro Willems (PSV Eindhoven)

Midfielders: Ibrahim Afellay (Barcelona/ESP), Mark van Bommel, Urby Emanuelson (both AC Milan/ITA), Nigel de Jong (Manchester City/ENG), Siem de Jong (Ajax), Adam Maher (AZ Alkmaar), Stijn Schaars (Sporting Lisbon/POR), Wesley Sneijder (Inter Milan/ITA), Kevin Strootman (PSV Eindhoven), Rafael van der Vaart (Tottenham Hotspur/ENG)

Forwards: Georginio Wijnaldum (PSV Eindhoven), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke/GER), Ola John, Luuk de Jong (both FC Twente), Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool/ENG), Jeremain Lens (PSV Eindhoven), Luciano Narsingh (Heerenveen), Robin van Persie (Arsenal/ENG), Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich/GER)

Poland chose it, and Poland isn’t happy. Hip hip for democracy.

When going for official songs in this day and age, less clothing is a rule – see: Shakira, World Cup 2010. In this case, it turns out the more clothing the better. And oh, do they wear more clothing. In fact they look like they’re about to go milk something, and not Gerard Pique. (Well, likely not.)

The name is Euro Koko Spoko, and the swingin’ band is Jarzebina, a rural folk band. This is obviously drawing some controversy, including the theory that it was chosen as a joke.

It’s a strong one.

Bad news in general, particularly so in the light of the traveling bullseye that will be descending on the Ukraine in under six weeks: a series of bombs spread through Dnipropetrovsk, injuring a minimum of 27.

With Euro 2012 due to kick off shortly, the resulting worry that this may be in some way related to the tournament is understandable, even though Dnipropetrovsk isn’t one of the host cities.

Obviously this is an important event of prominence, so security was always a concern, but it to be upgraded and locked down appropriately, whether or not this is linked in any way to the tournament itself.

The blasts went off in quick succession around noon in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk, targeting a tram stop, a cinema and a railway station. Witnesses said it appeared that explosive devices had been placed in nearby rubbish bins. Authorities said at least four blasts had gone off, but some reports placed the number as high as 10.

Twenty minutes later, there was a second explosion in front of a cinema, followed by a blast near the railway station. A fourth blast targeted the same tram stop as the first.

Ukraine has no history of modern terrorism and it was unclear who could be behind the blasts. The attack will raise concerns as Ukraine gets ready to host Euro 2012 from 8 June. Dnipropetrovsk lost its bid to host a match, but nearby Donetsk is one of the championship’s main sites.

The Dutch energy company NLE is taking some…heat…for their ad on Euro 2012, imploring woman to keep their husbands at home, sudsy and sublimely happy, because there are lots of scantily clad attractive females in the Ukraine. Some of them may even be looking for a husband. (No!)

The Ukrainians are unhappy and have asked the energy company for an explanation, a removal of the spot, and several thousand of those built-in taps for the home in reparations.

In the event you’d banked your summer on sun, siestas and the Tweets of the Danish national football team, my deepest condolences – you’re out of luck. The Danes of Polkraine will be banned from their private social media accounts for the duration, instead having to walk the company line of team-approved social media obligations, which is just the most super swell way of rolling back the curtain, ain’t it.

Concerns of releasing secret tactical dossiers and whatnot are the prime concern. Considering they’re in a group with Germany, Holland and Portugal, return tickets home should be of greater priority. Why not let them have their fun?

Apparently this is a bit of an issue for some. Not for Thomas Sorensen, however.

“There was a time when we lived without Twitter and we can do it again during the European Championships.”

Well that’s just not true.

Romario, one of those past icons whose personality has kept his flames of relevance burning in a number of ways, has other ideas. Like the current team being crap and all.

Crap for Brazil? Or crap in general? The former, perhaps; the latter, unlikely. Fortunately for Brazil, a “crap” selection could still conceivably win the World Cup at home.

And they’ll damn sure have some bitchin’ mohawks.

“The current team is crap, it would be tough even to get past the first round of the World Cup,” Romario fired. “Even the CBF president [Jose Maria Marin] has said that 2014’s Brazil coach cannot be the same one as today’s. There have to be results. We still have two years to prepare so that we don’t suffer total humiliation.”

Then again, Romario also claims he was better than Messi and that four men fit into a list of three. No one needs to know how.

Now quick, everybody stick your chest out real far…

Rarely, if ever, do promotional shots seem to indicate the actual height of footballer, making them appear giants when in reality, many could appear to be trick-or-treaters with a half decent mask. This one seems more appropriate. Though Wesley Sneijder does look as if he’s about to enter a cage match.

On the whole it’s not a bad looking set of kits – plus they’re green – if the Dutch shirt is a drop-off from that gorgeous strip they had at World Cup 2010.

A couple of local gents in Dnepropetrovsk had a bit too much of the lager and when jaunting about town, decided to kick one of the giant display balls, which then smashed into pieces. Not having the requisite capital to replace the ball, they were “publicly shamed” as punishment.

They duo were forced to stand by the broken symbol of the European football championships for nearly 24 hours, holding banners, which said: “I’m a complete idiot – I broke the Euro 2012 ball” in their hands.

The ITAR-TASS news agency says the local police claim “the men, chose such punishment themselves.”

This is an excellent idea for the tournament, really, and should be spread generously across the sport to include diving, time-wasting, tactics which sit ten men behind the ball at all times and David Villa’s facial hair.