World Cup Round Up: Cameroon Confusion, England Gloom, R.I.P. Nils Liedholm

It is the calm before the proverbial storm. With a couple of weeks to go before the decisive Euro 2008 matches are played and before World cup qualifying resumes in South America, these are the days when we are left to ponder stories of coaching confusion in Africa, doom and gloom in England, and how the sun isn’t always shiny in Brazil. Here’s your regular weekday sampling of international football stories.

Is he or isn’t he? The confusion over Cameroon’s hiring of Otto Pfister continues. This sort of thing seems to happen with some degree of frequency in Africa. It sure makes the national federations look amateur.

Steve McClaren is desperate for an England win, desperate for his country to advance in Euro 2008 and desperate to save his own bacon. How desperate? Desperate enough to fly across the pond to watch David Beckham play against a bunch of movie stars.

Even with McClaren sniffing around LA for a Hollywood ending, Croatia’s Eduardo de Silva says England are doomed.

Raymond Domenech insists that France ….(insert cliché)

If you do the crime, you must do the time. And in the process you certainly cannot be rewarded for your efforts. South Korean captain Lee Woo-jae’s name has been scrubbed from the Asian Player of the Year shortlist because he got drunk and played with hookers before his country’s match last summer. He still is on the unofficial shortlist of players doing dumb things, however. Actually that list isn’t short at all.

Now that Brazil has been awarded the 2014 World Cup, it is time for journalists everywhere to write about the difficult road the country must take to get ready in time.

Sad day for Sweden and Italian football fans. Former Sweden captain and AC Milan legend Nils Liedholm (pictured left) has passed away at the age of 85. He was a great one.

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