The Irish and Welsh contingents here at CT must be well pleased … and no doubt they’ll be dancing in the streets of Auchtermuchtie tonight too (not to mention Malmo, Asunción, Port-of-Spain, and points in-between). Departing England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has picked a World Cup squad with only two fit recognized strikers: a 17-year-old who has never played a competitive game in the top division, and Peter Crouch.

Georgina Turner at “the Guardian’s Newsblog”:http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/05/08/sven_strikes_speculative_parting_shot.html :

bq. “Maybe it’s not logical,” the Swede laughed at the press conference, with the same half-laugh of a soon-to-be ex-employee explaining how exactly the entire client database had been wiped. “But sometimes things work out very well even though they’re not logical. Of course it’s a gamble, but it’s a nice one.”