ROOOOOONEY!!!

Sven-Goran Eriksson released his 23 man squad for the World Cup, with some controversy surrounding his choice of strikers. So far he's taking:

Michael Owen (New Castle United)
Wayne Rooney (Manchester Roooooney-nited)
Peter Crouch (Liverpool)
Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

Wayne Rooney most likely will be replaced due to injury, leaving Owen, Crouch, and a kid from Arsenal who's only played for England's youth teams. It even gets better, since it turns out Eriksson called him up without ever meeting him, on the basis of video tape of a couple goals he scored for the under-19s. So he's not going to see a lot of action, neither is Rooney, so not a lot of depth for Ingerland up front. One theory is he doesn't want a whole bunch of veterans competing for playing time and destroying the chemistry of the team, and would rather blood youngsters, like Brazil did with Pele in 1958, France played some young players in '98 who helped win the Euro in 2000. Also, the theory goes, if you use all 23 players, you've had so many injuries (or are otherwise in such a desperate straits that you'll try anything) that you're not going to be winning the world cup anyways. The exception that proves the rule is Aime Jacquet playing all 23 members of his squad serious minutes in '98 and then jumping up and down on Brazil in the final... but when France tried their third string playmaker in 2002, they went home early. So England won't be worse off for having Walcott be the 23rd man called up, but still, I can't even remember the last time I saw Michael Owen in a game, and I love Peter Crouch, but I'll be surprised if a guy who moves like Lurch from the Addams Family does well at the World Cup.

So in any case I'd get ready for four years of "But if Rooney had been healthy...", as once again, a twist of fate keeps England from their second trophy... in '98 it was Beckham being sent off in the 2nd round, in '02 it was Ronaldinho's "fluke" goal in the quarterfinal, in '94... oh wait, no excuse for that one. Meanwhile, in the depths of hypocrisy, I'll be crafting my "the sun was in Brian Ching's eyes, if that cloud hadn't moved when it did, the whole tournament would have been different" excuse for why the US didn't capitalize on their 52% chance* of making the second round.

*-using special Wall Street math, where 52% probability does not actually mean 52 times out of a hundred.