No Brolly but same old England

Silvester makes surprise move from Manchester to Arsenal

Brian Barwick leaving FA at end of the year

Ostapenko double sees Kazakhstan win

International Round-Up

It may have been raining heavily at Wembley but there was no sign of the brolly used by the former man in charge of the England team, but it was a familiar story on the pitch as England picked up an undeserved 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic. Once more England seemed to lack any form of creativity.

Milan Baros opened the scoring for the Czech Republic with a shot that took a deflection off of Ashley Cole. Wes Brown gave England some hope by equalising on half time. Jankulovski scored from a free-kick just three minutes after the break and it wasn’t until the 92nd minuted the Joe Cole scored a scrappy equaliser.

Mikael Silvestre became the first man to move from Manchester United to Arsenal since Brian Kidd made the trip in August 1974. Silvestre was expected to make the short trip across Manchester to their city rivals before Arsenal came in with a late bid. (Jim Leighton and Matt Wicks have also made the trip since Kidd, but neither played for Arsenal.)

It was announced today that Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick is to leave the organisation at the end of the year.

While England were losing to the Czech Republic the first match in their qualifying group for the 2010 World cup took place with Kazakhstan beating Andorra 3-0 with Ostapenko scoring twice. Andorra will be England’s first opponents in the qualifying tournament on the 6th September.

Scotland and Northern Ireland shared the spoils with a goalless draw. David Healy missed a penalty for the Irish and Ryan McGivern was sent off on his debut for Northern Ireland after picking up two yellow cards. Wales lost at home to Georgia 2-1, Jason Koumas scoring the Welsh goal. Robbie Keane grabbed Republic of Ireland’s goal as they drew 1-1 with Norway.

In other international friendlies, Euro 2008 winners Spain beat Denmark 3-0 with Xabi Alonso scoring a brace and Xavi also netting. Austria scored four times in Italy but could only draw 2-2. Stranzl and Ozcan scoring own-goals to deny Austria a shock win after they had taken a 2-0 lead. Croatia beat Slovenia 3-2, and France beat Sweden by the same score with Govou scoring twice.