Fabio Capello, the England manager, made it very clear that he is open to speak to any player who feels unhappy at being left out from the team. England has already qualified for the World Cup next year by achieving an emphatic victory over Croatia last Wednesday. They beat Croatia 5-1 at Wembley. The England manager has enjoyed 100% success so far in the qualifying Group 6 having already made it to South Africa with another couple of games to spare.

The manager owes the success to the mutual understanding that he has been able to build with his players. The best thing about him is that he is very approachable and players do not hesitate to walk up to him to clear any doubts. He confirmed that he had to enlighten as many as three players as to why they could not make it to the team. Capello played for the World Cup qualifiers back in 1978 but unfortunately could not make it to the squad. So he is not taking any chances to his 23- man squad either. However, he confirms that his decision would be based on the current form of the player.

According to Frank Lampard, Fabio is an exceptional manager who has been able to unite the team and make them perform to the best of their abilities. He has maintained a degree of discipline with the players and has taught them to maintain a level head irrespective of the result. Fabio Capello has shown that a little detail and change can bring about a lot of changes to the fortune of the team.

Here is Coach Horne’s thoughts:

I checked out your blog, and I think it looks neat. In it you compare the structure of soccer in the United States to the structure in other countries, and attribute the differences to the varying levels of success. I agree with you. The academy structure is a better strategy to develop players to reach their potential.

However, there is something about US soccer that other countries don’t have and that is…a highly organized and well structured college and university system serving as an outlet for soccer and player development. The US has the best colleges and universities in the world. The point is, in the US, players can play at a very high level while getting an education that will serve them for the rest of their life. Players in Europe are taking advantage of this opportunity, coming to the US on a student visa to play and get an education. However, there is NOT enough awareness on this.

I played in the USL second division last season for the Cincinnati Kings and am currently trying out for teams for the upcoming season. I have met dozens of guys from Europe who have taken advantage of what I have described.”

I agree with many points Coach Horne has made. And I do agree to a certain level that the U.S. does have some of the best Universities in the world…however England can argue that they do have Oxford, Cambridge, etc. etc. To sum everything up, the U.S. has one huge advantage that I really never thought too much about:

While many people can take other routes to being a U.S. professional player, most of them go through the college system. So, in a way, many of these players are forced through and get a degree or most of a degree. If for some reason they hurt themselves at the pro level, they do have a degree to fall back on.