Post-Wales, Pre-Slovenia – Revue de Presse

Continuing our rigorous schedule of pre-World Cup friendlies, we’ll be meeting Slovenia tomorrow at 19:15 (London time).

Needless to say that I’ll be tuning in, and not just to see what Beenie comes up with in terms of sorting out our (lack of) defence and left-wing (problems).

The international press are also paying close attention – in the past three days I’ve read a dozen or so analyses of the Welsh warmup, and a fair number of articles on individual players. Because I know that not all of you are as obsessed connected as we World Cup Bloggers are, I’ve compiled a mini revue de presse for your reading pleasure.

The Telegraph (UK) proclaimed that T&T are “worthy warriors,” “a side deserving anyone’s respect,” and under the influence of Warrior Chief Beenie, we played “neat, controlled football.”

Nonetheless, Warrior Chief is worried about the fitness of Marvin “Dog” Andrews, who came off after just 34 minutes in Graz. Dog has a recurring knee injury, and according to SkySports, Beenie is concerned that he might have to be pulled from the starting line-up. There’s a more optimistic report at the Trinidad Express, which says that Dog took part in a rain-soaked training session with the rest of his teammates on Monday night.

The Belfast Telegraph employs a burnt-out cigarette analogy in its piece on Russell “Little Magician” Latapy, the “diminutive dreadlocked midfielder“. The piece also hails Dwight Yorke as “the finest footballer the West Indies has produced” and acknowledges the little-known fact that “no player will go into the World Cup with as good an international record as John’s 65 goals.”