September’s International Round Up: Part One
A whole host of Brighton players took to the field to represent their countries in the first round of matches of September’s international break.
In Europe, the qualification process for Euro 2020 continues to gather pace and it’s looking pretty good at the minute for Shane Duffy and the Republic of Ireland.
The Boys in Green haven’t lost a competitive game since Mick McCarthy was reappointed as boss and they current sit atop of Group D after drawing 1-1 at home with Switzerland on Thursday night.
Switzerland dominated for the most part at the Aviva Stadium but only had Fabian Schar’s goal 15 minutes from time to show for their efforts.
Not having turned their possession into something more solid on the scoreboard ultimately came back to bite the Swiss on the posterior as David McGoldrick’s 85th minute equaliser earned a share of the spoils for the Irish.
The celebrations from the home contingent were wild which led to comical scenes when Duffy tried to join in by sliding on his knees. He only succeeded in face planting the ground in much the same manner as Anthony Knockaert had in the Albion’s 3-0 win away at West Ham United in the 2017-18 season.
Okay, one last time and from a different angle, here’s that David McGoldrick goal ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/GizgTGwCmD
— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) September 6, 2019
Davy Propper and the Netherlands claimed a huge three points in their quest to qualify for their first tournament since the 2014 World Cup as they won 4-2 away in Germany.
Serge Gnabry had given Germany an early lead in Hamburg but a marvellous second half performance from the Dutch saw Frenkie de Jong and an own goal turn the game on its head.
Propper had been introduced in place of the wonderfully named Denzel Dumfries a minute before de Jong struck, meaning that he was on the pitch for all four of the Netherlands goals.
The last two were added by Donyell Malen and Georginio Wijnaldum in the final 10 minutes after a controversial Toni Kroos penalty had levelled things up for Germany.
The Netherlands close to within three points of Germany with a game in hand in Group C. Northern Ireland continue to lead the way having won four games out of four so far.
Tudor Baluta wasn’t involved as Romania lost 2-1 at home to Spain but Florin Andone made his mark, managing to score the Romanian’s goal within three minutes of coming on.
In a classic Andone performance, the striker also managed to get Diego Llorente sent off, which led to an uncomfortable final 10 minutes for Spain but one which they just about managed to navigate.
Leandro Trossard was the Albion’s other European to be called up but his wait for a first Belgian cap goes on after he picked up a groin injury in training.
There’s no news yet about the severity of the problem, although it has already ruled him out of Belgium’s next fixture with Scotland.
Fingers crossed it isn’t too bad as Graham Potter will be relying on Trossard’s wizardry to help overcome Burnley at the weekend in a game that is already looking pretty pivotal to Brighton’s season.
Over in Los Angeles and it was a big night for Alexis Mac Allister on Friday as he made his debut for Argentina in their 0-0 draw against Chile.
On the face of it, this doesn’t sound like the most entertaining of games but according to Goal, it was end-to-end stuff until a raft of substitutions disrupted the flow.
Mac Allister was one of those, coming on in the 70th minute in place of Juventus’ Paulo Dybala. Although Mac Allister’s call up owed much to the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Angel Di Maria all missing the match, it still represents an important step on his journey towards a possible British Work Permit as it highlights he is a young player of significant talents who will earn more international caps in the future.
It was this line of appeal that resulted in Jose Izquierdo being given clearance to come to Britain in 2017 despite the fact he was a long way below the level of caps required to qualify.
Speaking of work permits, the Lion of Judah Percy Tau had been due to play for South Africa against Zambia but that game was cancelled.
This was apparently due to xenophobic attacks that have affected Johannesburg, where protesters and looters have targeted foreigners in different parts of J-Burg over the past few days.
Those attacks had put pressure on the Zambian Football Association to pull out of the game and they duly did so. Bafana Bafana then lined up Madagascar as a replacement before they too pulled out due to concerns about the safety of their delegation, players and supporters.
