Back At Finch Farm

The Yak and Joe Yobo are back at Finch farm following Nigeria's 3rd place finish in the African Cup of Nations after beating Algeria 1-0 in the third-place match. Both players were on the bench for that game. Moyesy will assess them before the derby game. (05/02/10)

Yobo Out

The Yak hopes to continue his goalscoring when Nigeria face Mozambique tomorrow, but Joey Yobo is out injured.

Joe says: "I am not feeling 100 per cent, that is for sure. Being out of the African Cup of Nations is one thing though. I will miss the next game, that is for sure and we have not qualified yet, so maybe I will not play again." (19/01/10)

Yak Scores The Winner

Yak scores the winner with a penalty against Benin. That's the good news, the bad is Joey Yobo came off with a hamstring injury. It means if Nigeria beat Mozambique in their next game they go through to the quarter finals.(16/01/10)

Billy Is The Hero

Billy was the hero for Russia as he scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Slovinia in the World cup qualifying game first leg. The return leg takes place on Wednesday in Slovenia. (14/11/09)

Yak & Joe Qualify In World Cup Thriller

Nigeria, captained by Joey Yobo have qualified for South Africa 2010 after defeating Kenya 3-2. The Yak scored one of the goals, but the Super Eagles needed an unlikely win by Mozambique, who won 1-0 against Tunisia. (14/11/09)

Howard Out Of USA Game

A foot injury has kept Tim Howard at home instead of playing for USA during the two week break. Tim was doubtful for the West Ham game and the rest will do him good.

Baz Rathbone says: “I have spoken to the US medical team and they are perfectly happy with the situation. We’ll work with Tim here and monitor the injury very closely.” (10/11/09)

Internationals Fly Off

Finch Farm will just have the walking wounded this week as most of the fit players will have jetted off to places we cant find in our atlas. Tim Cahill and Lucas Neill are in the Australian squad for the second leg of their Asian Cup Qualifier in Oman. Joe will captain the Super Eagles with the Yak in the World Cup game when Nigeria visit Nairobi to face Kenya in their final group game. They need to better group rivals Tunisia's result to progress. Bily is on ESPN with Russia. (See below). John Heitinga with Holland and Marouane Fellaini with Belgium have friendlies. Netherlands take on Italy while Belgium take on Hungary and Qatar. Jack Rodwell plays for the England's U21 side against Portugal at Wembley on Saturday and Lithuania next week. While Seamus Coleman will fly to Georgia and then Armenia playing for the Republic of Ireland U21's. (09/11/09)

Skipper

Billy In World Cup Play Off Squad

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov is in Guus Hiddink's Russian squad for the important World Cup qualifying play-offs. Russia face Slovenia in Moscow on 14th November before the return leg in Maribor four days later. There are also places in the squad for Russia's 3 other England-based players - Andrey Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Yuri Zhirkov. Both games are on ESPN. (02/11/09)

Yobo Traumatised - Cahill Scores

Nigeria and Australia both won vital qualifiers, but Super Eagles skipper was traumatised, while Tim and Lucas were skipping around the billabong, Tim scored for the Socceroos once again to win 1-0 against Oman in Group B of the Asia nations cup. His 18th in 36 internationals and his fifth in his past four Socceroos matches. Australia are equal on four points with Oman and also have an identical goal difference.

Yobo's team kept their faint World Cup qualification hopes alive with a last minute winner against Mozambique. But only 5,000 turned up to boo the players throughout the game and booed Nigeria’s national anthem even before kick-off.
Joe says: “They booed everything we did. We should not be too surprised at this as they even booed their own national anthem before the match. I had just lost a cousin. We were very close and he spoke with me just before his death and we talked about how the team could qualify for the World Cup in South Africa. So you could understand how traumatised I was before the match." (15/10/09)

Tim's Off To South Africa

Tim Howard and his USA team mates are off to next years World Cup party in South Africa after they beat Honduras 3-2 to book their place at the Dinner table.

Jonny Boy and Lucas Neill played out a goalless draw in Sydney as Australia and Holland locked horns in a friendly. Jonny Boy played the full ninety, whilst Moyesy will be delighted that Lucas Neill got forty five minutes under his belt.

Jack Rodwell played the full ninety minutes as England U21's beat Macedonia 6-3 at Coventry's Ricoh Arena. (11/10/09)