Steve McLaren Has Hope Yet

Israel's 2-1 home victory today over Russia, capped by a spectacular few minutes of second half injury time, puts qualifying for Euro 2008 squarely back in England's hands. The Three Lions now need only a draw against Croatia at Wembley on Wednesday to book their trip to Austria-Switzerland next June, which is truly amazing given how poorly they've played and been managed over the entire qualification process.

I'll have a full preview of the England-Croatia game on Tuesday, a match that is pretty much meaningless for the latter as Russia's loss today clinched Croatia's spot in Euro 2008 but is hugely important for both England and Steve McLaren.

Season Summaries--12. Reading

12. Reading (My preseason prediction: 11th)

It looks like the reputed "Second Season Syndrome" is coming true again, though definitely not to as large of a degree as we saw with Wigan last year. Let's face it, Reading overachieved with the squad they had last season and as I mentioned in my preseason prediction for the Royals, it's simply a case of them really not adding/improving to their squad compared to teams like Everton, Portsmouth, Blackburn, and Aston Villa (the teams Reading finished roughly in the middle of in 2006-2007).

This year, too, they're not getting the same production they got from some players last season: Leroy Lita hasn't scored in the 6 league games he's played in due to injury, Kevin Doyle is scoring roughly once every 3 games as opposed to once every two last year, and Marcus Hahnemann has been awful at times. Steve Sidwell played an integral part of the Royals' squad a year ago; this year he's rotting on the bench at Chelsea.

Reading also have yet to win on the road in this campaign (1 draw, 5 losses), and they've already lost 3 times at home after losing just 6 home games all of last season. The loss to Liverpool in the Carling Cup is acceptable; losing to Bolton, West Ham, and Fulham in the league is not. In short, it is truly a tale of two seasons for Reading. I'm not sure how their remaining 25 games will play out, but I don't think Steve Coppell's team will repeat last season's 8th-place finish.