Tottenham’s Defoe, Sigurdsson, Dempsey Score In Internationals

Jermain Defoe, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Clint Dempsey scored for their countries in vital World Cup matches as the international break has taken the Tottenham players around the world to play for their countries this weekend. They have been mostly been involved in World Cup qualifying matches for the the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

March 22, 2013; Commerce City, CO, USA; USA defender Clint Dempsey (8) controls the soccer ball in the first half against Costa Rica during the World Cup Qualifier at Dick [Mandatory Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports]England

As expected San Marino provided little opposition to England as they scored 8 (eight) without reply and remain second in their group to Montenegro who they play on Tuesday. Jermain Defoe scored his first goals of 2013 by scoring twice – once in the each half. Defoe and Kyle Walker started the match while Scott Parker came on for the last 24 minutes – his first international football since last summer’s European Championships. Defoe had already had a goal ruled out for offside when he put England three up after 35 minutes. He scored the final goal of the game to make it 8-0 in the 77th minute.

Iceland

Gylfi Sigurdsson scored both of Iceland’s goals in a 2 – 1 away win over Slovenia, recovering from being a goal down at the interval. The first in the 55th minute was a great strike from a free-kick and he added the second with twelve minutes remaining. He was booked in added time.

Wales

Wales came back from a goal down at Hampden Park to defeat Scotland 2 – 1. It was a similar situation to the earlier game in Cardiff but this time Gareth Bale couldn’t provide the spark for the revival as he had to be taken off at the interval. Bale had been troubled by illness in the build-up to the game, travelling separately from the rest of the team, and didn’t re-appear after half-time, succumbing to the virus which had weakened him during the week.

Belgium

Jan Vertonghen and Mousa Dembele both played for Belgium in  a 2 – 0 win in Macedonia and the same opponents meet in Brussels on Tuesday.

France

France had a comfortable 3 – 1 win over Georgia in Paris. Hugo Lloris played and France scored two quick goals either side of half-time to take control and had added a third before Georgia scored their consolation goal with twenty minutes to play. Next up for France is Spain.

USA

Clint Dempsey was appointed captain for the USA’s home game against Costa Rica. The match was played in a snowstorm and Dempsey led by example, scoring the only goal of the game in Colorado after 16 minutes from close range. Jurgen Klinsmann’s team play their next game in Mexico on Tuesday.

Cameroon v Togo

Cameroon and Togo meet today in their qualifying match but Benoit Assou-Ekotto will miss the game, according to the Cameroon coach due to “family reasons” as reported on ahramonline. It would have been Assou-Ekotto’s first match for his country since 2010 when he made himself unavailable due to concerns over the national set-up. Assou-Ekotto had been quoted on BBC Sport web-site on his return to Cameroon for the game saying,

"“Cameroon is my country and I would give my best even if there are still some problems.”"

Contrary to what the Cameroon manager had said during the week, Benoit Assou-Ekotto played as Cameroon recorded a 2 – 1 win. Emmanuel Adebayor, however, was not in the Togo matchday squad.

Emmanuel Adebayor who was in the Togo party has gone missing again according to reports in the press. The Mirror reported the story on Friday, saying that the Togo coach, Didier Six, had expected him to join the squad on Tuesday but that he hadn’t arrived.

Under-21s

Tom Carroll, Adam Smith and Danny Rose all played for the England Under-21 team as they won 3 – 0 in a friendly against Romania. Rose played the first half while Carroll and Smith came on for the last 15 minutes. It was Carroll’s debut for the Under-21 team.

Lewis Holtby is named as captain in the German Under-21 squad for a friendly against Israel on 24th Sunday.