My long awaited copy of Fifa 2005 arrived yesterday. It is a big improvement on Fifa 2004. While the gameplay is similar to previous versions, there are many new aspects which are taking me a while to get to grips with.

A great feature in the game is the 15 Year Career Mode. In this you get to manage a variety of clubs. Your starting choice of clubs is very small, but with success options to manage much larger clubs becomes available.

As the seasons go on, the players age, so after 10+ seasons, players like Roy Keane will long since have retired but players like Wayne Rooney will be at the peak of their career.

I’ll add lots more about this game in the Fifa 2005 section asap.

Sticking with the topic of football, it came of little surprise to me this morning when I hear the revelation from David Beckham that he got booked deliberately on Saturday’s game against Wales as he knew he would miss the Azerbaijan game tomorrow through injury.

The funniest part of the whole thing is his quote…

“I’m sure some people think that I have not got the brains to be that clever. But I do have the brains. I could feel the injury. So I fouled Thatcher.”

If he had the brains, he would have kept his mouth shut. He now faces strong disciplinary action. What an idiot!

Moving on from Beckham, England play Azerbaijan tomorrow at an early(ish) kick off of 5.30pm. England need to be careful not to underestimate Azerbaijan as they have already shocked Wales and Northern Ireland. The England players are highly professional (most of the time!) and I still think they will get a victory, especially now with the return of Rooney and the improved defence.

My prediction: 2-0 to England