Watched Englands World Cup opener tonight against the USA, and its just so typical of the English never to make qualifying easy.
Thought we were by far the better team, and apart from a 15 minute spell in the middle of the First Half dominated the Americans - which TBF we were expected to do.
The positives for England for me were the contribution by Glen Johnson, Aaron Lennon and the link up play by - the much maligned - Emile Heskey. Gerrard worked his socks off, as did most of the team TBH.
The negatives, obviously the howler by Rob Green and how it'll effect him mentally - and the bigger worry that Capello may resort to putting David James in goal ! We can't use Jamie Carragher in the Centre of defence, he just hasn't got the necessary pace for this level of football, and looked increasingly exposed as the game got spread during the mid-latter stages. I'm not a Spurs follower and have no idea if Dawson has pace, as it seems to be a major requirement for today's World Class centre halves.
The other quandary is that if Rooney isn't firing, as he wasn't tonight - he seemed to be playing to deep for me ? - although I'm sure he'll get better as the tournament goes on - then were are the goals going to come from. There's even more emphasis on the need for goals now as the League positions will probably be decided on goal difference, and coming second makes a Round 16 game against 'The Hun' a big possibility if that scenario arises.
2 comments:
Agree 100% with your analysis of the game. Moreover, it's clear that the Lampard-Gerrard combination just doesn't work. The latter has to stay and Lamps should be relegated in favour of a fit-again Barry.
Capello gambled with Milner who wasn't fully fit. Wright Philips was playing in the wrong place. Carragher looked pedestrian and I think England will be lucky to qualify into phase 2 as Slovenia could sneak it. Starting earning those beans Fabio!
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