England 1 Ukraine 0 Euro 2012 Match Report

England 1 Ukraine 0 Eur0 2012 Match Report

          “Take care of Wayne Rooney,” was Sven Goran Eriksson's last piece of advice as England manager before he headed off on a journey that would eventually lead to the giddy football heights of Notts County. Up until now in Euro 2012, England had not had a choice about it as Wayne's wallop against Montenegro meant he had been forcibly removed from the action. But now with his two game ban served (comically reduced from three because he didn't argue about being sent off for gratuitously kicking an opponent) Rooney was ready to be unleashed on the tournament.  Thoughts drifted back to his first European Championship when his bullish attacking threatened to sweep England to success only for an unfortunate injury to take him out and England's hopes with him. Rooney never completely recaptured the swaggering menace of those early powerhouse displays but he remains unquestionably England's most important player.

          Whether he's England's most astute interviewee is less sure. In the run up to this game Wayne finally said what everybody in the entire camp had been desperately avoiding saying, England could win the tournament! I suppose waking up and looking at his new haircut had made him believe anything is possible. Nevertheless it was probably unwise. England had been second best against France and a mess for the start of the second half against Sweden. They hadn't exactly laid down a marker in the manner of Germany. But the words were out and they couldn't be swallowed. True the team had overall been organised, disciplined and resolute. They had showed unsuspected character to fight back after the Swede's turned the game around in Kiev. But win the tournament? They still seemed too predictable and lacking in creativity.  And it was not yet even certain they would get out of the group. The result against Sweden had given them a slight advantage over Ukraine but they still had to face the home nation in front of a fiercely partisan crowd. Watching England emerge I felt they would just about squeak through but it wouldn't be easy. This was the first tiny optimistic thought I've had about the team. Being an England watcher of many years I knew what optimism leads to and immediately regretted it.

          From the kick off it was apparent that if England were going to win the tournament they were going to defend their way to success. Frustratingly, the first ten minutes saw them completely cede the initiative to the home side. Hodgson’s unadventurous two lines of four were very much in evidence. Approaching the game with the idea of taking as little risk as possible was of course defensible with England only requiring a draw to qualify. But it allowed the Ukraine to come forward and they didn’t need to be asked twice showing a willingness to combine shooting from distance with some more intricate passing to get them closer to goal. Some of these shots went very wide and some of them were a little closer. None really troubled Joe Hart but it gave the crowd something to latch onto. For what was obviously a risk-free approach that was a risk.

          However, as the half wore on England established some kind of rhythm. Ashley Young showed flashes of talent on the left wing finally producing the clearest chance of the half with an excellent centre for the unmarked Rooney.  Sadly, he mis-timed his leap so was unable to generate any power and the ball skidded harmlessly off his new haircut which is incidentally making him look increasingly like an early 90s Paul Gascgoine – I’m not the only one who thinks it.

          Ukraine were in no way cowed by the English improvement testing the higher rated team with fast wide balls out to the wings one moment and passing and dribbling through the middle the next. England were no doubt relieved Shevchenko was sitting on the bench as he has or least had the class to take produce the finishing touches to some excellent approach work.

          As the half-time whistle blew it felt as though England should just hold out but it wasn’t going to be easy.

          Straight after the re-start it got a lot easier. From an unsuccessful corner the ball came back to Gerrard who beat his marker comprehensively before curling in a dangerous cross. The ball took a couple of tiny yet significant deflections from Ukranian defenders on the way which took it past their despairing keeper and bounced up invitingly for Rooney – it needed only the tiniest of touches to be knocked in in. Rooney duly added the nod and England were 1-0 up and on the way to the last eight.

          In front of their home crowd Ukraine rallied forcing a couple of corners and firing in a couple of long range shots which swerved and dipped on their way and forced impressive saves from Joe Hart.

          Minutes later they broke out of defence with a long ball. Good control and a short pass later and a Ukranian attacker was bearing down on the England goal. Hart managed to partially block the resulting shot but the ball was unable to stop the ball looping agonizingly into the net. Not even the desperate hooked beyond-the-goal-line clearance of John Terry could save it. Amazingly, however, the appalling judgement of the penalty area official could. Despite having a perfect view he waved the Ukraine’s justified claims away and England kept their lead.

          That was the last key moment. Ukraine threw on Shevchenko for one last hurrah but it proved a sentimental rather than an inspired substitution. England, for once, played out a game in relative comfort – even the news that Sweden were beating France didn’t rouse the Ukraine to meaningfully threaten the England goal in the last ten minutes. They had given it a go and they were shot.

          But England were far from shot. Top of the group they avoided Spain in the next round. And with every game they are getting ever so slightly better. The question is almost too dangerous to ask but ask it I shall - could Wayne Rooney be right after all?

          You get that I’m not talking about the hair transplant, right?

              

England 3 Sweden 2 Euro 2012 Match Report

         Not since 1968 had England beaten Sweden in a competitive game. Sadly, in the intervening forty odd years the Swedes had not been as generous, breezily beating England on a number of occasions - most gallingly when Thomas Brolin twirled like a tubby Scandanavian dervish after consigning England to a comprehensive defeat in Euro 1992. Following this setback The Sun gleefully placed a turnip on Graham Taylor's head. And it became an iron law of football that no England manager can recover from being depicted beneath a root vegetable.

     Roy Hodgson was doubtless aware of that Fleet Street's finest had their photoshops primed and ready for action so defeat was not an option especially with newly sacked 'Arry ready to wind down his car window to tell any passing hack he was available and ready to take the FA's money all the way to Monaco and forget about it if asked. Indeed the general feeling amongst...er...me... was England really needed to win this game to avoid, if possible, having to defeat the Ukraine in front of their own crowd for a place in the last eight.

       Hodgson therefore had decided to tinker with his tactics and his line-up. Patrice Evra had remarked after the France game that England had played like Chelsea and he made a fair point. England's two narrow disciplined lines denying Ribery et al any hint of space was reminiscent of Chelsea long rearguard action in the Nou Camp which eventually saw them reach the Champions League Final. Unfortunately, while England can seemingly manage the tight defensive banks of four, where the Chelsea model falls down is the absence of any striker anywhere near as potent as Didier Drogba - Wellbeck was peripheral against France and Young's influence was at best sporadic.

       The obvious solution to this attacking conundrum was currently spending the tournament experimenting with ever more ludicrous hairstyles, having kicked himself out of contention in Montenegro and so Hodgson was forced to turn to Andy Carroll – a man who has already demonstrated that he is more than Rooney's match when it comes to silly haircuts. Sadly, this is the only area in which he is Rooney's match. There have, in some quarters, been an attempt to rehabilitate Carroll after a couple of non-terrible performances towards the end of the season but he remains as far from an international class striker as a minority of the Ukraine's fans do from running one day training courses on the value of diversity in the workplace.

        Carroll started “enthusiastically” clattering two Swedes within three or four minutes. Guy Mowbray told Mark Lawrenson how pleased he was to see it. We all like the commentators to be patriotic but praising England's fouls is a little too zealous.

        Soon the game settled down to a bit of a shapeless stodge familiar to all regular England watchers. Neither team was allowing the other any space and both teams lacked the guile to create much. But slowly England began to impose themselves a little. Scott Parker hit a stinging shot from the edge of the penalty area which the Swedish keeper did well to palm away.

     Nevertheless although England were marginally better there was no suggestion that they were on the point of making a breakthrough. However, an intervention from Gerrard was to change all that. Picking the ball up in the middle of the Swedish half he allowed himself a swift look and curled in a perfect cross. Carroll met it with an equally good header. 1 – 0 England. I looked back three paragraphs and felt my potential career as a incisive football pundit slipping away.

      In truth that was the only moment of real quality in the entire half. England failed to build on their lead and as the interval approached Sweden were beginning to exert a little pressure themselves. However, as the players left the pitch at half-time the feeling in my living room was that England were looking solid and would be able to see out the game.

         My potential career as a football pundit took another knock when Sweden  equalised within three minutes of the re-start. Carroll who seems to be alllowed to wander out of position more than is wise turned up in front of his own penalty area to give away a needless free kick. So determined was he to do it that he kicked the Swede twice. The resulting free kick from Ibrahimovic ricocheted to Olaf Mellberg unmarked in the penalty area. He beat Joe Hart and though Glen Johnson made a desperate attempt at a goal line clearance the ball flew in off the post.

          Five minutes later, the Swedes were in the lead. Knowing their opponents were reputed to be weak in the air England generously decided not to mark them at all at a dangerous free kick. Oleg Mellberg did not spurn the open invitation. Sweden 2 England 1. If England kept defending like this you felt Olaf could have the Golden Boot wrapped up by full time. Fleeting images of opposing fans taunting Cristiano Ronaldo with cries of “Melberg! Melberg! Melberg!” when he next missed a sitter flashed through my mind. Admittedly, I had been drinking.

           But I, at least, knew the rest of my football punditry was going to be easy. England never fight back from situations like this. They huff and puff and hoof to no avail. The hopeless nature of the cause was confirmed by the immediate introduction of Theo Walcott. If anybody was guaranteed to lead England down a hopeless cul-de-sac it was him.

         The world began to stop making sense when Walcott scored almost instantly with a shot from outside the area. Admittedly the Swedish goalkeeper's attempt to save his effort was so weak that it would have sparked a match fixing scandal had he been Italian.

        I had barely had time to check that I hadn't slipped through a portal into an alternative universe when Walcott charged through the Swedish defence again. His cross was behind Wellbeck but the Manchester United striker somehow manufactured a delicate reverse clipped backheel straight into the bottom left hand corner of the net. I decided football punditry was harder than it looked.

        The remainder of the match was incredibly tense. Well, I say that. It was probably incredibly tense for those of you who didn't have your sister-in-law appear uninvited to watch the last ten minutes with you. I bet Lineker and Hansen don't have to put up with listening to someone tell you in detail how “hot” they think Glen Johnson is when trying to compose their post-match analysis.

      But “hot” or not, Johnson had an excellent game. As did Gerard. As did Carroll. As did Walcott. The only thing that didn't have an excellent game was my self-appointed punditry. Oh and Ashley Young who was shocking. But when England are beating Sweden for the first time since 1968 I am prepared to let it go.

Norway 0 England 1 Match Report International Friendly

          You join me in Oslo (well, alright you actually join me in Scobie’s Irish Bar in Barcelona in front of the big screen with my laptop looking like a right twonk) where we are about to find out how England are going to play under new manager Roy Hodgson.

          The noises before the match had hardly been optimistic. Hodgson had claimed, “You’ve got to believe England have a future” which implies after the recent debacles the FA actually contemplated just jacking it in and stopping playing football altogether. Those of us who watched England’s performances in South Africa did fleetingly wonder if that had already happened. Steven Gerrard, the newly appointed captain, perhaps on the grounds that he has at least got his court case out of the way, admitted he’d heard whispers that people were saying this group of players was the weakest England had ever assembled. I don’t know what Gerrard’s definition of a whisper is because the things I’ve been hearing have been loud enough to start avalanches in the Austrian Tyrol.

          Not only that the team were below full strength with Rooney and the Chelsea players rested after efforts in the Champions League Final – what John Terry needed resting for remains a mystery – just how tiring can it be to put your shin pads on and shamelessly shove yourself in front of the cameras?

          Nevertheless there were causes for optimism. England always win the first game under a new manager. Obviously they only do this so they can let everybody down later but still. Furthermore, Norway were not the strongest opposition - unlike Spain and the like they can at least be relied upon to let England have a go of the ball every now and then. And last of all, in giving Stewart Downing a place in the squad, Hodgson had demonstrated he retains a sense of humour.

          The new manager had decided to go for a 4-4-1-1 system presumably to stop England getting overrun in midfield as has often happened in the past. But the risk was that alone up front the occasionally lumbering Carroll would get isolated and England would resort to hoofing aimless long balls up in his direction.

          In the run-up to the game Hodgson had stressed three things to his new charges – they should be difficult to beat, play at a fast tempo and keep possession better. The whistle blew and we were about to find out if they’d been listening.

          England started brightly. Inside five minutes no less a figure than Stewart Downing had created a very presentable chance for Andy Carroll. This will have come as some as a big surprise to all watching Liverpool  fans who didn't know he did stuff like that. Fortunately normality was restored when Carroll headed it decisively wide reassuring all watching Liverpool fans that the world hadn't gone totally crazy.

          However, a goal wasn't long in coming, The seemingly shambolic Norwegian defence allowed Ashley Young way too much space on the edge of the area. He feinted to shoot. Hangeland, the Norwegian centre half not only bought his dummy he bought the extended warranty as well.  Young was through on goal and he coolly slotted home.

          England had a platform to build on. Unsurprisingly they chose not to. Instead Norway nearly hit back direct from a corner striking a post with Rob Green hopelessly stranded in his six yard box.

          As the half developed most worrying for England was the performance of the central midfield partnership. Gerrard and Parker are both likely to be first choices and neither were particularly effective. It was Gerrard especially whose woeful performance most caught the eye – misplacing countless passes, miscontrolling balls and finally committing a foul that could well have got him sent off in a competitive game. England headed for the interval in the lead but they couldn't have been happy.

          Hodgson’s first team talk seemed to have an effect at the start of the second period. England forced a free kick on the edge of the penalty area from which Leighton Baines drew a sharp low save from the Norwegian goalkeeper. It proved to be a false dawn.

          Norway now took control of the game and though they lacked the cutting edge to fashion a clear goal-scoring opportunity they were clearly the better side throughout the second half. What was more worrying for England fans was that the Norwegians also seemed to have more desire even though they won’t be going to Poland or the Ukraine unless their travel agent messes up their holiday bookings. As the half wore on England just about held their shape but as so often they couldn’t hold on to the ball.

          An American in a loud shirt walking into the bar looked at the screen and claimed “This isn’t football!” He didn’t know how right he was.

          As so often with international friendlies the game had now become simply an opportunity for the man who holds substitutions board up to exercise his arm.

          However when Jordan Henderson was introduced it was hard not to suspect that Roy Hodgson was not now using the game as an opportunity for revenge on his previous employers in Liverpool by demonstrating to the world just how woeful his successor’s transfer market purchases have been. If Charlie Adam wasn’t Scottish I believe he’d have been on as well just to ram the point home.

          And so the game fizzled out to a 1-0 England win. And doubtless it will be claimed that it is “something to build on.” But it was awfully dispiriting to watch. England had yet again shown that magical ability to somehow make a victory feel like a defeat.