England v USA: Terry Captains Side to Victory
May 28, 2008
John Terry has captained England to a 2-0 win against a ‘ordinary’ at best USA team. Terry opened the scoring 5 mins before the half-time interval, with Gerrard making it two on the hour.
With Capello having pretty much a fully fit squad to choose from, rumours were strife that Ashton would be making his long-awaited England debut, along with keeper Joe Hart. Neither started - or featured at any stage in the match.
Instead, Capello chose to start with James in goal, and Defoe partnering Rooney upfront. Beckham - who was presented with a golden ball by Sir Bobby Charlton before kick-off started on the right ahead of his supposed replacement David Bentley. More on Bentley later…..
A disappointing first-half looked as though it was going to end goalless, and you could sense the fans becoming more and more impatient - and frustrated. With Euro 2008 just over a week away, we should of course be gearing up to the normal England mania. Was it not for McLaren’s failure to qualify, we would be discussing England’s chances, and on the evidence of this game - although only a meaningless friendly of course - we wouldn’t stand a chance in hell.
In the 38th minute, England fans were woken from their slumber by a John Terry header from a David Beckham cross. As we have come to expect from former captain Beckham, the cross was perfectly placed. Terry rose well, and powered his header low into the bottom corner - giving keeper Howard no chance.
With the fans awoken, and making some noise for the first time in 40 minutes, England responded with both Hargreaves and Defoe threatening to double the lead before the half-time whistle. 1-0 at half-time - but a disappointing and uninspiring half of football. Certainly not worth the entrance fee in my humble opinion.
With places in Capello’s World Cup qualifying squad up for grabs, you would expect to some passion. But, it certainly wasn’t evident at Wembley tonight. Of course, these players have all endured a tough Premier League campaign (plus a UEFA Champions League final for the Chelsea and United players), but even so, there was a distinct lack of direction.
The second half opened with the USA coming close with an effort from Johnson going wide of the post as the England defence stepping back off him. With the USA otherwise non-threatening, it was just a matter of England managing to be positive enough to go for goal.
However, as always with these friendlies, both coaches began to make use of their substitutes. With the limit of 6 subs undoubtedly an improvement from the unlimited, it still is not enough to prevent the match becoming a complete non-spectacle. With the match becoming less fluent with every sub, Wembley once again went quiet. Please can we limit substitutes to 3 as so in a normal match please?! The second-half became almost became a compete bore as the new entrants struggled to get involved.
It was an England sub, however, that set up England’s second. Gareth Barry (a Liverpool transfer target), set-up team-mate Gerrard with a perfectly weighted through ball. Although at first it looked as though the Liverpool midfielder had taken the ball too wide, he coolly slotted home from the angle.
So, 2-0, but not an impressive performance by any stretch of the imagination. It would have been nice to see a fantastic performance from the boys tonight, if for no other reason than to prove to the rest of Europe that we are unlucky not to be participating in Euro 2008. Unfortunately, all we got was confirmation that we are not good enough to be in Austria and Switzerland this summer - and have to improve to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
One comment on the BBC 606 website summed the game up: “We didn’t look any different to when McLaren was in charge”. Capello, then, has his work cut out to get England back to their best - whenever this may have been!
David Bentley
A disappointment. He has been billed as Beckham’s long-term replacement, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him come close to the LA Galaxy midfielder’s level. I believe Bentley to be extremely over-rated and not worthy of his England place. On the evidence of tonight (he played the second half in place of Beckham), we can only hope that Becks stays fit enough to appear in next season’s World Cup qualifying games. To be honest, I’d much rather see Lennon, or Wright-Phillips on the England right.
Jermain Defoe
Given his first start in 20 months, tonight was his chance to prove his worth as a striking partner to Rooney. Unfortunately he done nothing to boost his chances of becoming a regular. Wasting chances and giving the ball away seemed to be his only contribution to the evening. Defoe does not look like an International striker, and it shames me to have to admit that. Crouch, his replacement, looked far more accomplished. As Rob Scanlon predicted in his recent article, England really are lacking in strikers that make the grade.
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