Skip to main content

Ecuador vs England and Babybel

So the other night England secured a fairly uneventful 3-0 win vs Peru. After the belter from Sturridge we scored 2 further goals from set pieces (proving the worth of having Baines in the side) - but the concern I think was that Peru had a few very dangerous attacks that would surely have seen us conceding against a better striker line-up. We did however avoid the pre-tournament injury nightmare, perhaps saving that for the friendlies immediately prior to the big kick off.

Tonight it is Ecuador against England, from Miami - in front of what looks like a bumper crowd of at least 15 people! Obviously the side has been completely rotated, but the most interesting thing from my point of view is to see Milner lined up as a right back. Having watch Glen Johnson looking generally immobile and out of position against Peru, I wondered whether we might explore Milner as an option. As a Villa fan I've seen a bit of him play, and know he is very versatile and hard working and could definitely do a job there.

Seeing Rooney as the only survivor from the last game suggests a real determination from Hodgson to get him up to speed and match fit. This is good from my perspective; although it is easy to just wish him to be dropped, he remains one of our most accomplished players, so I hope he finds form.

The rest of the team is actually pretty exciting:

Foster, Milner, Smalling, Jones, Shaw, Wilshere, Lampard, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Barkley, Rooney, Lambert

What I see there is two progresive full backs, two average centre halves, a midfield that has a great mix of pace, power, experience and drive, and two decent strikers.

7 mins: England, as if just to prove me full of shit, just let in a goal.

I hope that Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner in particular shine and give themselves a chance of holding onto their places, as I think each of them could make a difference.

29 mins: Scrappy equaliser for England after good work from Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner. 

So after the first half, its fair to say that the game is infintiely more exciting than Friday's game. Whether that's the line up, the opposition of the tactical set up, god only knows. I think Oxlade-Chamberlain and Barkley make our midfield infinitely more penetrative, and Ecuador seem to not really bother with midfield either, soi I guess that helps.

51 minutes: Barkley does a great mazy run and sets up Lambert for a belting goal.

69 mins: cracking equaliser for Ecuador. Slightly slow marking from Milner and Wilshire, but what a hit. I wonder if they are using the World Cup ball, if so, it fliiiees.

In other news today:

1) I found some World Cup Babybel on sale today which was of course very exciting. I wonder if I will get excited about anything and everything that has some sort of World Cup link?


2) No word from Stevey C yet, so the blog may still be a solo effort. If you know me and want to contribute, then just give me a shout and I''ll get you set up.

 More soon.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I am numb

The England match left me numbed. Unimpressive, uninspired, lacklustre – however the bottle of champagne I enjoyed with the game certainly took the edge off things. It seems that we, along with France and Italy are suffering some horrendous ‘anti-football’ affliction. If the game was less global then we could put it down to ‘a long hard season in the Premier league’ or ‘the difficulty of being motivated for national team games when the premier league pays so well’; but neither is valid. Neither is this jibulabulani ball business. The teams who pass to each other seem not to suffer. Poor selections and poor play has blighted us, and whilst lots of vitriol heads in the direction of Heskey, we’d do well to remember that the main culprits on Friday were Gerrard and Rooney for having zero patience on the ball and terrible control. Lampard wasn’t much better. At least Barry gave us some sort of stable platform to build from. I expect the introductions of Joe Cole and Jermain Defoe or Peter...

Arriving late at the far post...........

Well, out from behind a rock I come. Like Batman responding to the spotlight over Gotham, the sight of Alexi Lalas relaxing on ESPN's swanky new World Cup set spouting 'knowledge' of the beautiful game immediately triggered me into action. A personal excitement for me is the returning punditry on this side of the pond of one Roberto Martinez. 4 years ago, I listened to this polite young man with light enthusiasm....now I find myself hanging onto every word from Bobby Brown Shoes. A supremely classy guy, just hoping for the "and Neymar is close to signing, which is phenonemal (Bobby's most used word - quite impressive for a Spanish native) " Sooo, what have I missed so far (Brazil own goal aside).... - Roy Hodgson in old man sunglasses - An amazing lack of planning from team England organizing a friendly in Florida at 5pm in June and being surprised as a thunderstorm - Scapegoating of a key England player (Rooney) before a ball is kicked in anger - Overplay...

Kuddelmuddel

I was convinced the German team would recover emphatically. Their opening game was an aberration, and whilst they were poor defensively, they created enough chances to win a handful of games. So against a threat-less Sweden, I was sure normality would return. Yet Saturday night’s game so nearly turned the footballing world on its head. I think the only surprise when the ball tore into the net in the 95th minute was that it wasn’t an England keeper disconsolately picking the ball out of the net. Kudos to Germany, back from the brink. If they solve their defensive Kuddelmuddel (one of their great words that means a phrase “unstructured mess, chaos or hodgepodge”) then they will yet again be a force to be reckoned with. Speaking of forces; er, England?! None of this cagey group stage malarkey going on. Boom, into the last 16 with the tournament just 9 days old. Kane is off down to Timpsons for some golden coloured shoe polish. What a result and what a great performance, admittedly...